The proposals published by Mr Tony Blair and Mr Bertie Ahern, after the tortuous ebb and flow of five days of negotiations, pose a real challenge to all parties and all of the people of Northern Ireland in the critical two weeks ahead. As the barbed wire barriers are being erected around Drumcree, the way forward outlined by the two leaders presents the only real path for progress and the final chance, perhaps, to grasp the historic opportunity offered by the Belfast Agreement.
Having failed to secure the agreement of Mr David Trimble's party after spending a working week in Castle Buildings, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern took the wise course in putting out their blueprint for consultation and wider consideration by the whole community in Northern Ireland. Their proposals to resolve the relationship between the establishment of an inclusive government and the decommissioning of paramilitary arms are simple. Ministers to the new Executive would be appointed on Thursday week. The Order to devolve powers to them would be debated in the House of Commons on Friday week. They would take over full powers on Monday fortnight. General De Chastelain would then be asked to confirm that the process of decommissioning had started. There would be penalties, underpinned by legislation, for any default in time or product.
The precision of these proposals, with certain failsafes for both sides, is clearly intended by the two governments to be much more than "a soft landing" or political cover for their failure to reach agreement with all the parties. This is the movement towards the endgame.
The initial response from Mr Trimble last night would seem to confirm that the plan presents problems for his party. The Executive would come into existence, essentially in shadow form, before the start of decommissioning. Due consideration should be given, however, to the guarantees being offered to unionists, under-pinned by legislation in Westminster, that the institutions will be suspended if Sinn Fein and the IRA do not honour their commitments to the International Commission on Decommissioning. The extent to which Mr Gerry Adams has been forced to stretch the republican constituency to produce what is, in effect, a promised standing-down of the IRA in order to gain two Sinn Fein seats in the Executive is also a significant achievement.
The Way Forward produced by Mr Blair and Mr Ahern presents an honourable balance of principle for unionists and republicans. The telescoping of the lapse of time between the setting up of the Executive and the delivery of the first tranche of arms is a clever addition to the paper, enabling both sides to claim that they have equally won and lost the most protracted battle which has engulfed the peace process from the start.
Mr Blair, in particular, and Mr Ahern are to be commended for the perseverance, time and patience which they have applied to the peace process in the past week. But for their presence, some would say their bullheadness, the people of Northern Ireland would not be presented with this compromise today. Mr Blair said last night that individuals can change the course of history. On the eve of Drumcree, to be followed soon after by the Twelfth, the work done by Mr Blair and Mr Ahern marks out a clear path to peaceful co-existence in Northern Ireland. The parties and their supporters would do well to ponder the alternative way of life to be witnessed in Northern Ireland in the fortnight ahead. The art of democratic politics, however imperfect, must be allowed to prevail.