Ahern’s realism is welcome

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is to be commended for his positive and realistic approach to last night’s face-to-face meeting with a delegation from the political wing of the UDA, the North’s most lethal loyalist paramilitary organisation.

There is a bittersweet sense of irony in the fact that members of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) feel they can make more progress with an Irish Taoiseach than with a British Prime Minister.

No less ironic was the role played by President Mary McAleese in opening the Taoiseach’s door militant loyalist. How things have changed.

With the UDA steeped in organised crime, it would be hard to exaggerate the importance of Mr Ahern’s meeting with activists who give loyalist paramilitaries a political voice. His engagement with them is a logical follow-up to last summer’s meeting with the Loyalist Commission.

On the agenda, in addition to basic issues such as jobs, housing and crime, was political marginalisation of loyalists and their attacks on prison officers.

Hopefully, the UPRG will encourage other loyalists to help shed light on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which claimed 34 lives in 1974.

By keeping lines of communication open, Mr Ahern is well-placed to see how the desire of paramilitaries for involvement in the upcoming review of the Good Friday Agreement might be advanced.

There is no denying their voice must be heard. No more than the Provisional IRA, die-hard loyalists cannot be ignored or sidelined.

Yet, Mr Ahern and his advisers have no illusion about the lethal nature of an organisation responsible for a series of sectarian bombings and murders. Though it declared a ceasefire almost a year ago, the UDA has been accused by Britain of flouting the truce on several occasions.

In addition to violent attacks on nationalists, the ugly face of loyalist terrorism was evident in a vicious campaign by paramilitaries against prison officers in a long-running dispute at Maghaberry prison where loyalists are seeking segregation from republicans.

Given the deadly nature of UDA activities, Mr Ahern’s call for a total cessation of violence is extremely important. Politically, perhaps the biggest problem facing the paramilitary organisation lies in its growing sense of isolation.

Frustrated by the absence of progress with the British government, and eclipsed by the rise of the Paisley brand of unionism, the extremists are counting the cost of being in a political wilderness.

The people who met Mr Ahern are mainly involved in grassroots community work. In a recent session with the North’s security minister Jane Kennedy, they were left in no doubt that the UDA could not be seriously regarded as being under ceasefire.

If they are serious about coming in from the cold, the UDA must begin by winning the hearts and minds of voters fed up to the teeth of the North’s endless violence.

The only realistic course open to the paramilitary organisation is to bring crime and thuggery to an end, reinstate the ceasefire and copper-fasten the truce with the aim of giving the peace process a chance to flourish.

By reaching out to an organisation with as bloody a legacy as the IRA, and by conveying to the UDA that violence and the threat of violence are not the way to advance any agenda or cause, Mr Ahern has done a good day’s work.