What is known as the "peace process" is by far the most important project of our country and has been such for over a decade. Its collapse would be a national catastrophe. Bertie Ahern is right to persist with the priority he accords it. Vincent Browne writes.
The peace process has been about achieving a peace settlement finally in this island on what is known as the national question. The point of it has been to bring all factions, including, crucially, what are known as militant republicans, into an agreement which would end forever political violence. We have been on the verge of achieving that over the last several years and, tantalisingly so, last December 8th. The issues that frustrated that agreement were and remain trivial - the photographing of decommissioning and a statement on ending criminality.
Every effort should be made to get to that conclusion as soon as is possible and nothing, including further information on responsibility for the Northern Bank robbery, should divert focus and effort from that objective.
Remember what was/is involved here: the engagement of the republican movement in policing in Northern Ireland (this is by far the most important element of the settlement on offer for reasons I explain below); the acceptance by all parties (including Sinn Féin and, by extension, the IRA) that the constitution of Northern Ireland can be changed only with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland; a governing executive in Northern Ireland representative of all parties; new guarantees on human rights, demilitarisation, and North-South institutions rationalising relations in the island as a whole.
Agreement was and remains the most important issue. If there is a consensus on policing there is a consensus on everything relevant to the Northern Ireland settlement. If everyone can agree that the police force has legitimate powers and no one else has them, that the police alone has the right to exercise lawful force, that it is the duty of every citizen to co-operate with the police in the prevention and detection of crime, then there is no need for decommissioning of weapons; or, rather, secure agreement on policing and there is no need for undertakings on criminality for such are irrelevant, there is no need for the disbandment of paramilitary organisations for such organisations could have no functions regarding policing, and if such organisations engage in criminality (by which I include all forms of political violence as well as what is known generally as criminality) then it is the duty of everyone to inform on them.
Liz O'Donnell cottoned on to this - the importance of agreement on policing - a long time ago and advised Michael McDowell to keep his mouth shut on side issues. Pity he did not take his colleague's advice.
His banging on and on on the necessity for a declaration on criminality misses the point. Any such declaration on its own is worthless.
What is of key significance is the willingness of Sinn Féin (and by extension the IRA) to bind themselves into policing arrangements, without equivocation or reserve. If that happens, why does decommissioning matter, although decommissioning has now become an important symbolic issue for unionists and, as such, it has become necessary.
Also the Northern Bank robbery becomes far less significant. Were there agreement now on policing, would it not be incumbent on Sinn Féin to urge its supporters to co-operate fully with the police force in the detection of that crime, in recovering the money, and in bringing those responsible for justice? If Sinn Féin was unwilling to do that in the context of an overall settlement, then its bona fides would be genuinely in doubt. But if it was willing to sign up unequivocally to policing then, surely, that is it? And Gerry Adams was signalling that it was.
The significance of Sinn Féin (and by extension the IRA) signing up to the Good Friday agreement has been underestimated. In doing so it has accepted partition whether it likes it or not. Not alone has it abandoned republicanism (as understood in the irredentist sense here) but also nationalism, as, incidentally, the rest of us have, aside from the genuinely irredentist.
Bertie Ahern and Gerry Adams are quite right that the focus must remain on reverting to the edge of agreement we were at on December 8th. Whether that is now possible, however, is not clear. Certainly the DUP will not be willing to engage with Sinn Féin for quite some time.
But there is a more worrying development, or there seems to be. For the first time in maybe 20 years there is a sense that the IRA is no longer in the control of those we assumed to be in the leadership - i.e., Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. If it was the IRA that was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery (and I think on balance it is likely the IRA did it, but there is a real chance that it was done by others, perhaps others not previously engaged in criminality), first it seems certain to me it was done in defiance of Adams and McGuinness.
Second, why did they need such a huge amount of money? What are they up to?