Sir, - This year the Good Friday message had special significance and not just for the war weary, long suffering people of Northern Ireland but also for the people of Ireland as a whole and we should thank God for what has been achieved. In coming to such a defining moment, the greater good has triumphed over the sectional demand: inclusiveness has taken precedence over exclusiveness and we can all be victors if we so choose.
As they went home from the "talks" it would be surprising if at least some of the participants did not experience feelings of doubt: generosity born out of hope for the greater good must have made enormous demands, especially at the poles of republicanism and unionism. Accommodation could not have been reached without painful discarding of some of the icons of long-cherished dogmatic "principle". Let us therefore reassure those participants who may feel like this by supporting, if at all possible, the broad sweep of their achievement.
By stretching to their limits to touch traditional opponents, they have given us dynamic compromise to enable, on a basis of equality, an historic accommodation to take root. As a result, both sectarianism and sectionalism may gradually be consigned to the bin of history.
A political state is in the making from which we can evolve as times change yet doing so in accordance with fundamental human and democratic rights increasingly based on the principle of consensus backed up by on-going communication and debate, with violence forsworn. In giving this opportunity to us, the participants have shown that compromise can be an honourable achievement.
Indeed, have we not come to this point of settlement because the participants have cherished a spirit of compromise once before exercised when the constitutional arrangements for the future of the United States were being decided? Such spirit of compromise, with all its built-in checks and balances and its capacity for change, "sat on George Washington's shoulder like the dove". In this respect let tribute be paid to that selfless and tireless American, Senator George Mitchell.
This was transcendent history in the making: this was statesmanship and we should be thankful that at long last we may look forward to building a future together. It is now up to the rest of us to commit ourselves to creating a society worthy of the women and men who have made this possible for us and we can now start by giving them resounding confirmation with a positive vote in the forthcoming referendum.
Friday was a great day for Ulster, Friday was a great day for Ireland and it cannot have been a bad day for our neighbours across the water either. Those who attended these talks should know that they can hold their heads high for the hand of history did not descend in vain upon their shoulders. - Yours etc., John Robb, Chairman, New Ireland Group,
Charlotte Street,
Ballymoney,
Co Antrim.