Blair: IRA statement ‘gives way to peace’
Today is the day when peace finally replaces war in Northern Ireland, Tony Blair said in the wake of the IRA statement renouncing its armed struggle.
The prime minister said today’s statement calling on volunteers to give up their weapons was “a step of unparalleled magnitude” that brought hope to the province.
“We will remember today the many thousands of victims. But the best way to serve the memory of victims is to make the future brighter,” he said.
“And there is at least some hope today that the future will be such as to banish the ghastly and futile violence from Northern Ireland forever.”
Reaction from unionists was much more cautious, however, with Democratic Unionist party leader Ian Paisley insisting the IRA had to live up to their promises.
He cited other paramilitary statements that were described as historic only to be followed by more “horrific murders and squalid criminality”.
“The unionist community feels no obligation to cheer the words of P O’Neill. We will judge the IRA’s bona fides over the next months and years based on its behaviour and activity,” Mr Paisley said.
Speaking at Downing Street following today’s announcement, Mr Blair welcomed the clarity of the IRA’s intentions and its “recognition that the only route to political change lies in exclusive peaceful and democratic means”.
He said the words must be accompanied by action, and decommissioning “must be completed as soon as possible” to ensure “that what is said is done”.
“But the statement is of a different order than anything before. It is what we have striven for and worked for throughout the eight years since Good Friday Agreement,” he said.
“It creates the circumstances in which the institutions can be revived – unionism will want to know that the circumstances are permanent and verified. But if in time they are then proper devolved democratic government should be restored to Northern Ireland.”
Mr Blair said there continued to be “fundamental disagreement” about the past – while the IRA continued to believe violence was justified, “the rest of us do not”. But hope for a future remained.
Mr Paisley was less forgiving however, condemning the IRA’s attempt “to glorify and justify their murder campaign”.
“Even on the face of the statement, they have failed to explicitly declare an end to their multi-million pound criminal activity and have failed to provide the level of transparency that would be necessary to truly build confidence that the guns had gone in their entirety,” he said.
“This lack of transparency will prolong the period the community will need to make its assessment.”
