Unionists Back Return to Joint Rule in N. Ireland

Putting pragmatism ahead of emotions, Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party voted narrowly Saturday to return to a power-sharing government with the Roman Catholic allies of the Irish Republican Army.

The decision--a make-or-break moment for the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement--was a triumph for Ulster Unionist Party chief David Trimble, who risked his leadership to win a positive vote.

Shortly after the balloting, Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson, signed orders to restore home rule to the provincial government by Tuesday. The Cabinet--which includes two members of the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein--is to meet Thursday, and the full Northern Ireland Assembly will gather June 5.

Britain stripped the newly devolved government of its power in February to prevent Trimble from resigning over the IRA’s failure to begin disarming under the terms of the 1998 accord. The IRA subsequently vowed to put its arsenal “completely and verifiably beyond use” in exchange for reactivation of the government, and to allow international inspectors to view its weapons depots.

The pledge fell short of the unionists’ demand that the IRA choose between guns and government, but it was enough to prod a 459-403 vote from the deeply divided Ulster Unionists’ grass-roots council.

Noting his narrow margin of victory, Trimble warned the IRA that his party had stretched about as far as it could, adding that “it is patently obvious” that the IRA has to fulfill its promise to eliminate its weapons.

“Let there be absolutely no doubt that I and my colleagues will hold the republicans to the promises they have made. And if there’s any foot-dragging, any delay, there will difficulties,” Trimble said.

“I’m not laying down conditions. I’m simply saying that promises that have been made have to be kept,” he said.

The cliffhanger vote took place at Belfast’s Waterfront performance hall against the backdrop for an evening performance of the opera “Aida,” touted as a tragedy of “love and jealousy, treachery and bravery.” The Protestants planted a Union Jack in the middle of the Egyptian set for the equally dramatic debate about Northern Ireland’s future, during which they recalled the loss of loved ones to IRA attacks, while Trimble’s enemies vowed to defeat his politics of engagement.

Trimble’s rival in the closed-door meeting, Jeffrey Donaldson, appealed to unionists’ deeply felt sense of British identity, arguing that they had given too much ground already to Catholic nationalists who seek to unite the province with the Irish Republic. Donaldson recalled the pain of three decades of sectarian bloodletting and said they had to draw the line on allowing Sinn Fein to sit in government as long as the IRA possessed weapons, delegates said.

Trimble countered that party members had to follow their heads rather than their hearts. He told them that to reject the IRA’s unprecedented offer would be to kill the peace process and accept a return to British rule with diminishing unionist influence. Unionists must keep Sinn Fein engaged in democratic politics and put the IRA’s offer to the test, he said.

But even Trimble, who will resume his post as first minister of Northern Ireland, revealed how distasteful it is for him to sit in government with Sinn Fein, referring to the party in terms normally reserved for dogs: “As far as democracy is concerned, these folk aren’t house-trained yet,” he said after winning the internal battle. He said unionists had to “bring them to heel.”

Sinn Fein leaders chose to ignore the insults and applauded the vote.

“Obviously, Sinn Fein welcomes the result,” deputy party leader Martin McGuinness told Irish radio. “I was always confident during the course of this week that Mr. Trimble would win the day.”

President Clinton telephoned his congratulations to Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic leaders and publicly lauded unionists for taking “a giant step toward fulfillment of the historic promise of the Good Friday accord.”

“It is now possible for the politics of conflict to be transformed into the politics of consensus,” he said. “The wind is back in the sails of peace in Northern Ireland.”

The unionist vote had been scheduled for May 20, but Trimble postponed the ballot for a week of intense campaigning after polls suggested that as many as 70% of his party delegates were opposed to the deal for returning to government.

Although Trimble sometimes has seemed to be a reluctant advocate of the agreement for which he shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with Catholic leader John Hume, he rallied when it became clear that the survival of the peace process was at stake. He traveled the province day and night, talking himself hoarse in dozens of meetings that had been arranged at the last minute to avoid Protestant protesters.

All of Northern Ireland’s politicians face a degree of personal risk in a province whose history is written in blood. Trimble’s family home in the County Down village of Lambeg was picketed at night by hard-liners who reportedly shined lasers into the living room until police dispersed them.

Outside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, picketers called Trimble a “traitor” and “collaborator.”

Trimble supporters said the picketers were relics of an era of Protestant supremacy who had no interest in sharing power or making peace.

“Those people want to live in the past. I don’t want to live in the past,” said John McCalister, a Belfast engineer. “Economically, we can’t afford to go back.”

But William Thompson, an Ulster Unionist opponent of the peace accord, said he and others would continue to fight for their cause within the party.

“Clearly, while David Trimble has won, his majority over time is becoming less and less, and I think that is a good omen for those of us who believe he is following the wrong course,” Thompson said.

Fifty-eight percent of the party delegates backed Trimble’s decision to go into government with Sinn Fein last November, compared with the 53% who supported him Saturday.

The home rule government allows for Northern Ireland to set its own policy on issues such as education, public welfare, trade and industrial development.

Ulster Unionist council member Jim Rodgers said he thought the party would give the government an additional six months to see if the IRA begins to disarm and, if they do not, “we’ll probably pull the plug.”

Trimble appealed for unity but did not underestimate his opposition.

“It takes 50 members to call a meeting of the council, and 400 voted against me. What do you think the chances are we’ll be back here again?” he said.

Had he lost Saturday’s vote, Trimble almost certainly would have had to resign as party leader to make way for an opponent of the gradually unfolding peace process. The power-sharing government would not have been restored, and the historic peace accord would have been relegated to the history books alongside other failed attempts at peacemaking.

Asked why he thought that he had won the crucial battle to return to government, Trimble said: “Because it was the right thing to do.”