Honouring peacemakers - Conflict cannot last forever

JUST as time forces us to accept that no relationship lasts forever, we must hope that no conflict can last forever either.

Yesterday, a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza Strip-based Hamas forces took effect. There is, however, widespread scepticism, just as there was around the early IRA ceasefires, about its ability to hold and deliver peace to those caught up is this age-old conflict.

And today, in a small city on the very edge of Europe, thousands of miles from Gaza, two men will be honoured for their part in the process that allowed former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to report to a joint meeting of the United States Congress, in Washington just six weeks ago, that the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement had passed, and that it had delivered the longed-for peace.

“Our prayer has been answered. Our faith has been rewarded. After so many decades of conflict, I am so proud, Madam Speaker, to be the first Irish leader to inform the United States Congress: Ireland is at peace,” declared a justifiably emotional Mr Ahern.

This afternoon, in a civic tradition that stretches back to the 14th century, former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and his contemporary, former British Prime Minister John Major, will be conferred Freemen of Cork.

Both long ago relinquished power; Mr Reynolds has been out of power since Bertie Ahern became Taoiseach in December, 1994. Mr Major’s premiership ended in May, 1997 and, in a neat coincidence, his successor’s premiership — Tony Blair — ran more or less parallel to Mr Ahern’s.

The intervening years have, rather than diminish their work, underlined how wonderful an achievement it is, and how it may yet become an even greater one.

We have an island — and the traditions that regard it as their home — at peace. We have also enjoyed affluence our parents could never have imagined.

Though there are very many others who played central roles in bringing peace to these islands, Mr Reynolds and Mr Major deserve the honour and the heartfelt thanks of all of us who have benefited.

Let us hope that the ceasefire that began this week in Gaza and Israel might end in an equally satisfying way. If it is hard to imagine that it might, remember that it is not so very long ago that the sense of dispossession and great hatreds that divide some Palestinians and Israelis were the feelings that divided this island. And, as has been proven here, thanks to people like Albert Reynolds and John Major, conflict need not be forever.

Yesterday, we had another practical example of conflict resolution when German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected proposals that the EU move on without Ireland because we rejected the Lisbon treaty.

“A two-speed Europe is not the way forward,” Ms Merkel told the Bundestag, in Berlin. “We must ensure that treaties in the EU are promoted unanimously.”

Conflict resolved even before it could begin.