Seven days in April
Sinn Féin's Six County Director of Publicity, Jim Gibney, looks back
at the momentous week when the Good Friday Agreement was finally
negotiated
IRA ceasefire holds despite loyalist killing spree which claims the
lives of eleven nationalists... Sinn Fein negotiates transitional
agreement in advance of British withdrawal... Sinn Fein holds two Ard
Fheiseanna, endorses the Good Friday Agreement and ends 75 years of
abstentionist policy in the Six Counties... Overwhelming majority of
Irish people support Agreement... Sinn Fein win 18 seats in northern
assembly elections... Sinn Fein to have two Ministries in northern
coalition and All-Ireland Council.
y one of those headlines would have been enough to make 1998 an
eventful year for republicans. Given that they all happened is
mind-blowing. Now I know why I feel as if I have been on a political
and emotional rollercoaster since January. I'm sure most republicans
feel the same.
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For the first time since 1918 a radical republican presence will be
in national and regional institutions - the northern Executive and
the All-Ireland Council - institutions which will govern the lives of
the people who live on this island
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Thirty years of single-minded struggle does not prepare one's mind
for compromise nor for the type of changes made in recent times. So
it has been a very difficult year. Many republicans are still trying
to come to terms with the enormous decisions they took this year.
Most difficult of all was the decision to participate in a northern
assembly based at Stormont. And while the new assembly and the old
Stormont regime are as different as day and night it was a hard pill
to swallow after campaigning for over twenty years on a ``no return to
Stormont'' banner. So was the proposal to replace Articles 2 and 3
with a new definition of the Irish nation based on its people rather
than its territory, in return for the British government scrapping
the 1920 Government of Ireland Act which partitioned this country.
But republicans are used to taking and making hard decisions. We do
so on the basis that they advance the struggle for a united and
independent Ireland.
Prior to this year everyone knew his or her role in the liberation
struggle. It was clearly defined. You were either on the streets,
preparing to be there or carrying out other duties in Sinn Fein or
the IRA.
The context within which the liberation struggle was waged is slowly
changing. Now republicans are on the threshold of achieving real
political power. For the first time since 1918 a radical republican
presence will be in national and regional institutions - the northern
Executive and the All-Ireland Council - institutions which will
govern the lives of the people who live on this island.
For the first time since partition there is a real chance that the
armed wing of unionism (which played such a central role in forcing
nationalists to lower their political horizons - until 1969 and the
emergence of this republican generation) will be removed and replaced
with a normal, unarmed police service which nationalists and
republicans can join. The replacement of the RUC and the removal of
the RIR will put nationalists and unionists on an equal political
footing in the Six Counties.
For the first time in the 800 year old turbulent relationship between
these islands there is a real chance that the British gun will go
home and the Irish ones will remain forever silent. In such a
non-belligerent and non-threatening atmosphere the central ideal of
the United Irishmen, of uniting Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter,
becomes possible in a peaceful and democratic environment. This in my
view, in the fullness of time, will be the enduring legacy of 1998.
In this bicentenary year of the 1798 Rebellion there is the prospect
of moving the two great Irish traditions, nationalism and unionism,
closer together. In this way the ancient enmity and animosities can
be overcome, and the road paved to a new, agreed, shared independent
country. The Good Friday Agreement is the framework within which all
this can happen.
But much else needs to happen to facilitate this development. The
far-reaching change heralded by the Good Friday Agreement must be
visible.
Sinn Fein must be in government without any preconditions; equality
must deliver for nationalists in the field of employment, and with
respect to our cultural identity, language and ethos. The Irish
tricolour and other nationalist symbols and emblems must be
recognised and accepted wherever unionist and British symbols are on
display.
There must be no glass ceilings for nationalists; nationalists must
have ready access to every sector of society in the Six Counties. A
human rights culture must pervade all elements of the administration
of justice removing the paraphernalia of war which has maintained
partition.
The All-Ireland institutions must be substantial and dynamic, capable
of being an engine to peacefully bring us into a united and
independent Ireland. All barriers based on artifical majorities and
vetoes must be removed.
At a personal level it has been a challenging year. The pressure has
at times been unbearable for all involved, particularly in the week
leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. But being there and being
part of a team of republicans which helped negotiate a mould-breaking
agreement, which has the potential to end armed conflict, makes me
feel both humble and proud.
It was an honour to watch people with whom I've spent my entire
political, and dare I say it, adult life, rise to the challenge of
that week. Their skill as instinctive - as opposed to trained -
negotiators was a revelation in itself. In a hothouse atmosphere they
remained cool, they absorbed and refined the fine detail of numerous
position and made them acceptable.
The path to Sinn Fein's rooms was well-trodden, night and day, that
week, by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, Mo Mowlam, John Hume, John
Alderdice and their many, many negotiating teams. Transatlantic
phone-calls to President Clinton were a part of the negotiating
tapestry.
The republican struggle was served with the expected distinction that
week and since. It is quite clear, whether republicans are in prison,
on the streets or in the negotiating chambers in Belfast, London,
Dublin or Washington, the struggle for a united Ireland will
continue.
Looking back on that week, it was a whirlwind of people, papers,
meetings and millions of words. And overlooking it all in the Sinn
Fein negotiators' room was the portrait of Bobby Sands.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)