Madam, - The 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which was rapturously sanctified by the day, foundered bag and new baggage on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th last. The following substitute predates that agreement in research and discovery, but is offered here, on the feast of the Epiphany, as a hopeful amendment for renewal:
1. The Irish Republic recognises Northern Ireland and its union to Great Britain.
2. The Parliament of Northern Ireland to rule by majority or freely entered coalitions.
3. Ministers of state in both Irish parliaments may sit and debate in the other one, as events demand, but vote only in their own.
4. Elections to the parliament shall be at fixed five-year intervals only.
5. The Offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister to be appointed from separate parties at all times, and to rotate on periods of six months to 18 months across all parties.
6. Both Irish parliaments will move, as authorised in the 1920 Better Government of Ireland Act, and endorsed in Bunreacht na hÉireann 1937, preferably to the same place.
Summary: All six steps are validated by existing legislation and successful overseas precedent, especially in the former colonies and dominions of "Old Europe". Steps 1 and 6 might also be applied to the forthcoming London conference on the Middle East and elsewhere.
Step 1 reaffirms the 1920 Act, and together with Step 2 removes the need to defend Protestant unionism. Step 3, from Clause 18 in the 1920 Act, establishes the most transparent, elected co-operation. Step 4 ensures greater stability to the state. Step 5 creates easier and fairer power-sharing. Step 6 is the broadband route to permanent peace for all parties via an Irish version of the neutral parliamentary capital now commonplace overseas, in this case shared.
Addendum: Decommissioning or seizure of illicit arms is the business of government, not parties. Public amnesty collections under the Mitchell Principles can be modelled on the three held in Great Britain since 1961.
Whatever we choose for our lucky and blessed countries, let us go forward in the light of what has happened to our humbled planet, in ashes since Boxing Day, thousands dead, millions homeless. - Yours, etc.,
PADDY McGARVEY, Irish Parliament Trust, Cambridge, England.