Of course I am delighted that a settlement has been reached that may -- and I say may -- mean an eventual end to the political and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. It might not be a popular opinion but I have this uneasy feeling about the whole thing. The feeling isn't so much that the "hard men" of the terror organisations might ignore the potential opened up by the deal, no, they'll go on with their killing whether there is a piece of paper or not. Recent murders in Ulster show that there are those who put little value on human life. The fact is, a lot of the murders and bombings really have nothing to do with political aspirations - they are grudge killings and turf wars between criminal gangs that coincidentally conform to religious and territorial affiliations. No, what is bothering me is the way the deal was achieved.
I can't help it, sorry, but that's the way it is. When I see former terrorists and their supporters dressed in suits and talking about democracy and human rights, I just get this compulsion to puke. More than a few members of the negotiating teams who reached the accord have criminal records. I almost gagged when one of them told a reporter that a decade ago he couldn't imagine sitting down in the same room with the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland with a draft agreement for the future of Ulster on the table. No, of course he couldn't, a decade ago he was sitting in jail for bombing British soldiers.
A theme that underlined the Stormont talks was that failure at the negotiating table would mean a full-on return to violence. This obviously leads one to the suggestion that the men in suits were representing the men in black ski masks rather than the general public. While the suits deny it vigorously, the ski-masked thugs were always their trump card. Deal with us, was the implication, or deal with them. A fact reinforced by a brutal and cowardly sectarian murder just hours before the so-called Mitchell deadline expired. And those that followed.
I thought that democratic governments didn't deal with terrorists. Yeah, well we all know that is BS, but to have it thrust into our living rooms as the lead story in every newscast for 72 hours was a bit much.
Carried away with the moment, most commentators ignored the fact that a way out of the Northern Ireland mess was always there -- the ballot box. Another option that has always been available to the people of Ulster -- resolve differences by negotiation. For 30 years these choices have been sidelined in favour of violence. Now we have an agreement that according to man-behind-the-scenes Bill Clinton was reached through making some tough decisions. Nobody, he says, got everything they wanted. That's for sure. Including the folks who abhor violence, believe in the rule of the law and the way of democracy. On both sides, these people have seen 30 years of suffering and now witness their tormentors on prime time television being hailed as heroes. What for? Staying awake for 36 hours? Try selling that to the families of innocent people who've been a long time dead.
So what message does this send? Ski masks and suits are interchangeable? A sustained campaign of terror, a widely publicised cease-fire, and an off the peg suit from Woolworth's will lead to a settlement that wins concessions? Okay, okay, sometimes we have to bite down the revulsion and shake the bloodied hands of terrorists in order to achieve peace. But don't ask me to like it, okay?
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