Security `priority' for community in North

Security is the number one priority for the whole community of Northern Ireland, Dr Colin Irwin of Queen's University Belfast…

Security is the number one priority for the whole community of Northern Ireland, Dr Colin Irwin of Queen's University Belfast told a conference on Northern Ireland.

This was clear from opinion polls he was involved in conducting between 1996 and this year, he said. "Disbanding paramilitary groups, the Mitchell Principles of non-violence, the observation of human rights and police reform remain the top issues through all the polls."

Although the two communities saw security issues in different terms, "the people of Northern Ireland voted for the Belfast Agreement in the hope and aspiration that it would deliver peace".

Dr Irwin said there was disenchantment when peace was not delivered. "There can be little doubt that the loyalist feud, punishment shootings and murders attributed to republican groups contributed significantly to the failure of the Ulster Unionist Party to win the South Antrim by-election."

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If the two governments decided to take a more proactive role in the implementation of the Belfast Agreement, it would be more acceptable to the people of Northern Ireland to maintain the new institutions run by local politicians, he added.

Sir David Goodall, a former senior civil servant in the British Foreign Office, told the conference there had not been the same continuity of policy on the North by British governments as there had been by Irish governments.

He said this lack of continuity was shown in the three different appointments to the post of Northern Ireland Secretary made during the negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Agreement.