The decision by Sinn Féin to change its policing policy and recognise the Police Service of Northern Ireland represents the penultimate piece of a democratic jigsaw. Years of careful preparation and hard work, involving an IRA ceasefire, the Belfast Agreement, arms decommission and the emergence of Sinn Féin as the leading nationalist party in Northern Ireland have led inevitably to this point. All that remains is for Ian Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party to join with Sinn Féin and others in a power-sharing Executive.
It has been a long and difficult road for the political parties in Northern Ireland, not least for the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party which broke new ground and urged compromise and reconciliation in a harsh and unforgiving environment. As the peace process now moves towards completion, however, there may be further obstacles ahead. Extremist elements within both communities would prefer to live in hostility, rather than in harmony. And they will do everything possible to thwart the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. Death threats have been made against the Sinn Féin leadership by dissident republicans. And Dr Paisley's authority and political direction is under assault within the DUP.
Sinn Féin has linked formal recognition and active support for the police and the criminal justice system with the establishment of power-sharing institutions and assurances on the transfer of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland. Such conditions were predictable because of the level of distrust that exists between Sinn Féin and the DUP. But they do not disguise the hugely important and socially transforming decision that has been taken by republicans and the potential it offers for the future.
All parties recognise the benefits devolved government can bring. And change is certain. The capacity to direct and manage that change in the interests of their constituents, however, rather than have it imposed from Westminster, is of central political importance. By endorsing the PSNI and the criminal justice system, even in this conditional fashion, Sinn Féin has swept away the DUP's justification for not sharing power with republicans. It has, effectively, jumped first and opened the door to devolved government.
The Rev Ian Paisley has said repeatedly he will 'not be found wanting' if Sinn Féin undertook this policy shift. The DUP leader also signalled a willingness to become First Minister. But those commitments were conditional on DUP supporters endorsing the power-sharing project in the March Assembly elections. Now that Sinn Féin has delivered on its portion of the St Andrews Agreement, it falls to Dr Paisley to deliver. It will be difficult. For, just as Sinn Féin has swallowed hard and offered to set aside its intrinsic hostility to the criminal justice system, so the DUP will be required to accept elements of the Belfast Agreement that it so vehemently opposed.