So it’s difficult, but put it in context. The ambition behind the Good Friday Agreement was nothing less than to resolve the three problematic relations which have dogged Ireland for centuries: the relationships between London and Dublin; between Dublin and Belfast; and between Catholic and Protestant, particularly in the North. So no one said it would be easy.
Even with that foresight, there have been times in the last year when the hurdles to be overcome seemed to loom larger than ever. When the Holy Cross dispute erupted last summer with those horrific pictures broadcast around the world of small schoolgirls having abuse hurled at them as they walked to school, I cut short my summer holiday and returned to work in Northern Ireland.
At that stage David Trimble had resigned as First Minister over the lack of any IRA decommissioning and there were grave doubts over the future of the Assembly. The future of police reform in Northern Ireland was uncertain and had no cross-community support. Dissidents were threatening to destroy the Good Friday Agreement with the bomb and gun whilst sections of the Unionist community had turned their backs on the Agreement.
If that morning in September I had been offered the position we are in today, I would have taken it with both hands, whatever the continuing problems of sectarianism and community violence. Cross-community support for policing with agreement on a symbolic new badge then seemed impossible. The chances of both the Assembly and Executive functioning normally (let alone the North-South elements of the Good Friday Agreement) seemed very slim. And the chances that the Irish republican movement would make an historic act of decommissioning seemed a long way off.
And yet in a few short months we have achieved all of this. Bizarrely, at the same time, the Conservatives have chosen to announce an end to bipartisanship on Northern Ireland, despite having adopted that approach since 1997, as we did before then, through difficult and contentious times.
The announcement by General John De Chastelain that he had verified a significant act of decommissioning by the IRA which had put arms, ammunition and explosives beyond use was a breakthrough long sought after by all, and which many predicted would never happen. There is plenty of debate about what triggered the move but what mattered then, as now, was that this unprecedented step had taken place. For the IRA to cross an historical rubicon with the potential to split the movement was hugely significant and unlocked a dynamic for the democratic institutions to flourish once again. But however important the first step is, it is important the process continues – for both loyalist and republican paramilitaries. With that in mind we have introduced a bill to allow decommissioning to continue in a lawful manner beyond the original timescale envisaged by Patrick Mayhew in 1997.
David Trimble’s re-election as First Minister, after the act of decommissioning, was in itself no easy matter. But now, with careful tending, the new institutions are taking root. The richly earned retirement of the SDLP’s historic and brave leadership team of John Hume and Seamus Mallon has seen Mark Durkan become both party leader and the new Deputy First Minister. He and his colleagues in the executive now have about eighteen months to prove the democratic institutions’ worth in delivering good government before going to the polls.
The Northern Ireland office team of myself, Jane Kennedy and Des Browne have also worked hard to deliver the outstanding parts of the Good Friday Agreement, particularly on policing and justice reform. Our aim, in the words of our manifesto, to ‘establish a modern, responsive and fully accountable police service properly representative of the two main traditions in Northern Ireland and enjoying their trust and support’, was given a major boost when the SDLP agreed to join the Policing Board of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. This significant move meant that the new police service would be responsible to representatives of both communities as the Patten report recommended. Late last year the Police Service of Northern Ireland came into being, replacing the RUC, as the first set of new recruits selected on a 50/50 basis from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds started training. In December the new Policing Board agreed a design for a new badge for them to wear when they pass out in the coming months, a major achievement where symbols so often divide rather than unite the community.
Work on another manifesto pledge to bring about the key reforms in the civil and criminal justice system, which secure the respect and trust of both traditions, has also begun. We have now introduced a criminal justice reform bill for Northern Ireland in the Commons.
With decommissioning having started we have, acting on security advice, been able to further scale down security, including closing four army bases. There are now fewer British soldiers in Northern Ireland than at any time since the early ’seventies. As the threat reduces, army searches and military disruption are becoming increasingly rare for ordinary members of the public across large parts of Northern Ireland.
Yet against this background, Quentin Davies, the new Conservative Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, has declared the bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland over. In December he told PA News: ‘We cannot have a bipartisan arrangement in the present circumstances. The government has made that impossible.’ This approach immediately split the Conservative Party when Sir Brain Mawhinney, a former Northern Ireland minister and Party Chairman, told the Commons: ‘Some of us are still wedded to the idea of a bipartisan approach.’ With Quentin Davies also conceding that the Good Friday Agreement is still ‘the only game in town’ it seems the Tories are trying to have their cake and eat it by supporting the principle of the Good Friday Agreement but refusing to take the hard decisions needed to support its implementation.
Despite Tory turmoil and the political successes of recent times many problems remain. Street violence still scars North Belfast. Punishment attacks by paramilitaries continue. And there is still a significant dissident republican and loyalist threat. Both communities remain uncomfortable with some of the detail of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, some republicans are unhappy about the pace of normalisation.
Despite the Police Ombudsman’s report into the Omagh bomb, and the Chief Constable’s response to it, the pain of victims’ families remains, heightened because the evil bombers have not been brought to justice for this terrible crime.
No-one suggests things in Northern Ireland are a bed of roses. It is clear that neither the ceasefires nor democracy in Northern Ireland are perfect, but it is equally clear that things are a lot better here than there were, or are in parts of the world where there is no talking and no peace process. One only has to look at what has happened in the Middle East for comparison.
So in keeping with Gramsci, I approach the next six months with pessimism of the intellect but an optimism of the will. Six months ago the peace process was on the brink. Now, despite the problems ahead, Northern Ireland’s politicians have an 18-month window to show that politics is the way forward. By continuing to implement the Good Friday Agreement in full, we hope to play our part in that process.