European Churches" "
“I think that present events mark an important step ahead on the road to a just and lasting peace. They are the proof that progress is made by dialogue and that confidence is built where there’s a sincere commitment to the achievement of the common good, central theme of the request made by the Pope to the people of Ireland, when he visited our country twenty-five years ago”. That’s how Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland, commented on 21 October on the resumption of the peace process and the agreement of the previous day (20 October) between the Catholic and Protestant leaders of Ulster on the revival of the Northern Ireland Assembly (suspended in October 2002), whose new members are due to be elected on 26 November. “The combination of words and actions demonstrated said the primate provides solid grounds for hoping and believing that the dark days belong to the past and that the stability, equity and peace for which the population of Northern Ireland is yearning are now within our grasp”. “I welcome the news of the elections announced for 26 November he added -. The announcement indicates the will of the political parties to make the Good Friday Agreement work [i.e. the agreement of 15 April 1998 that gave rise to the Northern Ireland Assembly]”. But the hopes were to be dashed within hours: on the evening of 21 October David Trimble, leader of the Unionists, declared that “the necessary conditions had still not been met” for continuing the process of détente, due to the lack of transparency of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) in decommissioning its weapons.
