The process arising from the Belfast Agreement has been painful, especially for someone like myself, who has been a victim of IRA terrorism. But in retrospect, we all must accept that there is now a better quality of life for everyone, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, in Northern Ireland.
We can now go to church without being shot coming out through the door; we can enjoy a night out without a bomb at the door, and we know that jobs are being created and that Ulster's economy is now advancing to the extent that our unemployment level is below the European Union average and is now less than in several regions in Great Britain.
Of course, violence is continuing. The IRA have been killing people as well as brutalising young Roman Catholics and certainly appear to be active internationally. As they are indivisible from Sinn Fein, I cannot accept that Sinn Fein is exclusively committed to democratic methods.
Likewise, certain loyalist paramilitaries appear to have embarked upon a campaign to make Roman Catholics unwelcome in Northern Ireland. Republican and loyalist violence must be condemned by all right-thinking people. To kill a Catholic here or a Protestant there is not only wrong; it serves no purpose, as there will always remain the requirement that one million Protestants and 600,000 Roman Catholics learn to live with each other.
Our divisions in Ulster are not exceptional. One has only to look at the Balkans or the Middle East. As Council of Europe Rapporteur on the Middle East, I have visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories this year. The sectarian bitterness there makes us appear as angels.
Of course, peace could emerge if the Israelis withdrew their settlements in Gaza and Hebron: these are most provocative to the Palestinians. Likewise in Macedonia, there may well be peace, as the Albanian rebels hand in their arms for decommissioning and confirm that their six-month campaign against the government of Macedonia is over, following human rights and policing reforms in their country. The Albanians accept that one cannot be a rebel and a democrat at the same time.
This recognition is still required from Sinn Fein/IRA. They still have to accept that arms have to be decommissioned and to confirm, like the Albanians, that the war is over. Unlike the Albanian rebels, Sinn Fein/IRA are still dragging their feet on the issue of decommissioning armaments and stating publicly that violence has ended.
Similarly, whilst the Albanians have accepted police reforms in Macedonia, Sinn Fein/IRA still demand a police service in Northern Ireland which complies with their minority demands, rather than one which would attract the support of both the minority and majority communities.
Sinn Fein/ IRA, by ignoring the wishes of the majority community on the issue of policing, are creating the conditions for their exclusion from the government of Northern Ireland. They have failed to get the message, a message which the Albanian rebels realised within six months.
It is simply impossible to continue in the longer term with Sinn Fein/IRA ministers while they remain active in terrorism, and fail to support the civil power policing system. This reality will sooner or later have to be faced by Sinn Fein/IRA, as well as unionists.
Thus, we now approach a critical moment in the political process. Either Sinn Fein/IRA behave as the Albanian rebels, or they are eventually excluded from the government of Northern Ireland. The former is preferable but the latter is increasingly likely to become a requirement.
, The exclusion of Sinn Fein/IRA from government could lead to a return to violence, but that is no reason to accept the representatives of an unreformed terrorist movement, which withholds acceptance of a reformed police service, in the government of a country. It would then be for the nationalist minority to decide whether or not to withdraw electoral support from Sinn Fein/IRA.
If violence returns, then it will be worse than in the previous 30 years, and I have little doubt that London and Dublin would not be exempt from the worst of that violence. A great responsibility rests upon us all to avoid such a terrible scenario.
FOR unionists, there also remains the challenge of the new Police Service, incorporating the RUC. Many of us feel betrayed by the Labour government, not that a Conservative government would have been much different.
There is much in the Secretary of State's Implementation Plan which is offensive to me, but unionists have to face the reality that we are in the United Kingdom and it is the Labour government which controls policing in Northern Ireland.
If we reject the opportunity to serve on the new Police Board and thereby lose local influence on policing, then the Labour government will simply proceed with the new Police Service without any input from unionists.
If the UUP joins the board, then the DUP will quietly follow their lead. The DUP policy is to stay in the Stormont Executive if the UUP remains within it, and to join the new Police Board if the UUP does so. There's nothing too original in these particular DUP policies. Lord Kilclooney of Armagh was formerly known as John Taylor, one-time Ulster Unionist Party MP for Strangford