The campaign in favour of the multi-party peace accord in Northern Ireland has been a limping affair thus far, for the simple reason that many of those urging a Yes vote do so for lack of any other option which they could embrace with genuine enthusiasm. Frankly, that doesn't matter. What is important is that the arguments, which are compelling, are presented with persistence. Mr John Major and Mr Tony Blair undertook that task yesterday, although their appearance together to argue for peace resonated more with the British media than with the people of Northern Ireland.
Nevertheless, it was an example worth making if it can convince certain people on both sides of the argument that adversaries can unite in a good cause.
More significant was the decision yesterday by Sinn Fein's policy-making executive to recommend that the party accepts the peace deal and debates the proposition that members of Sinn Fein take their seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly. The latter point, if passed by delegates in Dublin at the weekend, will be a truly momentous change of direction by Sinn Fein for it will be a tacit acceptance of Northern Ireland as a separate and distinct political entity. Sinn Fein has been through something similar before when in 1986 it allowed members to take seats in the Irish parliament, where it has one member at present. That move caused a serious split which spawned at least one of the dissident groups of the present moment. But with the IRA changing its rules so that its members who also belong to Sinn Fein can fight the assembly election it is clear that the Republican movement is swinging
some weight behind the peace accord while attempting to placate hardliners through
such stratagems as denying that arms will
be decommissioned.
The silly fiction of distance and independence between the IRA and Sinn Fein has been deflated by the IRA's decision, but it is a fiction which convinced few in any case. If Sinn Fein's weekend conference endorses the leadership position the cause of peace will be strengthened and the chances of a solid Yes vote in the referendum, both North and South, enhanced. If they need to maintain their fiction to accomplish that, so be it.
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