It was no exaggeration to say the Northern Ireland Agreement reached on April 10th was one of the most momentous events in this island's history, certainly this century, Mr Desmond O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) told the Dail.
"It is the one great chance for peace and sanity at last to break out on this island. To reject it would be sheer folly. There is no alternative to it, nor can any alternative be negotiated. There can be no cherry-picking. This is all or nothing. It is peace and sanity or violence and lunacy," he said.
Amid the euphoria, he had to strike one serious note of concern. This did not relate to the agreement and indeed was outside its terms, even though it had been portrayed as arising from it.
"I disagree with and regret the action of the Government in releasing from Portlaoise Prison on Monday, April 13th, nine IRA prisoners, all of whom were convicted of terrorist offences and at least one of whom still had more than seven years of his sentence to serve, even with full remission," Mr O'Malley said.
The agreement did not necessitate these releases and they sent all the wrong signals which led on Tuesday (before) last to Martin Ferris, a Sinn Fein negotiator, himself a convicted terrorist, demanding the release of all those he described as "republican" prisoners, including those on remand, not yet tried, he said.
Mr O'Malley said there were several persons in custody here charged inter alia with the capital murder of Det Garda McCabe and the attempted murder of Det Garda O'Sullivan at Adare sub-post office, a place far removed in every sense from the North.
These offences corresponded to what were described as scheduled offences in Northern Ireland. If any of these people were convicted at their trial in the next few months they would become what the agreement called "qualifying prisoners".
"It is unthinkable and totally unacceptable that they should be released within two years from now. The agreement should not have contained that provision. If convicted they should serve the full 40 years - with no remission. I observe that these people were described at the recent Sinn Fein ardfheis as `political prisoners'. Sinn Fein's idea of politics and mine are irreconcilably different."
It had often been said that in many countries the police force was the thin blue line separating society from chaos and preserving civilised democracy. The Garda Siochana were our thin blue line.
"Dozens of their members have been murdered in the course of their duty to the State. If this State will not stand behind them, at least to the extent of the full enforcement of the law against their assailants, then this State will ultimately place itself in jeopardy."
