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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

N. Ireland Peace Talks Slow But Sure Compromise Will Only Happen If Both Sides Keep Negotiating

Associated Press

More than eight months after the Irish Republican Army stopped bombing and shooting, its political representatives finally got a handshake Wednesday from a senior British government official.

Martin McGuinness, lead negotiator for the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party, said the 3 1/2 hours of talks with British minister Michael Ancram were welcome and historic.

And inconclusive.

At a separate news conference, Ancram reaffirmed his government’s position that the IRA must begin to eliminate its weaponry before joining all-party talks. Sinn Fein insists talks must come first.

Northern Ireland’s peace negotiations may seem maddeningly slow, but their glacial pace is a perverse part of their success. Compromise is likely only if politicians keep talking, if taboos are quietly broken and precious symbols discarded - and if the tempo isn’t pushed to a breaking point.

The Sinn Fein-IRA movement has campaigned for a quarter-century to get Britain to leave Northern Ireland, a 75-year-old state with a pro-British Protestant majority. The IRA killed about 1,800 people in hopes of breaking British resolve, but unilaterally ceased fire in September without attaining its goal.

The remarkable thing about the IRA truce and Sinn Fein’s pursuit of negotiations is that their leaders know negotiations are almost certain to end with Northern Ireland remaining in the United Kingdom.

The British and Irish governments, which have cooperated closely on Northern Ireland policy since 1985, spelled this out in February.

The shared Dublin-London view is that Northern Ireland politicians - from antiIRA Protestant extremists like Ian Paisley to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams - should share power in a new provincial assembly. They say the assembly should be designed so that the Catholic minority cannot be ignored by simple majority rule.

Sinn Fein traditionally has vowed never to participate in anything but an allIreland legislature, but now talks about joining a Belfast assembly as an “interim arrangement.”

The two governments also talk about promoting cooperation between the two parts of Ireland, which Protestants fear is intended to slowly unite Ireland as the IRA has wanted all along.

Whatever happens in Northern Ireland, the two governments say it has to be acceptable to a majority of voters.

Sinn Fein attracts 11 percent of the vote, while pro-British parties with primarily Protestant support attract more than 60 percent.

The most optimistic picture of how the peace process could develop looks broadly like this:

The IRA makes a symbolic “decommissioning” of part of its arsenal. In return, Britain draws moderate Protestant politicians into talks and the Protestantbased paramilitary groups hold their fire.

Britain continues to withdraw troops as the cease-fires hold.

Sinn Fein’s share of the vote rises, increasing the IRA’s confidence in political action.

Protestants agree to participate in the local government with Sinn Fein and, more importantly, in the cross-border committees alongside politicians from the Irish Republic. Over years, suspicions diminish and cooperation grows.

This all sounds far-fetched in the context of Northern Ireland’s bitter history. But two years ago, so did an indefinite IRA cease-fire and face-to-face meetings between British ministers and Sinn Fein. These are uncharted waters where patience may allow everyone’s attitudes to change.