At the end of last week, two leading forces in Northern Ireland — the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Catholic Sinn Fein – reached an agreement on the establishment of law enforcement and judicial authorities in the region independent of London.
The signing of the agreement made it possible to avoid the development of a political crisis that threatened the collapse of the ruling coalition. However, the successes that were achieved only after the intervention of the British and Irish authorities in the negotiation process did not eliminate the contradictions between the DUP, which advocates the preservation of direct rule of London, and Sinn Fein, which advocates the creation of a united Ireland.
Negotiations on the transfer of all powers for the exercise of police and judicial functions from the British authorities to Belfast began more than two weeks ago. Neither Protestants nor Catholics had any fundamental objections to a significant reform of the local government system. However, the stumbling block was the issue of the traditional July marches of members of the Protestant Orange Order, which are often accompanied by mass riots and clashes between the most radical representatives of the two Northern Irish communities.
Representatives of the DUP stated that they would sign an agreement with Sinn Fein only after receiving guarantees that Catholics would not interfere with marches, and not only in Protestant quarters of cities. Members of Sinn Fein, in turn, urged their colleagues not to link this topic in any way with the solution of the issue of expanding the powers of local authorities.
Last week, the negotiations finally reached an impasse. In Ulster, there was even talk of a possible collapse of the coalition and the suspension of the activities of local authorities. It was possible to overcome the differences only after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Irish counterpart Brian Cowan intervened in the situation. As a result, the parties signed an agreement according to which on April 12 this year London will transfer to Belfast all the powers to protect law and order and conduct trials in the region. At the same time, the unionists have achieved the beginning of consideration in parliament of a new law on parades.
The negotiators talk about the signed agreement as a landmark event for Northern Ireland. Thus, Mr. Brown declared the end of “the last chapter in a long and difficult history of violence and the beginning of a new chapter of the world.” The British Prime Minister noted that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US President Barack Obama, as well as his predecessors Bill Clinton and George Bush played a big role in the settlement of the Northern Ireland problem. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowan, who also took part in the talks, expressed confidence in further stabilization of the situation in the neighboring territory, noting that today there is no talk of reunification of the two parts of Ireland. And Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams compared the signed agreement with the 1998 peace treaty that ended 30 years of confrontation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. “Then we refused to use force, and now we have laid the foundations for the full functioning of the institutions of power for many years,” he said.
However, despite the optimism prevailing among Northern Irish politicians, experts doubt that the agreements reached mark the end of the political crisis. The contradictions and distrust between Protestants and Catholics are still very far from being completely overcome. At the same time, the ruling coalition is constantly in danger of collapse, since the DUP and Sinn Fein represent two opposing camps and, consequently, pursue opposite political goals: the first of them advocates the preservation of direct rule of London in Northern Ireland, and the second — for reunification with neighboring Ireland.
