No regrets, no turning back, no good alternative

"PUT yourself in my shoes," says John Hume. "That's what I say to the critics - and very few of them do. You're a leader of a political party in Northern Ireland: what is your job in those circumstances? It is, together with your party, to tackle the major problems that are facing your community and do whatever you can to resolve them."

He challenges his critics to produce anything better than his Hume-Adams strategy for bringing peace back to the streets.

"The major problem facing our community has been the continuing violence. Over 25 years, six British governments have tried very many methods with 20 000 soldiers, 12,000 armed policemen and the strictest security laws in Europe, to resolve that. They haven't done so."

The MP for Foyle has no regrets over his actions.

He points out that his party's dialogue with Sinn Fein had already led to an 18-month IRA ceasefire as well as the loyalist ceasefire. "Even if I don't succeed in getting the IRA ceasefire restored, there's hundreds of people alive and several thousand who would have been maimed if it hadn't been for that ceasefire."

Hume's opponents, and even some well-wishers, say the peace process could allow Sinn Fein to equal or even eclipse the SDLP at the polls; the IRA's armed campaign would then take on renewed intensity in a "last big push".

"I am satisfied that we are on a genuine road here," Hume says, and the 18-month ceasefire is very solid proof. As anyone will tell you who has any experience of paramilitary activity, whether in Ireland or anywhere else, an 18-month ceasefire is a real ceasefire. That was shown on the streets where the atmosphere was totally transformed.

"All these other people who are criticising, not one of them is giving me an alternative to bringing peace to my streets. The British government has publicly said that, with all the security instruments at their disposal, they cannot defeat paramilitary organisations."

But he is concerned at the present state of political paralysis.

"My worry about that type of vacuum is that some terrible atrocity will happen leading to reaction by the loyalists. . . We have a very major opportunity, not only to bring violence to an end but to take the gun out of our politics for keeps and had we a very strong government at Westminster there's no doubt we would be down that road at the minute."

He described last Saturday's Irish Times article by Gerry Adams as "constructive" and said it "should be studied very carefully". Hume said the preconditions for Sinn Fein's entry into all-party talks should be those set out by the British government after the Canary Wharf bomb: an unequivocal restoration of the IRA ceasefire and a total commitment by Sinn Fein to the Mitchell principles.

Asked if he saw any prospect of a ceasefire before the Westminster elections, he replied: "There is a real opportunity of achieving that if everybody concentrates their minds, particularly at this stage the British government."

The scaled-down nature of the IRA campaign has not eased Hume's concern. "Such a campaign still, as we have seen, takes human life. That young soldier, Stephen Restorick, wasn't even born at the time our troubles started and had no role of any description in creating our problems, yet he has lost his life, and his family have shown real statesmanship in their response to their tragedy.

"My worry about this campaign, whatever level it's being fought at, is that - as we know from our experience in the past - atrocities can happen that aren't even intended."

HE HAS a message for unionists. "The peace strategy which I am pursuing with Gerry Adams offers no threat to the unionist people. The total purpose of it is to get a complete end to violence."

The SDLP had dedicated itself to challenging the territorial mentality of traditional nationalism and republicanism.

"Unfortunately the unionist mindset, which is also the Afrikaner mindset that holding all power in their own hands is the only way to protect themselves, hasn't been challenged within unionism as of yet but we're hoping that a unionist De KIerk will emerge."

Despite his continuing dialogue with the republican, movement, differences still remain.

"In the community they are our main opponents and we have been very bitter opponents in the last 25 years. The house that you are sitting in used to be picketed regularly by their supporters, they daubed and painted the front of my house calling me a West Brit and a traitor. This home was fire-bombed by five hooded men."

But it was too easy to dismiss the IRA as gangsters.

The fact that IRA members believed in what they were doing made them a force to be reckoned with. But 18 months after the 1994 IRA ceasefire, the British government still hadn't called the all-party talks.

"This obviously led to deep distrust in republican ranks that they were being conned and weren't going to be brought into talks and that's what led, tragically, to the breakdown. What I am trying to do now is to rebuild that confidence in the talks process by getting a restoration of the ceasefire and Sinn Fein into the talks."

Questioned on the high vote for Sinn Fein in the Forum elections, Hume says that poll was "very unusual" and some people had voted for Sinn Fein to encourage the party on the path of peace.

"But in an election for permanent representatives, such as we're now facing, those same people will be voting solidly with the SDLP."

Sinn Fein had been helped, not by the peace process, but by what Hume calls the "Drumcree factor" which had heightened tensions, particularly among young people who had seen some of the harsh realities of sectarianism for the first time.

"I would be very confident that the SDLP support will remain very solid," Hume says.