Sawt Falasteen - N.Ireland peace brokers urge unionists to return to power-sharing

The UK's former prime minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart at the time, Bertie Ahern, pressed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to emulate the vision of the territory's feuding leaders in 1998.

"The only thing I would say to today's leaders is I think when you stand back and you reflect, you know in your heart of hearts what the right thing to do is, and you should just get on and do it," Blair said.

Ahern added: "I just really plead and deeply hope that the Democratic Unionist Party will pay the reward (of peace) back to us all, to stay the road with us.

"Because the people of Northern Ireland need them, and I think the people on this island need them. We all want to work together," the former Taoiseach (prime minister) said.

"The alternatives are not good. Don't even think about them."

Blair and Ahern were addressing a 25th anniversary conference at Queen's University Belfast joined by former US president Bill Clinton, Clinton's peace envoy George Mitchell and other leaders from 1998.

The pro-UK DUP has for more than a year been boycotting the power-sharing government at Stormont in Belfast, in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements agreed by London and the European Union.

After meeting Clinton at the conference, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he had "underscored our commitment to restoring the NI Assembly on a basis that unionists as well as nationalists can support".

"Quick fixes without solid foundations will do a disservice to those trying to make the institutions work," Donaldson said.

But Gerry Adams, whose Sinn Fein party was once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland, said at the conference that the DUP had to recognise new realities.

"I think that unionism needs to give itself a shake, generally speaking," he said.

"Get into the institutions and then argue it out, revise, review, whatever you want, but in the first place go to where you were sent by the electorate."

- Reunification? -

Twenty-five years on, calls have been growing from moderates in Northern Ireland for an overhaul of the Good Friday peace agreement so that neither the DUP nor Sinn Fein can exercise a veto over the devolved government at Stormont.

Meanwhile, after winning local elections for the first time last year, Sinn Fein is stepping up demands for preparations to start on both sides of the border for a referendum aimed at the reunification of Ireland.

"We will undoubtedly have a referendum," Adams said. "I think we're into a phase, given all we've been through, of gentle persuasion."

For now, though, the DUP needs strong persuasion that a recent overhaul of the Brexit deal works for Northern Ireland, after accusing London of betraying the interests of unionists.

The three-day anniversary conference ends Wednesday with speeches from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Clinton, and EU leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen.

Blair and Ahern reminisced about the agonising process leading up to the final agreement adopted at Easter 1998, aimed at ending three decades of "The Troubles", a bloody sectarian conflict against UK rule.

Mitchell reflected on the insults hurled across the negotiating room and frequent walkouts before the deal was clinched after all-night sessions in the final week, helped by Clinton manning the phones from Washington.

"When you approved the agreement, you were also talking to Israelis and Palestinians, to Colombians, to Africans, to Asians, to Americans," Mitchell told the audience.

"In fact, you were talking to the world. This is an agreement for peace and for the future, not just here, but everywhere," he said.

"We need people who believe, who know, that the possible does exist within the impossible. Don't let it slip away."

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST