The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Paul Murphy, yesterday called for people to "bombard heaven with prayer" that the current stalemate in the North would be overcome in the weeks ahead. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Delivering the address during an Evensong Lenten service at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, he said he had witnessed many crises during his years of service in Northern Ireland, but that this was "a real one". There was "a great deal of confidence and trust to be built", but there was also "no real 'going away' from the (peace) process".
Continuing paramilitary activity on both sides was an obstacle to there being a peaceful democracy in the North, he said.
Speaking to The Irish Times later Mr Murphy said confidence in the peace process had taken a knocking in recent weeks because of paramilitary activity. But he believed all parties wanted to see things move forward, including the DUP. He pointed out that though the UUP had withdrawn from the review, it was still part of the process and he remained in contact with the party bilaterally.
He refused to say whether he agreed with Taoiseach's assertion that he (Mr Ahern) believed Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams had been a member of the IRA. "We don't comment on individual cases, but it has always been British government policy that Sinn Féin and the IRA are inextricably linked," he said.
Mr Murphy has a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen in Belfast today, at which preparations will be made for the meeting of the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister Mr Blair on Thursday.
In his St Patrick's address Mr Murphy noted that benefits of the Belfast Agreement. "People aren't being killed anything like they were before", he said, and recalled that last year seven, "still too many", had died as a result of the conflict compared to as many as 500 a year during the 19 70s.
He recalled how when he first came to the North he was in opposition and deputy to Mo Mowlam. Before then his interest in Ireland was academic. "But that's not the same as going there and discovering the effects of three decades of troubles and misery. Out of a 1.5 million population, 3,500 had perished," he said. Proportionally, of the 57 million population on the island of Britain that would have amounted to the entire 100,000 people in his Welsh constituency, he said.
Sectarianism had grown worse over the troubles and he realised that the religious views of people often created a cover for tribal identity. But things had changed since the Belfast Agreement. Changes in relations between church leaders had been dramatic, with them now meeting on a regular basis.
It was probably the case that a higher percentage of people go to church in the North than elsewhere, which meant that messages from the pulpit had a resonance they didn't have elsewhere in the world, he said.
Ultimately it was the case that people in Northern Ireland were no different from people in the Republic or in Britain. "They want to lead ordinary lives," he said. But it was the case that there was no excuse for continued paramilitary activity.
Explaining how his own Christian beliefs were compatible with his entry to politics, he quoted a former Labour general secretary who said the party owed its existence "more to Methodism than to Marx."