The peace process which culminated in the Good Friday Agreement was one of the great historic and dramatic moments of 20th-century Irish history. Few, if any, of the earlier momentous events such as, for example, the 1916 Rising, the foundation of the State, the Civil War, or our decision to enter Europe, involved virtually the entire population of the island as did the Good Friday Agreement. For once, the eyes of the world were on Ireland, North and South, and never before or since was there such an outpouring of goodwill. It was remarked facetiously at the time that getting the Agreement signed was the easier part; making it work and sustaining it was going to be more difficult. Now, almost three years on, we see the truth of that observation.
The decommissioning boil has still to be lanced, and shows little sign of so being. The recent bombs in London and the series of near misses showed that ruthless dissidents are still determined to wreck the process; loyalist murder gangs roam undetected; the Patten Report is still not implemented, though progress has been made. More than that, the day-to-day controversies reflect the underlying lack of trust between the two communities, with unionists still suspicious of republican intentions, republicans unwilling to accept unionist good faith and the SDLP caught in between, wary of both sides. To that add the imminence of an election which may leave David Trimble fatally wounded and we see how far the process is from completion.
And yet, all that said, the Good Friday Agreement did change things and change them in a way that will not be undone. To watch Brid Rogers perform with such surefooted competence during the current foot-and-mouth controversy or to observe how successfully Reg Empey performs at international level seeking industrial development, brings home the extent to which Northern Ireland is now part of a devolving United Kingdom, with more and more power being returned to the regions and to its elected politicians.
Most of all, the North still has peace even if it is not perfect peace. The writ of the paramilitaries still runs in too many areas. The foot-and-mouth outbreak shows that some border areas are still close to lawlessness. But compared to what went before, peace has now become the norm.
How we got to where we now are is the theme of Deaglan de Breadun's book. It is not the last word on the subject, nor does it claim to be. It is very much an interim judgement, one of a number of such books in what is likely to be a cottage industry.
That does not prevent it being an outstanding contribution to our understanding of what happened, how and why it happened. Unlike some academic writers, de Breadun writes for his readers and what we get is a well-structured, clear and accurate account of the unfolding story, crisp analysis which never impedes the story, good character sketches and a sharp eye for the telling detail, and all done at a pace better suited to a thriller than a sombre narrative.
More than that, de Breadun, while having his likes and dislikes, is essentially fair. There is no sense of any hidden agenda, no scores being settled, no subliminal attempts to push one side against the other.
One of the central themes of the book is the way in which the Sinn Fein leadership was brought in from the cold. Today it is taken for granted, not just that it has happened, but that its happening was in some way inevitable. It was nothing of the sort and more than once it came close to being a casualty. There are many who deserve credit for this persistence but most of all John Hume, who was excoriated for even daring to suggest that Sinn Fein could be part of a normal political process.
THAT STORY has not been better told than it is here, but equally useful is the author's account of how the Unionists - or at least a sufficient number of them - were brought on side to make movement possible. There are elements of near farce such as the side-tracking of Jeffrey Donaldson on Good Friday - he found himself at a meeting with the Irish Attorney General, David Byrne, discussing aspects of articles 2 and 3 while in his deliberately contrived absence his party was concluding a deal with the SDLP for a power sharing executive.
The author has some new material on the internal splits in unionism over this period. At times the UUP came close to tearing itself apart and throughout the book the stature of David Trimble grows - irascible, difficult, tetchy, not one to brook fools (but not the only leader with such characteristics). He also showed courage, intellectual depth and moral stature. Those who argue today that David Trimble's survival is not essential to the Peace Process should think again - or, better still, read this book.
Talking of heroes, the unsung heroes in this book are the civil servants who worked behind the scenes. Powerless to control external factors which hindered progress with depressing regularity, they nonetheless remained resolute in their determination to find sustainable common ground. And they did.
From the very outset of the troubles, the Republic has been fortunate in the quality of its civil servants - from Eamon Gallagher and Sean Donlon of the early years to Dermot Gallagher, Tim Dalton, Paddy Teahon and Martin Mansergh of today. It is not often that civil servants emerge from their usual anonymity, but in this book they do and deservedly so. They had learned much from the inherited wisdom of the Irish civil service and much more from their European experience. Without their input the political successes would not have been possible.
We have not yet, of course, reached the point where that success can be seen as a fact of life. As indicated earlier, this book is an interim judgment, written by a busy, highly informed journalist who followed much of the story at first hand, knows all of the key players, knows when to believe and when to doubt.
The Far Side of Revenge comes highly recommended. It is a good read which makes an honest and successful attempt to tell a complex and as yet unfinished story.
Senator Maurice Manning is Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Northern Ireland. He lectures in Politics at UCD and his most recent book James Dillon: A Biography has just come out in paperback.