C of I `Gazette' applauds Trimble's speech

An editorial in the Christmas edition of the Church of Ireland Gazette has described the Nobel speech by the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, as "generous and understanding". The Ulster Unionist Party leader had shown "a breadth and depth of understanding of Irish culture and history as he drew on the thoughts of Edmund Burke, `the son of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother', and quoted from the works of Samuel Beckett, the southern-born and northern-educated playwright".

Mr Trimble had also "acknowledged Unionism's failures in the past when it `built a solid house, but it was a cold house for Catholics' ".

Sinn Fein, the editorial said, "should note, too, Mr Trimble's flexibility on decommissioning: `I have not insisted on precise dates, quantities and manner of decommissioning. All I have asked for is a credible beginning. All I have asked for is that they say that the `war' is over.' "

The editorial commented that "as he faces tough opposition within his own party ranks, Mr Trimble is not making unreasonable demands. Should he fail, and should he lose out to those who wish to outflank him within his party and in the parties to the right, Sinn Fein could expect less and less reasonable demands, and the peace process could be in danger."

It continued that "a gesture from the Provisionals would not amount to surrender or capitulation. A credible beginning would encourage all the people of Northern Ireland and would underwrite Sinn Fein's right to participate in the democratic process."

More generally, the editorial concluded that "it is a sad but undeniable fact that Nobel Peace Prizes are generally awarded to those who have not realised the promise of peace".

"We all recall the unfair scepticism surrounding the Peace Prize that went to Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, and many have indulged in speculation that the Nobel Prize and the Norwegian People's Prize before it, marked the beginning of the end of the effectiveness of the Peace People," it said. Yet they had lit a beacon of hope.

So it was "churlish to point out what they [John Hume and David Trimble] had not achieved" and that the political process had been bogged down for weeks in Northern Ireland when both men accepted this year's prize.

"Ian Paisley has been too quick to ask why the Nobel Prize was awarded when there is no peace, and Sinn Fein has been too quick to dismiss Mr Trimble's speech as `narrow and disappointing'," it said.

Bartering and negotiation after an election and before a cabinet is formed, taking weeks if not months, was part of the political process in any democracy, it said, and asked: "Why should Northern Ireland be different?"

In the circumstances, therefore, it was "understandable" that Mr Trimble and Mr Hume "should have appeared uncomfortable and ill at ease with each other in Oslo".