Sir, - Recent events have underlined the seemingly endless machinations of the peace process.
The reaction in this part of Ireland to the announcement from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was largely positive. This, presumably, was because people made the reasonable assumption that a renewed commitment from the IRA to put their weapons beyond use, which furthermore was endorsed by General de Chastelain, would break the deadlock and bring to an end the umpteenth crisis to beset the peace process.
Reasonable assumptions are, however, irrelevant when applied to politics in Northern Ireland.
While the IICD announcement was dismissed out of hand by the DUP, it has also failed to satisfy the UUP, which, after what it doubtless regards as mature consideration, declared that the statement did not go far enough. Thus the peace process-weary are now realising that, instead of progressing from impasse to breakthrough, the current crisis has simply changed its complexion.
While the unionists have long been using the decomissioning issue to block progress, the nationalists have expressed grave reservations about the watering down of the Patten report on policing. The latest joint government proposals have gone a considerable way towards implementing the latter, and they were followed quickly by the IICD announcement. Thus, on the face of it at least, it would appear that both sides have achieved what they want in considerable measure. In a process such as this, no side will achieve all it wants - that is the nature of compromise. This point would appear to be lost on the various parties to the process.
It would seem obvious that decommissioning, policing reform and all the other elements of the process are interdependent and will happen only in tandem. To cherry-pick individual elements will only block progress. The Northern politicians seem incapable of grasping this either because of some sort of collective myopia or because of an ingrained inability to agree on anything with their political opponents. - Yours, etc.,
Nicky Dunne, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.