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.