Trimble under threat once again

Today will see another one of those “defining moments” in the interminable series in Northern Ireland as a consequence of unionist internecine warfare.

Once again, the leadership of Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble is under threat from the anti-Good Friday Agreement elements.

Once again, the Ulster Unionist Council seeks to dictate the future shape of the North with its insistence to tamper with the joint declaration produced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a way forward for the peace process.

Mr Trimble will be seeking the backing of the UUC for his plan to reject a return to power-sharing with Sinn Féin, except on his conditions.

His major opponent, Jeffrey Donaldson, wants to reject the joint declaration outright.

Either way, the outcome of the UUC’s deliberations will entail no great hope for a breakthrough in the political stalemate, although a defeat for Mr Trimble would signal major problems for the process.

While both camps are insisting that the IRA must disappear before anything further positive can happen, their sincerity has to be questioned on the basis of insisting that the Royal Irish Regiment be not disbanded, which they consider their own standing army.