By Catherine Brown
Only hours before the Irish Republican Army announced an "unconditional and open-ended cease-fire" on August 31, to take effect the following day, pro-British loyalist death squads declared that such an initiative would lead to civil war. Increasingly, the loyalists, inflamed by the Reverend Ian Paisley, are being out-manoeuvred by the republican movement. The British government now has to respond to the republican movement's peace initiatives.
In the days following the cease-fire announcement, loyalist death squads murdered a Catholic man working on his car. A concerted campaign of violence by these gangs can be expected.
The announcement of the IRA's cease-fire came at the end of a month's speculation about what the decision taken by Sinn Fein, at a special conference on July 23-4 at Letterkenny, really meant. As 800 conference delegates returned home to participate in the numerous actions marking the 25th anniversary of British troops in the north of Ireland, the media claimed the conference had taken a hardline position against peace.
Sinn Fein's response to the Downing St Declaration — a joint agreement between the British and Irish governments in December 1993 — was always going to be more complicated than a simple "yes" or "no".
"The British government policy has failed in Ireland", Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president, told the July conference. "It has failed to defeat the desire for freedom. It has failed to satisfy the Ulster unionists. It has failed even to meet Britain's own requirements. More importantly, it has failed to bring peace."
Adams called on the British government "to seize the present opportunity for peace and not to squander it".
A successful Time for Peace — Time to Go campaign was waged around the world in mid-August comprising protests, pickets and rallies marking the 25th anniversary of British troops in the north of Ireland. In 1969, the troops were sent ostensibly as a peacekeeping force, but their role quickly became one of repressing the minority nationalist community.
Any delay in beginning talks which will now include Sinn Fein will only strengthen the hands of the hardline Unionists, who are devoid of friends and fast running out of options.
The following is the text of a statement from Gerry Adams on the Irish Republican Army cease-fire:
"The search for peace has reached a decisive moment. This opportunity must be seized. Nothing should be allowed to undermine it ... The British government is responsible for this conflict. It has the primary role in resolving it. This will require fundamental political and constitutional change.
"Anglo-Irish relationships have reached a historic crossroads. The people of Ireland have waited too long for our freedom — we can wait no longer. Injustice must be ended, demilitarisation must begin immediately. All political prisoners must be released.
"The British government must immediately recognise Sinn Fein's democratic mandate.
"The unionist veto must be ended. Partition [of Ireland] and the six county state have failed. We must move beyond these failures.
"Nationalist opinion at home and abroad, and the international community should now apply its political strength to moving the British government on all these issues.
"The freedom struggle is not over. We are in a new area of struggle. There is a role for everyone in this new situation. We must develop an irreversible momentum for change which will move the British government away from the failed politics of the past. [British Prime Minister] John Major must seize the moment.
"I appeal to the [pro-British] unionist section of our people to join with the rest of us in creating a new democracy. The people of this island deserve a future where justice prevails, where peace is assured and democracy becomes a way of life."