Nobody should underestimate the distance the Ulster Unionist Party has travelled in seeking an honourable accommodation with nationalists. Nobody should presume that concessions were made without pain and very real difficulties. And nobody should dismiss the courage and leadership of Mr David Trimble in bringing his divided party to this point.
A power-sharing executive will be established in Northern Ireland later today involving the UUP, the SDLP, the DUP and Sinn Fein. By the end of the week, powers will be transferred to the new executive and the Assembly; a North/South Ministerial Council will be established along with North/South implementation bodies; a British/Irish Council and a British/Irish Intergovernmental Conference will come into being; territorial claims in the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 and Articles 2 & 3 of the Constitution will be abandoned; the IRA will nominate an interlocutor to liaise with General John de Chastelain on decommissioning and a comprehensive start will have been made to implement the terms of the Belfast Agreement in full.
Support by 58 per cent of the Ulster Unionist Council for the arrangements worked out by the pro-Agreement parties with Senator George Mitchell was, as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, remarked at the weekend "a milestone of enormous importance". And President Clinton regarded it as "an historic step towards lasting peace." But the virulence of opposition being expressed against the Belfast Agreement within the wider unionist community must be a source of continuing concern.
In order to secure the firm backing of his party, Mr Trimble found it necessary to offer delegates an opportunity to review progress next February and decide whether he and his ministers should resign from the executive if decommissioning had not begun. This has been represented in some quarters as a breach of the Agreement and an ultimatum to the IRA. It is nothing of the sort. Any decommissioning of arms by the IRA will still be voluntary. And all arrangements will be conducted through General de Chastelain and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
The General has indicated his intention to issue a report "within days" of meetings with representatives of paramilitary organisations that may take place in December. And he expressed confidence that decommissioning could be completed by May 2000 if the various political institutions provided for by the Belfast Agreement were established and operational. In that context, a decision by the UUP to review progress on decommissioning by the end of February can hardly be seen as threatening.
Nearly two years of delay and disagreement over the sequencing of institutional arrangements provided for under the Belfast Agreement has finally been surmounted. Later this week, the wishes of the great majority of people on this island will be given effect within a democratic framework. It is the first major advance in a two-stage process which, of necessity, includes the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. As Mr Trimble commented on Saturday: "We have done our bit. Mr Adams, it's over to you. We've jumped. You follow."
The Belfast Agreement may yet resonate in the collective memory of our children as a great imaginative departure and a creative compromise between traditionally antagonistic forces. Its complexity and craft has drawn positive comment from around the world. The two great traditions of this island have each yielded on the absolutism of their positions and accepted the concept of dual citizenship. Nationalists have swallowed the bitter truth that there will be no united Ireland in the foreseeable future and if it comes, it will only happen with the consent of a majority in Northern Ireland. Unionists have had to accept, in the new cross-Border structures, the legitimate aspirations of nationalists to build a closer relationship with the Republic. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 is to be repealed and the people of this State have agreed to relinquish the territorial claim to unity. A fundamental change in those mind-sets that froze into place at the turn of the century is under way.