Irish Echo editorial: Time to move on

Its vote in the Irish republic stood at a derisory 1.2 percent. In the North, it had lost its only MP, Gerry Adams, two years earlier. Meanwhile, the armed campaign was going bust, and the loyalist sectarian backlash was in full swing. Decades of violence had demoralized a large section of the nationalist population, many of whom were desperate for a political solution that would bring all the violence to a halt, particularly getting the loyalist murder squads out of their neighborhoods, which they had been terrorizing since 1972.
At last weekend’s party ard fheis, Sinn Fein had good reason to celebrate the transformation that has come over the party. Latest polls show it commands 12 percent of the vote in the Republic and has an opportunity to win a seat in Dublin in the June European elections. It is the dominant voice of nationalism in the North. But more important than all of this is the transformation that has come over the situation there.
Yes, it is an imperfect peace. But the British army has gone from the streets, and the loyalist murder squads have been reined in or have dissolved into criminal gangs. Low-level sectarianism still flares up. Racketeering and feuding still goes on. No sane person, however, would want to exchange the situation now for that existing in 1994. The North is now closer to normality than it has been since it was misbegotten over 80 years ago. That is why violent acts such as that perpetrated against Robert Tohill appear in all their ugly brutality. That is why they must cease. If they do not, the hope of living in a normal society must forever evade the people of Northern Ireland.
The hope of achieving that normality resides in the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement. Sinn Fein was correct in its insistence on this as the current review got under way. But the agreement cannot be fully implemented while paramilitary violence remains an option — and not just that attributed to the IRA. Loyalist gangs such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defense Association have been responsible for some of the worst crimes committed since the peace process began. The history of the conflict in the North shows that it has been all too easy to ignore the role such groups have played. Unfortunately, there is no sizable section of political opinion represented by either the UDA or UVF, so they escape the kind of pressure placed upon the republican movement.
Sinn Fein is in a different moral category. As the leading nationalist party in the North it has a duty to see to it that republican violence comes to an end. Currently, that violence is directed only against fellow nationalists. The IRA has ended its war against the British state. It should learn from that experience the value of discipline and being able to make sure that those under its control do not undermine or discredit the very goal to which the republican movement has committed itself. That goal is the peaceful resolution of the conflict, through the implementation of the agreement. And an essential step toward achieving this is bringing to an end paramilitary violence. It’s that simple.