Once again, there are signs of progress toward the establishment of a sustainable local government in Northern Ireland. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Mr. Bernie Ahern earlier this month announced that they had worked out arrangements yet again to share power between the province's Protestants and Catholics. Northern Ireland's political parties have until Nov. 10 to agree to the proposal. Key obstacles remain, but the prospects are surprisingly good: Both sides now appear to understand that change is afoot and they both will have to compromise to achieve their goals.
In 1998, Britain and Ireland concluded the Good Friday accords, which established a framework to end three decades of bloody civil war that claimed more than 3,600 lives in Northern Ireland. The accords set up a government in Belfast in which power would be shared by Protestants and Catholics. The accords called for the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the militant Catholic organization devoted to uniting Ireland, to abandon its quest for a military solution to the island's division; an independent monitoring commission would see that the IRA would put its extensive military arsenal beyond use, thereby permitting Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, to participate in the government.
The peace process lurched forward as the two sides built trust and began to work together. Although the majority of Northern Irish citizens welcomed the deal, hardliners on both sides rejected the compromises involved. A key opponent was the Rev. Ian Paisley, a leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, who has refused any agreement that would loosen the bonds between Britain and Belfast or bring Catholics into the government. Fortunately, the majority of voters gravitated toward the center, backing the accords and providing political support for parties that backed peace over continued fighting.