A basis for dialogue

Tony Dale, Manchester Central CLP, believes socialists should welcome the Northern Ireland peace agreement.

The Agreement does not deliver a united Ireland but it introduces important constitutional changes. An all-Ireland Council will be created establishing the right of the Irish Republic to be part of the Northern Irish political arrangements. The Agreement commits Britain to accepting the right of Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland if that is the view of a majority in the Six Counties. It creates an Assembly based on proportionality and consent with both Catholic and Protestant parties effectively having a veto.

Checks and balances will prevent Unionism from re-establishing the pre-Troubles "Protestant state for a Protestant people". The agreement promises the release of all prisoners affiliated to organisations respecting the ceasefire.

While many republicans may be unhappy with the principle of consent for the people of Northern Ireland, the fact is that a united Ireland has not been established precisely because of the opposition of most people in the North. At the same time Catholics have been able to prevent the re-establishment of Unionist majority rule. The present political situation is dominated by vetoes exercised by both sides.

Sinn Fein's leadership deserve credit for being prepared to take bold political steps in the realisation that a long military campaign cannot deliver a united Ireland. Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein's chairman, recently stated that the party's leadership have conceded that the conditions did not exist at present for a united Ireland and a transitional approach was needed.

The Irish Government is to recommend dropping Irish claims of jurisdiction over the whole island. In practice these articles have been meaningless and were of no assistance to Northern Irish Catholics when they faced decades of discrimination.

The Agreement is the political settlement needed to end the military campaigns which have become bogged down in a stalemate. Hopefully, the Agreement can create the space necessary for increased dialogue and political movement.

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