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17 December 1998 Edition

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Seven days in April

Sinn Féin's Six County Director of Publicity, Jim Gibney, looks back at the momentous week when the Good Friday Agreement was finally negotiated

IRA ceasefire holds despite loyalist killing spree which claims the lives of eleven nationalists... Sinn Fein negotiates transitional agreement in advance of British withdrawal... Sinn Fein holds two Ard Fheiseanna, endorses the Good Friday Agreement and ends 75 years of abstentionist policy in the Six Counties... Overwhelming majority of Irish people support Agreement... Sinn Fein win 18 seats in northern assembly elections... Sinn Fein to have two Ministries in northern coalition and All-Ireland Council.

Any one of those headlines would have been enough to make 1998 an eventful year for republicans. Given that they all happened is mind-blowing. Now I know why I feel as if I have been on a political and emotional rollercoaster since January. I'm sure most republicans feel the same.

     
For the first time since 1918 a radical republican presence will be in national and regional institutions - the northern Executive and the All-Ireland Council - institutions which will govern the lives of the people who live on this island
Thirty years of single-minded struggle does not prepare one's mind for compromise nor for the type of changes made in recent times. So it has been a very difficult year. Many republicans are still trying to come to terms with the enormous decisions they took this year.

Most difficult of all was the decision to participate in a northern assembly based at Stormont. And while the new assembly and the old Stormont regime are as different as day and night it was a hard pill to swallow after campaigning for over twenty years on a ``no return to Stormont'' banner. So was the proposal to replace Articles 2 and 3 with a new definition of the Irish nation based on its people rather than its territory, in return for the British government scrapping the 1920 Government of Ireland Act which partitioned this country. But republicans are used to taking and making hard decisions. We do so on the basis that they advance the struggle for a united and independent Ireland.

Prior to this year everyone knew his or her role in the liberation struggle. It was clearly defined. You were either on the streets, preparing to be there or carrying out other duties in Sinn Fein or the IRA.

The context within which the liberation struggle was waged is slowly changing. Now republicans are on the threshold of achieving real political power. For the first time since 1918 a radical republican presence will be in national and regional institutions - the northern Executive and the All-Ireland Council - institutions which will govern the lives of the people who live on this island.

For the first time since partition there is a real chance that the armed wing of unionism (which played such a central role in forcing nationalists to lower their political horizons - until 1969 and the emergence of this republican generation) will be removed and replaced with a normal, unarmed police service which nationalists and republicans can join. The replacement of the RUC and the removal of the RIR will put nationalists and unionists on an equal political footing in the Six Counties.

For the first time in the 800 year old turbulent relationship between these islands there is a real chance that the British gun will go home and the Irish ones will remain forever silent. In such a non-belligerent and non-threatening atmosphere the central ideal of the United Irishmen, of uniting Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, becomes possible in a peaceful and democratic environment. This in my view, in the fullness of time, will be the enduring legacy of 1998.

In this bicentenary year of the 1798 Rebellion there is the prospect of moving the two great Irish traditions, nationalism and unionism, closer together. In this way the ancient enmity and animosities can be overcome, and the road paved to a new, agreed, shared independent country. The Good Friday Agreement is the framework within which all this can happen.

But much else needs to happen to facilitate this development. The far-reaching change heralded by the Good Friday Agreement must be visible.

Sinn Fein must be in government without any preconditions; equality must deliver for nationalists in the field of employment, and with respect to our cultural identity, language and ethos. The Irish tricolour and other nationalist symbols and emblems must be recognised and accepted wherever unionist and British symbols are on display.

There must be no glass ceilings for nationalists; nationalists must have ready access to every sector of society in the Six Counties. A human rights culture must pervade all elements of the administration of justice removing the paraphernalia of war which has maintained partition.

The All-Ireland institutions must be substantial and dynamic, capable of being an engine to peacefully bring us into a united and independent Ireland. All barriers based on artifical majorities and vetoes must be removed.

At a personal level it has been a challenging year. The pressure has at times been unbearable for all involved, particularly in the week leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. But being there and being part of a team of republicans which helped negotiate a mould-breaking agreement, which has the potential to end armed conflict, makes me feel both humble and proud.

It was an honour to watch people with whom I've spent my entire political, and dare I say it, adult life, rise to the challenge of that week. Their skill as instinctive - as opposed to trained - negotiators was a revelation in itself. In a hothouse atmosphere they remained cool, they absorbed and refined the fine detail of numerous position and made them acceptable.

The path to Sinn Fein's rooms was well-trodden, night and day, that week, by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, Mo Mowlam, John Hume, John Alderdice and their many, many negotiating teams. Transatlantic phone-calls to President Clinton were a part of the negotiating tapestry.

The republican struggle was served with the expected distinction that week and since. It is quite clear, whether republicans are in prison, on the streets or in the negotiating chambers in Belfast, London, Dublin or Washington, the struggle for a united Ireland will continue.

Looking back on that week, it was a whirlwind of people, papers, meetings and millions of words. And overlooking it all in the Sinn Fein negotiators' room was the portrait of Bobby Sands.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland