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10.15am

British army ends

Northern Ireland operation

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Weaver and agencies

The British army's longest continuous military operation comes to an end at midnight tonight when responsibility for security in Northern Ireland passes to the police.

Operation Banner lasted 38 years and involved 300,000 personnel, of which 763 were killed by paramilitaries. The last soldier to die was Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, who was shot at a vehicle checkpoint in 1997.

From tomorrow there will still be a garrison of 5,000 troops in Ulster, but they will not be on active operations and will be available for deployment anywhere in the world.

Security will become the responsibility of the Northern Ireland police, and the British soldiers will have a limited role in supporting them.

The armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth said: "August 1 marks the beginning of a new era for the UK armed forces in Northern Ireland when, as with other parts of the country, the military will become very much part of the community."

In a statement to MPs he added: "The impact of the commitment since 1969 has been considerable on both the military themselves and on the MoD civilians supporting them.

"They and the community at large have suffered both death and injury.

"We should take this opportunity to remember the commitment, bravery and sacrifice of all those who have served over so many years in helping deliver the current, more settled and more optimistic circumstances."

Jeffrey Donaldson, the senior Democratic Unionist MP, said political progress in Northern Ireland would not have occurred without the British army.

"We would not have got to the place we are in today with a relative degree of peace had it not been for the contribution of the army in holding the line during what was a very intensive terrorist campaign.

"I believe the army has achieved its objective in Northern Ireland in supporting the police in combating terrorism."

But he warned that the troop presence in Ulster might have to increase in the future, if the peace is broken.

"We must not be complacent. We need to ensure we have the capacity, should the need arise, for the army to step into the breach to protect Northern Ireland. Hopefully, that will not need to happen.

    British army ends Northern Ireland operation, G, 31.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2138431,00.html

Analysis

Army learned insurgency lessons

from Northern Ireland

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Richard Norton Taylor
and Owen Bowcott

Operation Banner began in August 1969. Over the subsequent years, the army learned lessons which military commanders say are highly relevant to current counter-insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US military machine did not because it did not share the experience of Northern Ireland. Consequently, American generals say they learned much from their British counterparts when they drew up their new field manual, which was published last month.

In what the government calls the "normalisation" of Northern Ireland, 5,000 British troops will continue to be stationed there, spread over 10 locations. At the height of the Troubles in 1972, after Bloody Sunday, 27,000 British troops were based in more than 100 military sites.

A total of 763 soldiers were killed during that time. They included more than 50 from the disbanded home service Royal Irish Regiment, formed in 1992 from the amalgamation of the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish Rangers. The new garrison will consist of units of 19 Light Brigade, RAF personnel, and a new territorial unit - 38 (Irish) Brigade.

In its internal review of Operation Banner, recently released under the Freedom of Information Act, the army says it learned from its own mistakes - and in the case of Bloody Sunday, much worse. Its report echoed what military chiefs now say about Britain's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. There can be no military solution to counter-insurgency campaigns, and no talk of a military "victory", it said. Political, economic, and social, progress, not military occupation, are the answers.

"Unless the causes of unrest are addressed, insurgency or serious unrest will continue," the army concluded in its report on Operation Banner. It drove home the point that army commanders were always against internment without trial, and referred to the Blair government's failure to extend the limit on arrest without charge to 90 days.

It added: "Release of those interned would have been inevitable at some stage and the information operations opportunities afforded to sympathisers, and libertarians in a democracy, would have been huge (as the US authorities are finding over the Guantánamo detainees)".

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, having kept a deliberately low profile since the IRA and loyalist ceasefires in 1997, army trucks and vehicles may now, paradoxically, become more visible as they go about routine training duties.

    Army learned insurgency lessons from Northern Ireland, G, 31.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2138491,00.html

10.45am

Operation Banner, 1969-2007

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver and agencies


Operation Banner, the British army's longest continuous campaign, comes to a close at midnight tonight after 38 years.

The military operation to assist the police began in Northern Ireland when the Troubles flared up, in 1969. In total, 763 soldiers would go on to die as a direct result of terrorism in the conflict with republican paramilitaries.

During the course of the operation, the army was also accused of murdering civilians, including the 13 who were shot dead on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

A normal peacetime garrison of around 5,000 troops will stay in Northern Ireland. Below are key events in the history of Operation Banner.

1969

The loyalist marching season sparks violence in Derry in July, which worsens after the annual Apprentice Boys march in the city in August.

After three days of confrontation, known as the Battle of the Bogside, the British government decides to deploy troops to help the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

At first, Catholic opinion, including the church and the old Nationalist party, broadly accepts the presence of the army as necessary for the restoration of law and order and the defence of Catholic areas in Derry.

1970

Troops are involved in clashes in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. General Officer Commanding Sir Ian Freeland warns that soldiers will shoot to kill at anyone holding petrol bombs or guns.

A military curfew on the nationalist Falls Road in west Belfast prompts a gun battle with the Official IRA.

British army actions cause six deaths.

1971

In February, the IRA shoots dead the first soldier, and Major James Chichester resigns as Northern Ireland's prime minister after Edward Heath refuses his request for more troops.

A total of 44 soldiers and five Ulster Defence Regiment members are killed this year. The British army, meanwhile, kills 45 people.

1972

Paratroops deployed at the request of the Stormont government shoot dead 13 men during a civil rights march in Derry on January 30.

The event becomes known as Bloody Sunday and is condemned around the world. The killings galvanise IRA recruitment. The Irish government lodges protests, and rioters burn the British embassy in Dublin.

The Official IRA's revenge bombing of the Aldershot headquarters of the Parachute Regiment, which carried out the Derry shootings, kills several civilians.

By July, there have been some 20 IRA bomb attacks in Belfast city centre. The army launches Operation Motorman, a strategy to try and end the existence of republican "no go" areas, including Derry's Bogside. This prompts more IRA bombings.

By this time, there are some 21,000 troops in the province.

1974

Troops distribute petrol in May after the hardline Ulster Workers' Council calls a stoppage of loyalists working at power stations in protest at power-sharing with nationalists.

The coalition collapses, and ministers are accused of not using the army soon enough.

1976

The government announces the deployment of extra troops after the IRA kills 10 Protestant workers at Kingsmill, Co Armagh.

In May, a private at Fort George, Co Londonderry, shoots and kills a 20-year-old Catholic as he sits on a bus.

1979

In August, an IRA ambush using landmines at Warrenpoint, Co Down, kills 18 soldiers. The first bomb, an 800 lb device, detonates in a trailer at the side of the road near Carlingford Lough, the boundary with the republic. Then IRA men watching from the southern shoreline open fire. The army returns rounds, and a bystander, English holidaymaker Michael Hudson, is killed in the crossfire.

The attack comes hours after the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bomb attack in Donegal Bay, Co Sligo, in the Irish Republic.

1982

A republican splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army, kills 17 people at the Droppin Well pub, Ballykelly, Co Londonderry. The dead include 11 soldiers based in the garrison town.

1987

The SAS ambushes and kills eight IRA men as they attempt to blow up a part-time police station at Loughgall, Co Armagh. The IRA rakes the barracks with gunfire and uses a digger to carry a bomb it intended to destroy the site. The SAS fires at least 600 shots.

1988

The SAS kills three unarmed IRA members in Gibraltar in March. Loyalist gunman Michael Stone kills three more people when he attacks a funeral for the dead republicans at Milltown cemetery, west Belfast.

When two soldiers drive into the funeral of one of Stone's victims, they are attacked by the crowd, beaten and shot dead.

1989

The senior Metropolitan police commander, Sir John Stevens, heads an inquiry into collusion between members of the security forces in Northern Ireland and loyalists.

The investigation comes after allegations of collusion between the security forces and loyalist killers in a number of sectarian murders, including the shooting dead of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

1996

In October, two IRA bombs explode inside the army's headquarters in Lisburn, Co Down, killing one soldier.

1997

Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, 23, is killed while manning a checkpoint at Bessbrook, south Armagh, in February. Shot dead by IRA sniper Bernard McGinn, he will be the last soldier to die in the conflict.

2003

In April, Sir John Stevens submits the final report in his investigation into collusion. He finds that members of the British army and police have colluded with the Ulster Defence Association. The Force Research Unit, a shadowy unit in the British army, is linked to handling agents and informants.

2005

In August, the former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain announces a two-year demilitarisation programme after the IRA decides to stand down.

The Royal Irish Regiment's Northern Ireland-based units are to be disbanded and thousands of members made redundant.

The decision is made for the level of British troops to fall to 5,000, leaving a peacetime garrison that would be available for deployment around the world.

Later that year, the first watchtower, Cloghogue, near the border with the Irish Republic, is demolished.

2007

In July, the army's last south Armagh stronghold, at Bessbrook, is closed. Army chiefs confirm Operation Banner will formally end on July 31.

    Operation Banner, 1969-2007, G, 31.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2138447,00.html

About turn

Mick Fealty
July 31, 2007 2:00 PM
The Guardian


I was just ten when British troops first emerged onto the streets of Belfast and Derry, in a world that was then dominated by black and white television. To be honest, I don't remember a great deal of detail from those times, except that I saw my first (and only) "civilian" gunman in the Bogside area, in Derry, as my father and younger brother and I drove home from visiting family across the border in Donegal.

Deployment came right in the middle of four days of rioting, looting, shooting and burning in August 1969, and just after the Republic's Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, had moved Irish army hospital units to fields just outside Letterkenny - which we also passed on our way home that summer. By the end of those four days, eight people were dead and 750 injured.

Serious rioting began in the lower Falls area of Belfast with crowds of demonstrators targeting an RUC station (and a Protestant owned car dealership), apparently in support of residents in the Bogside. But it was to be the Catholic Falls that took the brunt of a Protestant backlash from the nearby Shankill Road. Within those few days, 1,505 Catholic families and 315 Protestant families fled their homes. A whole street, Bombay Street, was burned to the ground. A further 275 commercial premises were badly damaged or destroyed, of which 83% were Catholic.

Nearer to home, a "raiding party" came down from Belfast to search out Catholic-owned businesses in my home town for "special attention". They were politely but firmly turned away by Protestant regulars in my father's pub. But Northern Ireland was never to be quite the same again.

Whatever legitimate criticism of troop conduct and behaviour was made afterwards, one thing is clear: the troops didn't cause the initial descent into disorder. That came as part of what some might term the inevitable breakdown of relations between a deeply conservative and almost exclusively Protestant government (struggling between demands for universal suffrage and action against discrimination, and shrill, often apocalyptical, loyalism on the other) and a substantial, but increasingly disillusioned Catholic minority.

Paraphrasing Yeats, "things fell apart, the centre could not hold".

But if British troops didn't cause it, neither were they to pour balm on the situation. Their role that summer of simply setting themselves between Catholic communities and the police or loyalists brought them a large degree of local popularity. But it was a popularity that spectacularly disappeared the following year with a three-day military clamp down on the Falls that dispersed the last vein of public sympathy and turned much of West Belfast into a fertile recruiting ground for a newly constituted Provisional IRA.

As Fintan O'Toole notes, in today's Irish Times, from that time on, if not before:

Both militarily and ideologically, the army was a player, not a referee. As with the paramilitaries, most of the people it killed were civilians: of the 301 people who died at the hands of the British army, 121 were republican paramilitaries and 10 were loyalist paramilitaries. Just as deadly in its own way, though, was the extent to which the army's presence and actions actually supported the IRA's definition of the conflict.

It arrived with a colonial mentality, viewing Northern Ireland as another field for the operations it had run in Malaya, Kenya, Aden and Cyprus and identifying Catholics as the suspect population. (The army's assessment actually confirms what sounded like an apocryphal story that banners used in both Derry and Belfast to order rioters to disperse were written in Arabic.) This turned a complex, largely internecine conflict into an "anti-imperialist struggle" and it took the IRA 30 years to realise that it was fighting the wrong war.

As a family, we came out of the 30-year conflict relatively unscathed. It was like that for a lot of people. You learned to steer clear of trouble: keep your mouth shut, your head low, and pray that it would all come to an end soon.

But for people in communities like those around the Falls Road (rendered almost exclusively Catholic by the movement of nearly 4,000 families in the first few years of the conflict), the "cat and mouse" game between British Army and IRA became a way of life, if little understood or cared about by those outside those districts. It inflicted death and injury tolls that were proportionately much higher than for those enjoying relatively normal lives elsewhere. For them, the war with the British (and, at times, more often, with their Protestant neighbours) was at its most real. If it did not yield the absolute victory many hoped (and died) for, it produced a harder, more uncompromising, form of nationalist politics.

In 1969, few of us expected it would be "over by Christmas". But neither did we think it would go on long enough to shape our teenage and adult lives in quite the way that it did. In the end, the British Army has slowly left the streets, towns and villages of Northern Ireland, in calmer circumstances than those in which it arrived. The peace we feared we'd lost forever in the fearsome tumult of those early days has long since sneaked in through the backdoor, almost unnoticed.

It is with some relief that most of Northern Ireland's citizen's watch the British Army turn its attention elsewhere in the world. And with some hope that its political masters have learned some signal lessons. Alex Evans quotes Martin Van Creveld:

The most important insight of all, though, [came] over dinner in Geneva in 1995. My partner on that occasion was a British colonel, regiment of paratroopers, who had done several tours of duty in Northern Ireland. What he said can be summed up as follows: the struggle in Northern Ireland had cost the United Kingdom 3,000 casualties in dead alone. Of the 3,000, about 1,700 were civilians ... of the remaining, 1,000 were British soldiers. No more than 300 were terrorists, a ratio of three to one. Speaking very softly, he said: "And that is why we are still there."

    About turn, G, 31.7.2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mick_fealty/2007/07/about_turn.html

Leading Article: Imperfect, but indispensable

Published: 31 July 2007
The Independent

In 1969, when troops were sent into Northern Ireland, a pessimist was somebody who thought it might take months to get them out again. Nobody predicted their stay would last not months, not years, but almost four decades.

Today, as that 38-year deployment comes to an end, nobody is celebrating that campaign. The prevailing sense is rather one of relief that it is finally over, mingled with much regret that it took so long and cost so many lives.

The military took on the toughest of tasks by going in. When the troops arrived, law and order was on the point of breaking down in parts of Belfast and Londonderry, with local police exhausted and mobs on the rampage.

In those innocent early days it was assumed that the military intervention would quell the trouble and that, with the streets quietened, something could be worked out politically. Instead, the years that followed saw a descent into large-scale terrorism and murder. The apparently straightforward nature of the original military mission was soon lost as republicans, loyalist extremists and the Army became locked in a violent three-way conflict.

One of the great pities of the Troubles was that the Army, which was supposed to be part of the solution, quickly came to be seen by Catholics and nationalists as part of the problem. It is unprovable but quite probable that, without the continuing presence of tens of thousands of troops, the violence of the past four decades would have been much more uninhibited and the bloodshed much worse.

Yet at certain points, military actions brought about an escalation of the conflict, most notably the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in which soldiers shot dead 14 nationalists during a protest march. In all, troops killed some 300 people: many were IRA members, but many were not. The Army was ill-served by the long-standing official approach of defending troops even when they were plainly in the wrong. That inevitably fuelled the existing sense of nationalist injustice.

The Army itself sustained 500 fatalities, while another 500 locally-recruited military and police also died. To this grim toll can be added many thousands more who suffered wounds and traumas, for in all more than 300,000 military personnel served in Northern Ireland.

All this means that the Army's record - as is the case for practically every institution caught up in the Troubles - was imperfect. Yet its presence was also indispensable. While its long hard slog often seemed endless, it was one of the factors which combined to make Belfast's politicians realise that outright victory was not a possibility, and that the time had come for the present compromise.

    Leading Article: Imperfect, but indispensable, I, 31.7.2007, http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2819566.ece

Shoot to kill inquiry to be reopened

Northern Ireland police ombudsman
will re-examine John Stalker files

Friday July 20, 2007
Guardian
Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent

One of the most controversial inquiries of the Troubles, involving claims that police officers in Northern Ireland secretly adopted a "shoot to kill" policy, has been reopened, the Guardian has learned.

The allegations that republican terrorist suspects were deliberately killed rather than being arrested led to an investigation by John Stalker, then deputy chief constable of Manchester, in the mid 1980s. But his report was never published, and there was political uproar after he was removed from his post just at the point where he believed he was about to obtain an MI5 tape of one of the shootings.

Now the files he compiled are being re-examined by the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, who will decide whether to launch a new investigation. In an interview with the Guardian, Nuala O'Loan revealed that she had been asked by the government to see whether there are legal grounds to reopen the inquiry, focusing on the killing in 1982 of Gervaise McKerr.

McKerr was shot dead alongside two other unarmed IRA men - Sean Burns and Eugene Toman - by Royal Ulster Constabulary officers following a chase through a checkpoint near Lurgan in 1982. Their car was riddled with 109 bullets.

The British government has always denied the security forces had a shoot to kill policy, and has resisted repeated calls from families to look again at what happened.

Three years ago, the House of Lords blocked an attempt to order a fresh investigation. But pressure to look into the matter has come from the Council of Europe, which has requested that the UK rectify previous investigative failures.

Any new investigation could focus on whether there was an explicit shoot to kill policy, and whether there was any attempt to tamper with evidence before Mr Stalker mounted his inquiry.

It would also provide encouragement to families who have been seeking compensation for what they have alleged were unlawful killings.

The government has referred the issue back to Mrs O'Loan. It has told the Council of Europe that the McKerr case "is now a matter for the police ombudsman who is responsible for investigating deaths as a result of actions of police officers. She will identify possible further evidentiary opportunities and will look into the original police investigation ... the ombudsman has given an assurance to expedite the case as best she can". There is no time limit on inquiries into the past.

Any reinvestigation would be complex because three police officers were acquitted of the killings more than 20 years ago. But at her office in Belfast, Mrs O'Loan confirmed the files were now with her. "The government has asked us to look at McKerr. It's quite complex whether we have the legal power to investigate or not. Police officers were charged with murder and acquitted.

"The law says you can't reinvestigate if there's been a previous hearing. But it may be there are other issues that need to be investigated."

Mrs O'Loan is not yet sure whether she will have the resources or legal authority to do so. But she recognises that the inquiry might finally put to rest one of the most poisonous controversies of the Troubles.

The series of alleged shoot to kill incidents in question all involved RUC headquarters mobile support units in Co Armagh during November and December 1982. The first resulted in the deaths of McKerr, Burns and Toman; the second led to the death of Michael Tighe, shot on a farm near an IRA arms cache; and the third involved the killing of two INLA members, Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll, at another checkpoint.

Mr Stalker was brought in to investigate the shootings. He was removed from the inquiry shortly before it was due to report in 1986 - taken off the case at the moment he believed he was about to obtain an MI5 tape of one of the shootings.

He was suspended over allegations of associating with criminals in Manchester, but was later cleared. The move generated public suspicion about the motives for his departure and a political furore in parliament. His report has never been published.

Jane Winter, of British Irish Rights Watch, who has been closely involved with the case, said: "We welcome the fact that the ombudsman is looking at the police misconduct allegation, but we think the McKerr family should have got a proper international judicial inquiry. She cannot reinvestigate the murders from the top down or whether politicians sanctioned this operation."

The McKerr family has pursued legal actions through the European courts, claiming that Gervaise was deprived of his life intentionally in breach of his human rights.

In his book, Stalker, published in 1988, the former deputy chief constable revealed that when he examined the McKerr car 21 months after the shooting, he found fragments of a bullet still embedded in the vehicle, suggesting vital evidence had been ignored. Cartridge cases, he alleged, had also disappeared from the scene.

    Shoot to kill inquiry to be reopened, G, 20.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2130705,00.html

1.30pm update

No officers to be charged

over Finucane murder

Monday June 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver and agencies

No former RUC police officers or soldiers will be charged in connection with the loyalist murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane, despite evidence of security forces collusion, it was confirmed today.

Loyalist gunmen targeted Mr Finucane, a Catholic who had represented many senior republicans and a number of IRA men in court.

The 39-year-old was eating a Sunday meal with his wife, Geraldine, and three children when two masked Ulster Defence Association (UDA) gunmen broke down the door of his north Belfast home with sledgehammers in February 1998.

Once inside, the gunmen shot him 14 times before escaping in a stolen taxi.

The murder remains one of the most controversial of Northern Ireland's Troubles.

A four-year inquiry by the former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens, which reported back in 2003, found that members of the security forces colluded in the murder.

It said at least six UDA terrorists involved in the killing were also either agents of Special Branch or the British army's secretive Force Research Unit (FRU).

Today, however, Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said that while a wide range of offences had been considered against a number of individuals, there was not enough evidence to bring charges. Nine former members of the FRU, including its ex-chief Gordon Kerr, were questioned by the Stevens inquiry, as well as seven police officers and one civilian.

The UDA men who were working for the intelligence services at the time included: Brian Nelson, who supplied information to the FRU; Ken Barrett, who later admitted shooting Mr Finucane; and William Stobie, an RUC informer later shot dead by loyalists when they feared he was about to testify against them.

Barrett, a former Special Branch informer, was jailed for 22 years in 2004 for Mr Finucane's murder. He was released in May last year under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, after a ruling by the sentences review commission, despite opposition by the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain.

Barrett has described his emotions after killing Mr Finucane, saying: "I lost no sleep over it. All is fair in love and war. I have to be honest, I whacked a few people in the past."

The Stevens report said informants and agents were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in terrorist crimes. The former Met chief also said his investigations were wilfully obstructed and misled.

Today, the PPS assistant director, Pamela Atchison, said: "Some of the difficulties [in bringing charges] included an absence of particular records, potential witnesses who had since died and the inability in certain instances to identify the role and responsibilities that individuals played in specific events.

"In addition, the prosecution had to take account of potential abuse of process arguments by the defence that any trial at this stage would be unfair."

    No officers to be charged over Finucane murder, G, 25.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2110996,00.html

The miracle of Belfast

After 40 years of hatred, the veteran Protestant demagogue and the ex-IRA commander pledge to share power in Northern Ireland

Published: 09 May 2007
The Independent
By David McKittrick

It is the closest thing to a miracle that Belfast has seen: the sight of the two veterans, Protestant patriarch and iconic republican, standing shoulder-to-shoulder to vow that they will leave the past behind.

It flew in the face of all history, all experience and all intuition to think of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness promising to run Northern Ireland together for the benefit of all its people.

Reporting in Belfast for many years, I had watched the pair at close quarters, but until recently never dreamt they could get together: they seemed to occupy different political planets. Yet it happened. Two warriors of the Troubles, whose natural habitat seemed to be conflict, stood side-by-side in Stormont and affirmed to the world that the war is over and that a new era of co-operation is at hand.

Another minor miracle was that they did so with every appearance of enthusiasm and mutual respect. Far from any hint of reluctance, they projected that they are looking forward to a new era with great relish. For a Belfast journalist this is all very confusing and disorientating. They were so far apart that they only rarely bothered to attack each other: they simply were hardly on each other's radar screens.

Over the years I heard them, repeatedly and routinely, send out the message that there would be no compromise, no sell-out, no surrender. But now there is a new rhetoric and all of the old certainties are disappearing.

Ian Paisley, now Northern Ireland's First Minister, spoke of "a time when hate will no longer rule". Martin McGuinness, ex-IRA and now his new deputy, spoke of peace and reconciliation. They both clearly meant it.

Few doubt these guys could have fought on forever, fortified by all the centuries of antagonism, yet the peace process came along to rescue them, and Northern Ireland. Among those who regard it all as a bit of a miracle was Mr Paisley himself, the one-time opponent of the peace process who was sworn in to head it yesterday.

In Stormont, the scene of so many failed initiatives which has finally become the scene of a spectacularly successful one, Mr Paisley began his speech by saying: "If you had told me some time ago that I would be standing here to take this office, I would have been totally unbelieving." Witnessing this were two prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, basking yesterday in their status as those who stuck with the peace process against such odds and steered it through so many crises.

Yet the recent history of the process, after years of taking two steps forward followed by one step back, has been studded not with setbacks but with minor miracles. The IRA has gone away, and the big loyalist groups are fading. Anglo-Irish relations are in a golden era, Unionists are developing friendly relations with the Irish Republic. Soldiers have disappeared from the streets, republicans support the police, and there are few funerals.

Northern Ireland suffered through 3,700 deaths: for a journalist, the reporting of breakthroughs must always be tempered by the knowledge that, brighter future or not, the new era will not restore those lost lives. Yet there are now many minor miracles, along with the new acceptance that the two sides should share power. This settlement received overwhelming endorsement in a recent election. The world, and almost everyone in Northern Ireland, now simply wants the Paisley-McGuinness alliance to get on with it.

And if Mr McGuinness can casually stroll into Mr Paisley's Stormont office, as he did yesterday, then it is difficult for any doubters to argue that he is unfit for government office.

Already the two are working closely together and presenting a common front against the first thing they have identified as a common target: Gordon Brown. They want a peace dividend, and the fact that their campaign is a joint one means Mr Brown will find it hard to send them away empty-handed.

In the Assembly the day was a mixture of the humdrum and the near-miraculous. In a relaxed atmosphere, the former Speaker was thanked and a new one sworn in, together with several deputies. Ministers took the pledge of office, with Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness installed in the two top jobs and 10 others appointed to head departments. This meant that devolution had "gone live".

The two prime ministers watched approvinglyfrom the public gallery, then went along to the new First Minister's comfortable corner office to take tea with the new McGuinness-Paisley partnership. Then the four walked together down the marble steps of Stormont's Great Hall to hear a song - "You lift me up" - before delivering brief speeches. Tony Blair, paying tribute to Bertie Ahern, said Northern Ireland now had the chance to "shake off those heavy chains of history" which had been scarred by hardship and conflict.

The Taoiseach declared: "Tony Blair has been a true friend of peace, and a true friend of Ireland. For 10 tough years, he has spent more time dealing with the issues of the island of Ireland than any person ever could have asked any other person to do."

Years ago an astute observer of Northern Ireland forecast that progress would eventually come in a rush. He quoted Ogden Nash: "Shake and shake the ketchup bottle; first none will come and then a lot'll." It is not, I know, great poetry, but it does capture the sense that when a breakthrough does come, after years of frustrating apparent stagnation, it can come on a scale verging on the miraculous.

Mr Paisley in particular is - aged 81 or not - clearly raring to go as in effect Northern Ireland's prime minister, and is utterly unabashed by having a former IRA leader by his side. I know he can be a highly comic character, and yesterday he deployed his occasionally self-deprecating sense of humour, chatting away to the prime ministers and Mr McGuinness as they sat on a sofa and armchairs and sipped tea for the television cameras.

"I wonder why people hate me," he said with a chuckle, "when I'm such a nice man." Mr Blair, polite and pleasant, maintained that he would miss their meetings together: no one expressed incredulity. As they all smiled, it occurred to me that the troubles were ending not with a bang, but a cuppa.

But Mr Paisley has already warned that the new Northern Ireland is not going to be a paradise. No longer will local politicians be able to leave thorny issues in education or agriculture to London to sort out: from now on, the buck will stop with them.

At some stage they will have to confront the question of segregation in the cities, where almost 60 "Peace Lines," some of them 30ft high, divide hardline loyalist and republican areas. They are the starkest illustration of the fact that hardly any of the Protestant and Catholic working classes of Belfast live side by side, instead living in segregated districts and attending separate schools: the kids don't know each other.

Some hope the new administration will tackle this most sensitive and deep-rooted of problems. But all recognise that it will not be solved quickly, for such divisions have been a feature of life in Belfast for well over a century. The most optimistic just hope that an amicable Paisley-McGuinness relationship will help by setting a new tone.

In the meantime, it does the heart good to chart the progress of Mr Paisley from the one-time firebrand who seemed to revel in discord to the figure who, after his late-life odyssey, declared: "That was yesterday. Today is today." And when he spoke of looking forward to "wonderful healing", his language irresistibly recalled the lines of the poet Seamus Heaney, which were written years ago but which could have been inspired by the events of yesterday:

"So hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge/ Believe that a further shore is reachable from here/Believe in miracles and cures and healing wells."

'The day of tribal politics here is gone'

In Stormont, the atmosphere was one of back-slapping bonhomie. But a few miles away on the streets of Belfast, those who lived on the front line of the Troubles knew better than to celebrate too eagerly.

The "Peace Lines", a series of barriers that have separated Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast for 35 years, remain the most enduring symbols of the division in Northern Ireland. Yesterday, those who live either side of them had a suitably blunt message for their newly anointed rulers - "Get on with it."

Tommy Williamson's home stands in the shadow of one of the 25ft walls that divides him from his Catholic neighbours. He said: "I hope to God it works this time. It has to because people like me want it too work. Politicians here need to get on with the job they were elected to do.

"The day of tribal politics here is gone, thank God."

Across the barrier, Michael Connery, a Catholic student, expressed a similar concern that progress in Stormont has yet to be reflected in the reality of life among ordinary people.

He said: "Just because Sinn Fein and the DUP have agreed to a return of the Assembly doesn't mean our communities are not still divided. Segregation is a problem that has to be addressed. Until the barriers come down and people really learn to live alongside each other then I think political progress will be limited."

But while any optimism was bound to be cautious, there was a firm belief that the co-habitation of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness made the demolition of the Peace Lines a distinct possibility as well as a long-held aspiration. Mr Williamson said: "It symbolises segregation and segregation institutionalises sectarianism.

"I remember my Dad saying to me 'good fences make good neighbours Tommy'. But he was wrong. Segregation has ruined this community."

From bloodshed to partnership

1998

June: Elections for power-sharing assembly. UUP leader David Trimble is First Minister-designate

August: Real IRA car bomb in Omagh kills 29 people in the worst single attack of the conflict.

1999

December: Devolved government returns to Northern Ireland after 27 years of rule from London.

2000

February: London suspends power-sharing assembly after IRA's failure to disarm.

May: IRA says it will store weapons. Britain restores power to Belfast.

2001

July: Trimble resigns over IRA's failure to disarm.

2002

October: Sinn Fein Stormont offices raided by police investigating an alleged IRA spy ring. Power-sharing suspended after arrest of Sinn Fein's head of administration.

2003

October: Trimble claims lack of transparency in IRA's disarmament meant he could not deliver his end of the deal.

November: The DUP emerges as largest party in Assembly elections. Ian Paisley warns he will not sit in government with republicans until IRA disarms and disbands.

2004

June: Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern set September deadline to end an impasse, but talks grind to a halt before the end of the year.

2005

April: Sinn Fein calls on the IRA to end its armed campaign after a series of high-profile crimes.

July: The IRA says it has ordered its members to dump all arms.

September: Independent witnesses confirm the IRA has disarmed.

December: Denis Donaldson confesses to being a British spy.

2006

April: Denis Donaldson is shot dead. The IRA denies involvement.

April 6: Blair and Ahern launch talks for reviving self-rule.

2007

January: Sinn Fein declares it supports the Protestant-dominated Police Service, a key condition.

March: Paisley and Gerry Adams hold first face-to-face meeting at Stormont between their parties and announce a deal to revive power-sharing on 8 May.

The new power structure

Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, was sworn in yesterday as Northern Ireland's First Minister, leading the first power-sharing government in the province for five years.

The former IRA member Martin McGuinness, a senior Sinn Fein negotiator, was sworn in as Deputy First Minister. Both men were elected unopposed.

William Hay of the DUP was elected as Speaker.

Mr McGuinness and Mr Paisley will head a power-sharing executive whose 12 members have been drawn from the four main parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont.

The 108-seat assembly was set-up under the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, but was dogged by arguments over IRA disarmament, and power was not transferred from London to Belfast until December 1999.

Since then, direct rule from London was reintroduced four times, most recently in 2002 following allegations of Republican intelligence-gathering at Stormont.

The Northern Ireland executive will have power over local affairs including education and health, but London will retain sovereignty over the province.

In the new executive, the DUP has four ministers handling finance, the economy, environment and culture. Sinn Fein took control of regional development, agriculture and education. Ulster Unionist ministers will handle employment and health, while the SDLP has social development.

    The miracle of Belfast, I, 9.5.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article2524445.ece

Peter Hain: Hard questions for Paisley and McGuinness

When I took office I was dismayed to find the province so dependent on the public sector

Published: 09 May 2007
The Independent

It was a historic day - a day which even the most optimistic observer of Northern Ireland's bitter and bloody past thought they would never witness. As the world looked on, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness took the pledge of office as Northern Ireland's new First and Deputy First Ministers and heralded the start of a new democratic future.

The dawning of this new beginning saw old friends of the peace process return to Parliament Buildings. There, they saw two men from very different traditions, sworn enemies, proving that the events of the past do not have to be a barrier to a better, shared future.

That shared future started yesterday, when the DUP and Sinn Fein formally entered a power-sharing executive. They have agreed, along with Northern Ireland's other locally elected politicians, to take responsibility for the future, and this new political reality has finally given the people of Northern Ireland what they have both voted for and deserved.

I have no doubt that the new Assembly will work and the people will feel the benefits of a devolved government. Yes, there will be bumps and hiccups along the way, but that's a fact of life when in government.

I have now passed responsibility for bread-and-butter issues - such as education, health, the environment, investment and agriculture - to locally elected and accountable politicians, working on behalf of the people who put them into power. Direct Rule has finally come to an end and I cannot foresee the circumstances in which it would ever return. Northern Ireland has moved on and it will not be going back to the dark days of the past.

Yesterday's restoration of the Assembly not only brought the curtain down on direct rule, it also marked the completion of Northern Ireland's amazing journey away from conflict and towards peace.

The historic pictures at Parliament Buildings, of Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister sitting side by side, provided the most visible expression to the principle on which the peace process has been based: the acceptance that the future of Northern Ireland can only be governed successfully by both communities working together.

The great media presence there to record history has gone, and behind the doors of parliament buildings the real work of government begins. The new Assembly and Executive will not want for challenges. When I became Secretary of State two years ago, I was astonished and dismayed to find that Northern Ireland was, and still is, heavily dependent on the public sector.

And so while there are record levels of employment, with rising house prices an indicator of increasing prosperity, there is a need to rebalance the economy to make it sustainable in the long term. That means more inward investment, more growth for indigenous companies and greater encouragement for entrepreneurs.

The deal negotiated with the Chancellor will not only see more new money going in but, crucially, the Executive can plan ahead in the certainty that its budget is fixed and, if it moves at all, it will increase. Nowhere else in the UK has been given that commitment.

But there will have to be a lot of smart work to equip Northern Ireland to face the global challenges from eastern Europe, India and China. I have often said Northern Ireland can be world class, and I still believe that, but it won't happen of its own accord and it won't happen overnight. The new Assembly and Executive have to make it happen.

Equally, there are fundamental issues around education that need to be addressed urgently. At the top end, Northern Ireland schools have an enviable record of high academic achievement. But there are also far too many young people who leave school with no qualifications. My own firm conviction is that having a system of academic selection that brands the majority of children aged 10 or 11 as failures is morally, politically and educationally indefensible. The new Executive and Assembly will have to decide on the future shape of education, so that all children can have the opportunity to develop their potential.

And so it will be across the range of issues on the environment, health and agriculture, that up until yesterday I and my ministerial team had to deal with.

I have been a passionate advocate of local democracy through devolution. It has been a privilege to have been able to play a part in bringing it to Northern Ireland.

Never has a minister so eagerly anticipated losing power, and never was it handed over with a more glad heart.

The author is Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Wales

    Peter Hain: Hard questions for Paisley and McGuinness, I, 9.5.2007, http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2524407.ece

A laugh and a look into the future as old foes join forces at last to share power at Stormont

· Paisley and McGuinness stand side by side
· Proceedings watched by Irish and US politicians

Wednesday May 9, 2007
Guardian
Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent


Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist party leader who spent decades denouncing republicans, and Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, joined together yesterday to assume office as first and deputy first ministers at the head of a new power-sharing government.
With two prime ministers and a host of American political dignitaries in the gallery watching the ceremonial opening, the Northern Ireland assembly elected a speaker, three deputy speakers and an entire ministerial team without dissent.

The extraordinary display of cross-community unity at Stormont marked a symbolic end to the Troubles and opened an era of cooperation between former enemies. Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Féin, shook hands with William Hay, the DUP assembly member (MLA) who was elected as speaker. The only conflict of the day came at the gates of Stormont when police clashed with anti-Iraq war protesters objecting to Tony Blair's presence.

The proceedings were delayed by half an hour out of respect for the memory of George Dawson, a DUP MLA who died at the weekend. When business resumed, nominations began, putting in place the politicians who had been selected for parliamentary and executive posts.

Mr Paisley nominated Mr Hay as speaker and promised that after the next election "we will be supporting a candidate drawn from the other side of the house". He had first met Mr Hay "as a young boy in short pants", he recalled. In seconding him, the DUP MP and MLA, Jeffrey Donaldson, described Mr Hay as a "stout" defender of "his home city, Londonderry". Mr Hay, who is by no means obese, took the comment in good humour and it became a shared joke among the parties, warming the atmosphere, as successive nominations were made.

Up in the gallery Mr Paisley's wife, Eileen - now a peer - sat not far from the US senator Ted Kennedy, a longtime supporter of the peace process.

On the opposite benches, behind Mr Blair and the Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was Peggy McGuinness, the mother of the Sinn Féin deputy first minister. Others in the gallery included Albert Reynolds, the former taoiseach and the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain. Father Alec Reid and the Rev Harold Good, who played influential roles in persuading paramilitary groups to renounce violence, sat nearby.

Sinn Féin MLAs who took the pledge of office began their statements in Irish. The oath included promises that ministers would "prevent discrimination", support "non-violence and exclusively peaceful means" and "uphold the rule of law".

The MLAs then moved into the marbled hall at Stormont to be addressed by Mr Paisley, Mr McGuinness, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern. Mr Paisley, who recalled being arrested on the night of the Good Friday agreement in 1998, said: "In politics as in life, it is a truism that no one can ever have 100% of what they desire ... I can say to you today that I believe Northern Ireland had come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule. How good it will be to be part of the wonderful healing in this province today."

Mr McGuinness said: "We know the road we are embarking on will have many twists and turns. It is, however, a road which we have chosen and which is supported by the vast majority of our supporters."

Mr Blair, who paid tribute to his predecessor, Sir John Major, for initiating the peace process, said: "Look back and we see centuries marked by conflict, hardship, even hatred among the people of these islands. Look forward and we see the chance to shake off those heavy chains of history."

Mr Ahern praised Mr Blair's contribution. "This was not a process that promised quick or easy rewards. But he has been a true friend of peace and a true friend of Ireland. And for that we express our heartfelt thanks." But in the hall afterwards there was no handshake between Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness.

The ministers

The line-up for Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive and their responsibilities:

Ian Paisley (DUP) First minister

Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) Deputy first minister

Peter Robinson (DUP) Finance and personnel

Nigel Dodds (DUP) Enterprise, trade and investment

Arlene Foster (DUP) Environment

Edwin Poots (DUP) Culture, arts and leisure

Catriona Ruane (Sinn Féin) Education

Conor Murphy (Sinn Féin) Regional development

Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) Agriculture

Michael McGimpsey (UUP) Health and social services

Sir Reg Empey (UUP) Employment and learning

Margaret Ritchie (SDLP) Social development

Ian Paisley Jr (DUP) and Gerry Kelly (Sinn Féin) are junior ministers in the office of first and deputy first ministers

    A laugh and a look into the future as old foes join forces at last to share power at Stormont, G, 9.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2075344,00.html

'A time to love, a time to hate, a time of war, a time of peace'

 

Wednesday May 9, 2007
Guardian
Michael White in Belfast

Tony Blair once talked in Belfast about the hand of history on his shoulder. Yesterday, it appeared to be tickling his midriff. Not just his, but all of the VIPs gathered at Stormont to install the new power-sharing executive. Whenever someone cracked a joke, they all laughed frantically.

It wasn't hard to see why. The day was a bit like one of those Hugh Grant weddings where guests are tense beneath the surface jollity, braced for something to go wrong. The two families have hated each other forever, but here were Ian and Gerry bravely trying to make a go of it. They had to wish them well.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a wedding, more a civil partnership and Martin McGuinness, not Gerry Adams, was Ian Paisley's unblushing Sinn Féin bride. The DUP leader isn't much of a civil partnership enthusiast. But, as he genially kept reminding people who didn't need reminding, his entering government with the Shinners was just as improbable until recently.

Yesterday all his oratorical power, so long a destructive force, was gracefully directed towards the common good.

Most of it anyway. Though everyone was on their best behaviour they all managed little point-scoring digs. Mr Paisley spoke of his Unionism, Mr McGuinness of his belief in a united Ireland, Mr Paisley quoted the Bible, Mr Adams's team spoke a little Irish. But the wedding went ahead.

Quoting the Old Testament's "To everything there is a season ...", Mr Paisley came to King Solomon's lines "a time to love and a time to hate/ a time of war and a time of peace". Hearing those words from that voice must have raised the hairs on the back of every Catholic neck. But he went on to affirm that "from the depth of my heart" he believes the time for peace has come. He even sounded keen to get started. He is 81 after all, entering office just as Mr Blair - 54 - is leaving it.

When his turn came to reassure anxious Protestants, Mr McGuinness quoted Seumas Heaney, the poet's warning against talking too much of Others. They must all "get to a place through Otherness," he said.

Mr McGuinness can be a menacing man. But when he wants to he can do a good twinkle. Yesterday he twinkled, so that both the ex-demagogue and the ex-gunman sounded as if they meant it.

Later, Mr Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, took their bow and patted each other's backs, as members of the Amalgamated Union of Statesmen usually do. If you think Mr Blair has problems, spare a thought for Mr Ahern, facing an election on May 24. He may end up power-sharing with Sinn Féin too.

First there were the formalities in the grandiose building, built to house what - then and now - is really a county council with attitude: 108 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), 18 of them women, elected in March, now meeting formally to vote in ministers with the much depleted Ulster Unionists' leader, Sir Reg Empey, having to nominate himself. It took just 45 minutes.

Up in the gallery sat Senator Edward Kennedy, an old volcano among the grandees and ghosts of the peace process, plus Mr McGuinness's old mum, much kissed yesterday. Shadows of the Troubles's 3,500 dead were also present, mentioned by all speakers. No Spanish civil war "pact of forgetting" here, the wounds are too raw.

Apart from the overnight death from cancer of George Dawson, a DUP MLA, everything went according to plan. It was by turn moving and banal, inspiring and weighed down by procedural tedium. But it was normal and that is what the province wants. This is the one corner of the UK where security is being scaled down - not up. There was a small demo, but Mr Blair brought it with him: Iraq.

In the latest of his many swansongs the prime minister spoke of restoring normal politics and the need to end "ancient hatreds and political differences," but that was his only mention of the Labour party. Mr Ahern spoke of ending centuries of "the anger and pain of an old quarrel" in Ireland.

Yet it was noticeable that when the speeches ended most of the hand shakes and hugs seemed to be confined to their own sides. Glasses were raised across Northern Ireland last night, many brimming with what Mr Paisley used to call "the devil's buttermilk". But there is a still a long dull slog towards normality.

    'A time to love, a time to hate, a time of war, a time of peace', G, 9.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2075407,00.html

A time of peace


Wednesday May 9, 2007
The Guardian
Leader


"I wonder why people hate me, because I'm just a nice man," joked Northern Ireland's new first minister on a day when it became possible to believe that the long journey from violence to peace is over. Ian Paisley's extraordinary good humour, quite magical in its scope, came on a day that sparkled with optimism. A man who built his identity around defiance has freed himself from the constraints of conflict, launching into government at 81. Once, Mr Paisley said, he would have been "totally unbelieving" at what was happening. But there was nothing sullen or cautious about the way he embraced the arrival of power-sharing. Psychologists often suggest that the victims of terrible events look for closure. Yesterday Northern Ireland's leaders closed a conflict that has dominated their lives for three decades.

There will no doubt be many difficult moments ahead, and perhaps yesterday's good spirit will turn sour very soon, but it is hard to imagine a return to the sort of strife that made Northern Ireland one of Europe's most lasting political sores. Martin McGuinness and Mr Paisley have been pushed into office by the sustained efforts of prime ministers and presidents in Britain, Ireland and America over 20 years. But devolved government now seems to have found an energy of its own. The peace process is over. The political one is just about to begin.

On a day that put ceremony and sentiment to the fore, many people deserved praise, including Tony Blair, whose great efforts have paid off as he prepares to leave office. Others watching from London, including John Major and David Trimble, played their part. So did many Northern Ireland secretaries, including Peter Hain. But the greatest achievement lies with the leaders of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist party, behaving with a public generosity that was once unimaginable and which has done much to carry their communities with them.

Nothing that happened yesterday solved the great problems that face Northern Ireland. Having entered government, Mr Paisley, Mr McGuinness and their ministers must face the prosaic reality of administering a reasonably poor and remote corner of Europe. The indulgence shown to Northern Ireland during its conflict has left it too dependent on the state for wealth and employment. The Treasury's new funding package cannot overcome the structural weakness of a society that gets 60% of its income from the London government. Belfast now casts envious eyes at prosperous Dublin, booming on business growth and driving up property prices in the north. Freed from the distractions of conflict, Northern Ireland's leaders must begin to match this success. Education, water rates, planning rules - issues that have been left to London ministers - now return unsolved.

That is one reason why yesterday's events were only a step in Northern Ireland's development, not any sort of completion. What happens next is far from clear. Much will depend on the Irish general election on May 24, which will see the taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, attempt to win a third term in power. Success in the north may help him shake off questions about the probity of his government. But it might also help Sinn Fein gain votes south of the border. A united Ireland, in a formal constitutional sense, remains a distant prospect. But the island of Ireland is becoming more united economically and socially by the day. The old bastions of unionist confidence have fallen - with Mr Paisley's support for a cross-Ireland rate of corporation tax only one example.

Politics can suddenly bring bright and unexpected moments of great hope. Sometimes the spirit lasts, changing society for the better. Sometimes it fades into resentment. The task facing Northern Ireland's new rulers is to use yesterday's spirit to better the lives of its people. Their work has only just begun.

    A time of peace, G, 9.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2075210,00.html

2pm

'Hate will no longer rule'

Tuesday May 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver and agencies

Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness marked their inauguration today as first and deputy first ministers of Northern Ireland by putting aside past rivalries to praise each other's role in ushering in a new peaceful era in the province.

They joined the prime minister, Tony Blair, and the Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in making post-ceremony speeches hailing the start of power-sharing as an historic moment.

Mr Paisley said: "I believe Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule. How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in this province."

Mr McGuinness said: "To Ian Paisley, I want to wish you the best as we step forward into the greatest and most exciting challenge of our lives."

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern thanked each other and all of those involved in the lengthy peace process.

Mr Paisley, the Democratic Unionist party leader, said: "In politics, as in life, it is a truism that no one can ever have 100% of what they desire. They must make a verdict when they believe they have achieved enough to move things forward."

He said Sinn Féin's acceptance of the rule of law met that test.

"Support for all the institutions of policing has been a critical test that today has been met and pledged, word and deed. Recognising the significance of that change from a community that for decades demonstrated hostility for policing has been critical in turning the corner."

Mr McGuinness said: "We know the road we are embarking on will have many twists and turns. It is, however, a road which we have chosen and which is supported by the vast majority of our supporters. In the recent elections, they have voted for a new political era based on peace and reconciliation." Mr Blair said Northern Ireland had been disfigured by hatred and deep suspicions: "Look back and we see centuries marked by conflict, hardship, even hatred among the people of these islands.

"Look forward and we see the chance to shake off those heavy chains of history."

He said Northern Ireland was "synonymous with conflict".

"It was felt to be intractable; the Troubles not so much a dispute but a fact of life. This holds a lesson for conflict everywhere."

He paid tribute to his Conservative predecessor Sir John Major, the DUP and Sinn Féin, and previous political leaders in the province and in Ireland.

But most of all, he said, he thanked the people of Ulster.

"Normal life and normal politics can seem a small ambition to anyone who has not lived through the abnormality of a society living on the edge - and for many years Northern Ireland was such a society."

Mr Ahearn said: "We cannot undo our sad and turbulent past. And none of us can forget the many victims of the Troubles.

"But we can, and are, shaping our future in a new and better way. And in doing so, we can put the divisions of the past behind us forever. Northern Ireland is now a place of peace and promise."

    'Hate will no longer rule', G, 8.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2074939,00.html

1.15pm update

Paisley and McGuinness sworn in as power-sharing revived

Tuesday May 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver and agencies

The Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness today became Northern Ireland's first minister and deputy first minister at the start of a new era of power-sharing in the province.

With the prime minister, Tony Blair, the Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and other VIPs watching in the public gallery of the Northern Ireland assembly, the Democratic Unionist leader and the former IRA commander swept aside decades of enmity as they were sworn into office.

After the ceremony Mr Paisley and Mr McGuiness shared tea with the two prime ministers in front of the world's press. Mr Paisley joked with Mr Blair that he was just about to take office in his 80s, while Mr Blair was about to stand down. He was also heard to remark: "I wonder why people hate me so much, as I'm such a nice man."

Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness were appointed without applause after a request by the new Speaker, William Hay, for a mark of respect for the late George Dawson, who was the Democratic Unionist party's MLA for East Antrim.

The nomination of Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness set in train the nomination of 10 other devolved ministers to head government departments in the province and that of two junior ministers.

Mr Paisley's Democratic Unionists will head four ministries while Sinn Fein will control three.

First to be appointed was the DUP's Peter Robinson, as finance and personnel minister.

The return of power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland has lessons for other conflicts around the world, Mr Blair insisted today.

Speaking just before the ceremony, Mr McGuinness said it marked "a fundamental change of approach, with parties moving forward together to build a better future for the people that we represent".

The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, hailed the new "chemistry" between Mr McGuinness and his political rival, the Rev Ian Paisley.

Mr Hain said: "There's been more preparation for this moment between the DUP and Sinn Féin, between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness and their ministerial party colleagues than ever before, and that's what fills me with optimism - not just that the darkness and horror of the past are now behind us but that there is a real prospect of this government working."

It was extraordinary "given that until a few weeks ago they had never passed a word between each other - even walking down the corridor at Stormont, the DUP would not acknowledge a republican", Mr Hain said.

"I don't think there is any way back. I can't conceive of a request for direct rule again from London ever to be made from Northern Ireland's politicians, any more than I could see Wales or Scotland making that request.

"We really are at the dawn of a new democratic future."

Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will head an administration of 10 ministers and two junior ministers drawn from the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party.

The agreement marks an extraordinary change in the relationship between Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness, who were once the fiercest of enemies but have been sharing jokes in the past few weeks in advance of power-sharing.

Both Mr Paisley, 81, and Mr McGuinness, 56, have spent time behind bars in their extremist pasts.

Mr Paisley was jailed in 1969 for leading an illegal demonstration against Catholic marchers who were demanding equal rights in voting, housing and employment.

His strident, stubborn invective fanned the flames of Protestant mob violence and helped to delay by decades today's historic compromise.

Mr McGuinness served two short sentences in the 1970s for IRA membership - and spent many more years on the run while serving in the IRA's ruling "army council".

The Guardian's Northern Ireland correspondent, Owen Bowcott, said: "The personal chemistry between the two seems to be very good. Martin McGuinness says that he calls Ian Paisley 'Ian', Mr Paisley says he calls McGuinness 'deputy'.

He added: "Paisley's speeches have reached out across the divide. He has been conciliatory and does not seem to be deflected by the resignation of one of two DUP councillors and an MEP.

He described today's ceremony as a "pantomime" and said the politicians needed to get down to the real work of building a better future for Northern Ireland.

Bowcott said: "The mood of the past six weeks has been one of incredible cooperation. There will be tough and difficult days ahead, but all the signs now are that it will work."

The return of devolved government came about as a result of a deal in March struck by Mr Paisley and the Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams.

All the new government ministers took an oath of office that requires them "to uphold the rule of law based as it is on the fundamental principles of fairness, impartiality and democratic accountability, including support for policing and the courts".

The first meeting of the power-sharing executive is scheduled for later this week.

In October 2002, allegations of intelligence-gathering within Stormont led to the suspension of power-sharing institutions.

For Mr Blair and Mr Ahern, the return of power-sharing is the culmination of 10 years' work. Northern Ireland is viewed as one of the main policy successes of Mr Blair's decade in office. Mr Ahern, who is campaigning for re-election, counts it as one of his greatest achievements.

Earlier Mr Blair insisted that, even though some critics have claimed Iraq will overshadow the achievements in Northern Ireland, he was right to go with his gut feeling about the invasion.

"Ultimately, with some of these decisions, they are so difficult that you have to go with your instinct about what was right," he said. "Sometimes the judgment is not made immediately. It is made over time."

The new power-sharing government will include the DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, as finance minister; Sinn Féin's Caitriona Ruane as education minister; the DUP's Nigel Dodds as economy minister; the Ulster Unionist leader, Sir Reg Empey, as employment and learning minister; the SDLP's Margaret Ritchie as social development minister; Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy as regional development minister; the DUP's Arlene Foster as environment minister; Ulster Unionist Michael McGimpsey as health minister; Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew as agriculture minister, and the DUP's Edwin Poutts as culture minister.

    Paisley and McGuinness sworn in as power-sharing revived, G, 8.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2074614,00.html

Q&A: Stormont reconvenes

Tuesday May 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent

Today's reconvening of the Stormont assembly - with one-time enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness as first and deputy first ministers - marks a historic, and hopefully final, twist in the troubled history of devolved power in Belfast.

What's happening today?


The leader of the Democratic Unionist party, Mr Paisley, and Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr McGuiness, are taking their pledges of office to serve as first minister and deputy first minister respectively.

Direct rule from London by the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, ended at midnight, and the ceremony to mark the formal reconvening of power-sharing in Ulster will be witnessed by Tony Blair, the Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and the Irish-American senator Ted Kennedy, as well as other dignitaries and VIPs.

What happens next?

The 108-member body will start legislating on areas devolved to Stormont, from education, health and agriculture, to the arts, water rates, transport and the environment.

However, significant policy areas such as defence, immigration, taxation and the monarchy are "reserved" by Westminster.

Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will head an administration of 10 ministers and two junior ministers drawn from the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party.

The power-sharing executive will meet formally later in the week.

Has the assembly not met before?

Yes - several times. It has a chequered history.

The assembly was created as the main plank of the Good Friday agreement in 1998, and first met in 1999. Under the power-sharing terms of the agreement, the largest parties from the unionist and nationalist communities would take the posts of first minister and deputy, and form a power-sharing executive.

In its first incarnation, from 1999 to 2002, the two largest parties were David Trimble's Ulster Unionist party and John Hume's SDLP.

Martin McGuiness did serve briefly in that executive as education minister, one of two Sinn Féin government ministers.

Prior to 1999 there were failed attempts at installing a parliament or assembly in 1972, 1973 and 1982.

Suspension

Although there were brief suspensions of the assembly in 2000 and 2001, the more long-lasting and serious one occurred in October 2002 after police raided the Stormont building as part of an investigation into a suspected IRA spy ring.

That suspension was to last in effect until today.

Elections due the following year, 2003, were at first postponed, then held, effectively as 'phantom' elections, in a vote which saw the more hardline DUP and Sinn Féin gain seats and take over as the largest unionist and nationalist parties in the body.

Three years later the three men charged were acquitted, although one of them, Denis Donaldson, was outed as a British spy. He was subsequently found shot dead.

2007 elections

Following the St Andrews agreement to share power, a "transitional" assembly was reconvened and elections held in March this year, which again saw the DUP and Sinn Féin become the largest unionist and nationalist parties.

Talks dragged on over Sinn Féin's commitment to the reformed police force in Northern Ireland - the RUC having been disbanded in favour of the new Northern Ireland Police Service.

Today's succesful return of the assembly, and with it hopefully the end of more than 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, is expected to provide the springboard for Tony Blair to announce his retirement as prime minister this week.

    Q&A: Stormont reconvenes, G, 8.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2074771,00.html

Now peace has a chance

May 8, 2007
10:30 AM
The Guardian
Barry Turley

Last week I was tinkering around on the internet, looking at the first minister and deputy first minister's website, as political anoraks are often wont to do, when I came across something utterly mundane, but simultaneously miraculous. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, the first and deputy first minister in the new Northern Ireland executive, had issued a joint statement, congratulating the Irish cricket team on their excellent World Cup performance. No big shakes in some ways - dignitaries congratulate local team - but in others - sworn bitter lifelong enemies come together to govern a country - it is utterly amazing.

I was communications director for the SDLP in the last assembly and had the privilege of working at the heart of that short-lived government. I always felt that it would return, even in the darkest days after the Northern Bank robbery, because I believe that all of the political parties in Northern Ireland honestly want to do their best for the people they represent. I see that in my daily dealings with them in my current role as a lobbyist; the hunger to right the wrongs of decades of stand-still politics is palpable - in the DUP as much as any other party.

It has been very difficult for my erstwhile colleagues in the SDLP and their "middle ground" partners in government the Ulster Unionist party to watch as the former "extreme" parties stride ahead and move towards sharing power. But the SDLP's analysis of the reasons for and way to solve the conflict has been vindicated, and the UUP's courage in moving forward with the process has brought the hope of stability for our future. Cold comfort perhaps as they watch Ian and Martin sweep into power - but we are all the richer for it.

So what needs to happen now?

Hopefully Northern Irish politics will become boring and productive. Hopefully we can start to really grow up as a society, and learn to govern ourselves. Hopefully we can develop our economy, boost our manufacturing sector, make the decisions needed to give our people the health service, school system and infrastructure required to help our society flourish.

Let's invest in our pre-school children to ensure they emerge as the first generation unscarred by the conflict which lasted for decades, let's eradicate fuel poverty, implement much needed changes in mental health provision, and look at our housing strategy so that first-time buyers aren't priced out of a rapidly overheating market. So much to do, so many decisions to be taken.

Last week I held a devolution seminar, which brought all the parties together before an audience of businesses, voluntary and community organisations and financial institutions, all eager to hear how the assembly would work.

There were so many urgent issues brought up that actually thinking about the work ahead could well be daunting. But at least we now have the chance to tackle that work ourselves, in a way that so many take for granted.

There will of course be many difficulties ahead. There will be bitter arguments; there will be days when it seems that all is lost. But we have come so far, that we can never go back to the days when the morning news bulletins were a catalogue of murder, tragedy and despair. Those days are gone.

During those tumultuous days when the first assembly was established in 1999, before the lack of trust, the decommissioning fiascos and the battles over policing destroyed our hopes of a way forward, I wrote a speech for John Hume to give on the day power was devolved. It spoke of that day as a beacon to the rest of the world, a day when peace could sweep all before it, when Northern Ireland could light the way for those across the globe still weighed down by conflict. I believed that sort of thing back then.

Strangely enough, despite all of the drama, bad blood, robberies, murders and false starts, I still believe it today. Today of all days. Because if Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, if Sinn Féin and the DUP can come to the conclusion that there is no better alternative than to work together then there is, indeed, hope.

Now we, in Northern Ireland, a place with few natural resources, have the opportunity to export the greatest gift of all to the rest of the world - a template in solving age-old, bitter, deeply divisive conflict. Let today, May 8 2007, be an inspiration to a weary and cynical world. Good things can happen; politics doesn't always need to end in failure. Peace has, at last, been given a chance.

    Now peace has a chance, G, 8.5.2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/barry_turley/2007/05/now_peace_has_a_chance.html

10.45am

Ceremony to mark devolution in Northern Ireland

Tuesday May 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver and agencies

The Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness are being sworn in respectively as first and deputy first ministers of Northern Ireland this morning at the start of a new era of power-sharing in the province.

Speaking just before the ceremony, Mr McGuinness said it marked "a fundamental change of approach with parties moving forward together to build a better future for the people that we represent".

The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, hailed the new "chemistry" between Mr McGuinness and his political rival the Rev Ian Paisley.

Mr Hain said the new relationship between men who had been "sworn and bitter enemies over so many decades" gave him great hope that there was not now "any way back" to direct rule.

"The personal chemistry between them is very good and I have been hugely impressed with their determination and their businesslike approach to really getting on with the job," he said.

"There's been more preparation for this moment done between the DUP and Sinn Féin, between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness and their ministerial party colleagues than ever before, and that's what fills me with optimism as well - not just that the darkness and horror of the past is now behind us but that there is a real prospect of this government working."

It was extraordinary "given that until a few weeks ago they had never passed a word between each other - even walking down the corridor at Stormont, the DUP would not acknowledge a republican", Mr Hain said.

"I don't think there is any way back. I can't conceive of a request for direct rule again from London ever to be made from Northern Ireland's politicians any more than I could see Wales or Scotland making that request.

"We really are at the dawn of a new democratic future."

In what is likely to be his last visit as prime minister, Tony Blair travelled to Stormont to witness the ceremony, together with the Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

The veteran US senator Edward Kennedy is also among a distinguished guest list at the parliament buildings in Belfast as devolution returns to Northern Ireland for the first time in four and a half years.

Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will head an administration of 10 ministers and two junior ministers drawn from the Democratic Unionist party, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party.

The agreement marks an extraordinary change in the relationship between Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness who were once the fiercest of enemies but have been sharing jokes in the last few weeks ahead of power-sharing.

Both Mr Paisley, 81, and Mr McGuinness, 56, have spent time behind bars in their extremist pasts.

Mr Paisley was jailed in 1969 for leading an illegal demonstration against Catholic marchers who were demanding equal rights in voting, housing and employment.

His strident, stubborn invective fanned the flames of Protestant mob violence and helped to delay by decades today's historic compromise.

Mr McGuinness served two short sentences in the 1970s for IRA membership - and spent many more years on the run while serving in the IRA's ruling "army council".

The Guardian's Northern Ireland correspondent, Owen Bowcott, said: "The personal chemistry between the two seems to be very good. Martin McGuinness says that he calls Ian Paisley 'Ian', Mr Paisley says he calls McGuinness 'deputy'.

He added: "Paisley speeches have reached out across the divide. He has been conciliatory and does not seem to be deflected by the resignation of one of two DUP councillors and an MEP.

"He described today's ceremony as a 'pantomime' and that the politicians need to get down to the real work of building a better future for northern Ireland."

Bowcott added: "The mood of the last six weeks has been one of incredible cooperation. There will be tough and difficult days ahead but all the signs now are that it will work."

The return of devolved government came about as a result of a deal in March struck by Mr Paisley and the Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams.

All the new government ministers will take an oath of office that requires them "to uphold the rule of law based as it is on the fundamental principles of fairness, impartiality and democratic accountability, including support for policing and the courts".

The first meeting of the power-sharing executive is scheduled for later this week.

In October 2002, allegations of intelligence-gathering within Stormont led to the suspension of power-sharing institutions.

For Mr Blair and Mr Ahern the return of power sharing is the culmination of 10 years' work. Northern Ireland is viewed as one of the key policy successes of Mr Blair's decade in office. Mr Ahern, who is campaigning for re-election, also counts it as one of his greatest achievements.

As he prepared to take over as first minister, Mr Paisley said he would like to see the assembly reach its full potential during devolution.

"I will enjoy it once we get all the cameras off us and get down to hard business," the Democratic Unionist leader told the Press Association.

"I would like to see a good hard-working parliament here with good speeches and people dedicated to doing what they have been sent to do."

Stormont's 107 assembly members will also choose a new speaker to replace Eileen Bell, and three new deputy speakers.

The DUP's William Hay is expected to be the new speaker, with his party agreeing that the speaker's role in the next assembly will be drawn from the largest nationalist party.

The new power-sharing government will include the DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, as finance minister; Sinn Féin's Caitriona Ruane as education minister; the DUP's Nigel Dodds as economy minister; the Ulster Unionist leader, Sir Reg Empey, as employment and learning minister; the SDLP's Margaret Ritchie as social development minister; Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy as regional development minister; the DUP's Arlene Foster as environment minister; Ulster Unionist Michael McGimpsey as health minister; Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew as agriculture minister, and the DUP's Edwin Poutts as culture minister.

    Ceremony to mark devolution in Northern Ireland, G, 8.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2074614,00.html

Analysis

Weapon of choice

As the UVF stops short of destroying its weapons, what hope for a return to power-sharing in Northern Ireland

Thursday May 3, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Owen Boycott, Northern Ireland correspondent

The terms of the formal ending of the Ulster Volunteer Force's campaign may not satisfy those who require weapons to be destroyed but it is a further step along the road to peace.

The UVF, founded in 1912 as a Protestant militia opposed to Home Rule for Ireland, killed more than 500 people during the Troubles.

It reformed in 1966, before the IRA's campaign began, and appears determined to hang on to its weapons long after the provisionals have destroyed their arms dumps.

Fears that dissident republicans could escalate their activities may be one reason for holding back.

This morning's statement, read out by the veteran UVF figure Gusty Spence, is, nonetheless, a significant contribution by the paramilitary organisation to the restoration of power-sharing at Stormont.

The announcement that all recruitment, training and targeting has ceased and all UVF and Red Hand Commando active service units have been "de-activated" is meant as a gesture to reassure the wider community that loyalists are determined to play their part in the political process.

The distinction of putting weapons "beyond reach" rather than "beyond use" will not satisfy everyone.

There are still widespread anxieties. Several weeks ago the Police Service of Northern Ireland warned more than 100 people that their personal details had been obtained by the UVF.

The larger Ulster Defence Organisation, with severe internal divisions, has not made a similar statement, although its leadership has signaled that it, too, has no current intention of returning to violence.

Two years ago, the then Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, announced, following a bloody loyalist feud, that the government no longer formally recognised the UVF ceasefire which had been declared in 1994. That recognition may now be formally restored.

Further engagements with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), the body established to oversee the destruction of paramilitary weapons, may persuade the UVF to hand over its guns.

Political pressure from both the Irish and British governments will eventually be brought to bear on the organisation to encourage it to follow the lead taken by the Provisional IRA.

In the coming days, however, this UVF statement will be taken by politicians as a sign that the peace process is approaching its final destination - a Northern Ireland free from paramilitary murders and intimidation.

    Weapon of choice, G, 3.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2071701,00.html

12.45pm update

UVF announces end of terror campaign

Thursday May 3, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver and agencies

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) today renounced violence, promised it had put its weapons beyond use and said it would cease to exist as a paramilitary group at midnight tonight.

One of the most feared and deadly terror groups in Northern Ireland, the loyalist UVF has killed more than 500 people since the province's Troubles flared in the late 1960s.

Downing Street welcomed the statement, though Tony Blair's official spokesman said "we await to see it delivered in action".

Nationalist and republican politicians also welcomed the move but had misgivings about the claims weapons had been put beyond use, demanding independent verification. Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, said the move was "another critical step", but added that "for many people it won't go far enough".

The UVF stopped short of committing itself to the weapons decommissioning which the IRA has undertaken. The statement signalled that UVF weapons had been placed in secure locations known only to senior UVF personnel.

The UVF statement was read out this morning in west Belfast by Gusty Spence, one of the founders of the modern day UVF in 1966. The statement, signed Captain William Johnston, said the UVF and its associated group, the Red Hand Commandoes, "will assume a non-military, civilised role".

Mr Spence, who was jailed for one of the UVF's first murders in 1967 and who is now a pro-Belfast Agreement politician, said: "All recruitment has ceased. Military training has ceased. Targeting has ceased, and all intelligence rendered obsolete."

On weapons, the statement said: "All ordnance has been put beyond reach and the IICD [Independent International Commission on Decommissioning] instructed accordingly."

The IICD, which is tasked with overseeing paramilitary disarmament, welcomed the UVF statement but expressed "concern" the group had dealt with the issue of its weapons on its own. The IICD offered to meet the UVF to talk about how to "work together in dealing with arms".

Billy Hutchinson, a former Progressive Unionist Party Assembly member turned community worker who once served 16 years for a UVF murder, insisted the weapons were no longer a threat.

He said: "Guns have triggers and they need to be pulled. They were pulled because people were involved in a political struggle. The guns have been put beyond reach. They are not a danger to anybody."

Nationalist SDLP Assembly member Alban Maginness said the UVF had made a "big step" away from terror and criminality, but added: "Arms are not really beyond reach while they are under the sole control of the UVF."

Speaking about the decommissioning aspect, Mr Adams was not highly critical of the statement. He said: "I just think this is a process and let's just take this one step, one day at a time. Every time a group like the UVF is moving forward, whatever the judgment from our point of view, then it has to be measured and responded to in a positive way."

Mr Adams did, however, refer to claims that up to 100 republicans were recently told their details were in the hands of the UVF and their lives were in danger.

Overall, the announcement is likely to be seen in London and Dublin as an indicator the peace process is still on track ahead of the restoration of the province's power-sharing government at Stormont next Tuesday.

The UVF first declared a ceasefire almost 14 years ago, just after the IRA's first cessation, as part of the process which led towards the April 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. However, since then the organisation has been blamed for more than 20 murders.

In April the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which reports on the activity of paramilitary groups in the province, said the UVF was no longer involved in terrorism but said it was involved in organised crime.

Today's UVF statement warned loyalists to stay away from crime. It said: "We reaffirm our opposition to all criminality and instruct our volunteers to cooperate fully with the lawful authorities in all possible instances. Moreover, we state unequivocally, that any volunteer engaged in criminality does so in direct contravention of Brigade Command."

The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, said there had to be delivery "but there is a momentum carrying Northern Ireland forward and loyalism needs to be part of that".

He referred to a recent IMC report that "acknowledged that the leadership within loyalism wants to move forward and this is an important manifestation of that".

Mr Hain said that, following the move, he would consult with the province's chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, about de-specifying the UVF as a paramilitary group.

The UVF statement followed a series of meetings by the UVF's political representatives with the Republic of Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, Sir Hugh and Mr Hain.

Today's move by the UVF will increase pressure on the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest of the Protestant paramilitary organisations still heavily involved in all forms of criminality, to follow the same path.

The UVF statement expressed regret about past violence but also said the group reaffirmed the "legitimacy of our tactical response to violent Nationalism". The statement ended: "For God and Ulster."

    UVF announces end of terror campaign, G, 3.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2071425,00.html

10.30am

'The republican offensive has ended, the union remains safe'

Thursday May 3, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Full statement by the UVF

Following a direct engagement with all units and departments of our organisation, the leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today make public the outcome of our three-year consultation process.

We do so against a backdrop of increasing community acceptance that the mainstream republican offensive has ended; that the six principles upon which our ceasefire was predicated are maintained, that the principle of consent has been firmly established and thus, that the union remains safe.

We welcome recent developments in securing stable, durable democratic structures in Northern Ireland and accept as significant, support by the mainstream republican movement of the constitutional status quo. Commensurate with these developments, as of 12 midnight, Thursday May 3 2007, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando will assume a non-military, civilianised role.

To consolidate this fundamental change in outlook we have addressed the methodology of transformation from a military to civilian organisation by implementing the following measures in every operational and command area:

· All recruitment has ceased;

· Military training has ceased;

· Targeting has ceased and all intelligence rendered obsolete;

· All active service units have been deactivated;

· All ordnance has been put beyond reach and the IICD instructed accordingly.

We encourage our volunteers to embrace the challenges which continue to face their communities and support their continued participation in non-military capacities. We reaffirm our opposition to all criminality and instruct our volunteers to cooperate fully with the lawful authorities in all possible instances.

Moreover, we state unequivocally that any volunteer engaged in criminality does so in direct contravention of brigade command and thus we welcome any recourse through due process of law. All volunteers are further encouraged to show support for credible restorative justice projects so that they, with their respective communities, may help eradicate criminality and antisocial behaviour in our society.

We ask the government to facilitate this process and remove the obstacles which currently prevent our volunteers and their families from assuming full and meaningful citizenship.

We call on all violent dissidents to desist immediately and urge all relevant governments and their security apparatus to deal swiftly and efficiently with this threat. Failure to do so will inevitably provoke another generation of loyalists towards armed resistance.

We have taken the above measures in an earnest attempt to augment the return of accountable democracy to the people of Northern Ireland and as such, to engender confidence that the constitutional question has now been firmly settled.

In doing so we reaffirm the legitimacy of our tactical response to violent nationalism, yet reiterate the sincere expression of abject and true remorse to all innocent victims of the conflict.

Brigade command salutes the dedication and fortitude of our officers, NCOs and volunteers throughout the difficult, brutal years of armed resistance. We reflect with honour on those from our organisation who made the ultimate sacrifice, those who endured long years of incarceration and the loyal families who shared their suffering and supported them throughout.

Finally we convey our appreciation for the honest forthright exchange with officers, NCOs and volunteers throughout the organisation over the past three years which has allowed us to assume with confidence the position we adopt today.

For God and Ulster,
Captain William Johnston, adjutant

    'The republican offensive has ended, the union remains safe', G, 3.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2071395,00.html

11.15am

Timeline: A history of violence

The Ulster Volunteer Force has a grim history of sectarian violence and crime in Northern Ireland. These are major events in the loyalist group's history

Thursday May 3, 2007
Press Association
Guardian Unlimited

1912

The Ulster Volunteer Force is set up as a Protestant militia by Unionist leader Lord Edward Carson to oppose Home Rule for Ireland.

1914

April: The UVF smuggles 35,000 rifles and 3m rounds of ammunition from Germany on board a freighter which docks in Larne known as the Clyde Valley.

August: As Home Rule is set aside during the first world war, UVF members form the 36th (Ulster) Division of the British Army.

1916

July: The 36th Ulster Division suffers huge losses at the Battle of the Somme.

1965

Loyalist Gusty Spence is approached to join a revitalised UVF because of fears of republican violence, even though the IRA is not a major paramilitary threat.

1966

June: The UVF claims the first victim of the Troubles, shooting dead 28-year-old store man John Patrick Scullion in west Belfast. Barman Peter Ward, an 18-year-old from west Belfast, becomes the second victim of a UVF gun attack. Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill proscribes the organisation. Gusty Spence and two other men are later given life sentences for the murder of Peter Ward.

1971

December: A UVF bomb kills 15 Catholic civilians in McGurk's Bar in the New Lodge area of north Belfast - the largest loss of civilian life in a single incident until the Omagh bomb.

1972


The UVF's associate organisation, the Red Hand Commando, is formed and is outlawed one year later.

1974

April: Northern Ireland Secretary Merlyn Rees lifts the ban on the UVF to encourage loyalists to take part in political talks.

May: Thirty-three people are killed in no-warning car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan. The relatives of those murdered to this day believe there was security force collusion in the UVF attack.

1975

July: Three members of a pop group, the Miami Showband, are shot dead after being stopped by a UVF gang posing as an army checkpoint. Two members of the UVF gang kill themselves while loading a bomb onto the band's bus.

October: The UVF is banned again.

1978

The Independent Unionist Group is formed on Belfast's Shankill Road, evolving one year later into the Progressive Unionist Party, the political wing of the UVF.

1982

Lenny Murphy, leader of the infamous sectarian Shankill Butchers gang, is shot dead by the IRA outside his girlfriend's house. He is believed to have been involved in 18 killings, including seven gruesome murders by the gang of Catholics between November 1975 and March 1977, using torture, cleavers, axes and butcher's knives.

1983

Fourteen figures in the organisation are arrested as a result of information from supergrass Joseph Bennett.

1990

The UVF joins the Combined Loyalist Paramilitary Command, which also involves the rival Ulster Defence Association.

1994

June: The PUP's Hugh Smyth becomes the first ever loyalist Lord Mayor of Belfast.

Six people are gunned down by a UVF gang in a pub massacre in Loughinisland, Co Down, as they watch Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland defeat Italy in the USA World Cup.

October: Gusty Spence announces on behalf of the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefires by the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando following the IRA's cessation of violence.

1996

May: The PUP's David Ervine and Hugh Smyth are elected to the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation as the party takes part in Stormont talks, which will lead two years later to the Good Friday Agreement.

August: The UVF stands down the Portadown unit of its Mid Ulster brigade led by Billy Wright after the murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick at the height of the Drumcree marching crisis in July. Wright forms a splinter group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, and defies a UVF order to leave Northern Ireland.

October: Robert 'Basher' Bates, another member of the Shankill Butcher gang, is gunned down in the Shankill area.

1997

November: The badly beaten body of former RAF radar operator Raymond McCord Jr is found on the outskirts of Belfast after a fall-out with a north Belfast UVF gang.

December: LVF leader Billy Wright is gunned down in the high security Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army.

1998

May: The UVF appoints the PUP's Billy Hutchinson as its contact with General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.

June: The PUP captures two seats in the Assembly elections, with David Ervine elected in East Belfast and Billy Hutchinson in North Belfast.

September: The first wave of loyalist and republican prisoners is released under the Good Friday Agreement.

2000

August: The home of Gusty Spence is attacked as UDA commander Johnny Adair attempts to drive UVF supporters out of the lower Shankill Road in Belfast. The feud results in seven deaths.

2003

November: The PUP's Billy Hutchinson loses his Assembly seat but David Ervine manages to hang onto his.

2005

May: A bitter feud erupts between the UVF and the rival LVF resulting in five deaths. The feud ends when the LVF announces it is disbanding.

2007

January: PUP leader David Ervine dies suddenly. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and former Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds are among those who attend his funeral in loyalist east Belfast. Within weeks, Dawn Purvis is elected PUP leader.

A report by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan alleges a UVF gang in north Belfast riddled with Royal Ulster Constabulary informers were allowed to murder at least 10 people including Raymond McCord Jr.

March: Despite being written off before the Assembly election, Dawn Purvis comfortably retains David Ervine's East Belfast seat and on the day of the DUP and Sinn Fein devolution deal she holds her first meeting with the first minister in waiting, the Rev Ian Paisley.

May: The UVF outlines plans to wind down its paramilitary and criminal operations.

    Timeline: A history of violence, G, 3.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2071460,00.html

MI5 and MoD battle to keep Ulster secrets

Pressure on Stevens to return papers

Tuesday April 10, 2007
Guardian
Sandra Laville, crime correspondent

MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are among government agencies demanding the return of secret documents from the Stevens inquiry in advance of four key inquiries which are set to expose the full extent of security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary figures in Northern Ireland, the Guardian has learned.

In some cases the organisations asking for the paperwork have successfully appealed for the return of the documents only to shred them, raising fears that vital evidence of collusion could disappear.

As a result, officers involved in the Stevens inquiry have begun making copies of all important secret documents to avoid crucial evidence being lost.

Sources within the inquiry, set up 18 years ago to investigate collusion by the security forces in Northern Ireland, say the pressure upon them to return confidential documents is growing as the May 30 date approaches for the opening of the full hearings with the inquiry into the murder of the loyalist terrorist Billy Wright. Stevens investigators will appear at the inquiry to present evidence of collusion in public for the first time.

"There are calls from certain agencies for their documents to be returned," said a source. "In some cases we have handed them back and they have been shredded. The pressure on us is growing and it has got to the stage where we have told them what part of the word 'no' don't you understand?"

"However, that doesn't stop people coming and saying we want the documents back and we want an assurance that you haven't got copies."

In September oral hearings begin in the public inquiry into the murder of the solicitor Rosemary Nelson and the government is in the process of setting up an inquiry into the murder of another solicitor, Pat Finucane. The start of full hearings in the inquiry into the murder of Robert Hamill, a Catholic who was beaten to death by loyalists near an RUC Land Rover in Portadown, has been delayed in a wrangle over a request for anonymity from serving and former police officers.

No legal action has been taken to force the inquiry team to return confidential material obtained over the course of members' investigations, but the use of the courts is a possibility for the agencies.

It is known that MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are deeply concerned about the evidence the Stevens inquiry will come up with at the public hearings. They feel it is time to draw a line under the past.

Almost 20 tonnes of documents collected by the Stevens inquiry teams are kept under tight security in Putney, south London. Contained in the paperwork is evidence of collusion, the withholding of intelligence and of agents being involved in murder, according to sources.

During three investigations by Lord Stevens and his officers 9,256 statements were taken, 10,391 documents totalling more than 1 million pages were recorded and 16,194 exhibits were seized.

"The first time this stuff will be really out in the public domain will be at the Billy Wright inquiry," the source said. "This is why the cry from people for their documents to be handed back is getting stronger."

Lord Stevens arrived in Northern Ireland in 1989 to begin investigating allegations of collaboration between the security services and loyalist paramilitaries. He carried out three inquiries which highlighted collusion, a wilful failure to keep records, an absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence and at the most extreme cases of agents being involved in murder. The first of three investigations led to 97 prosecutions.

    MI5 and MoD battle to keep Ulster secrets, G, 10.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2053458,00.html

Investigation could reveal

hand behind four Ulster murders

MI5 and MoD try to recover secret documents
before public hearings

Tuesday April 10, 2007
Guardian
Sandra Laville, crime correspondent


Over the next 12 months four crucial inquiries are expected to lift the lid on the extent of security force collusion with paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. But just weeks before the first public hearing, the Guardian has learned that both MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are among government agencies involved in a desperate race to recover secret documents handed to the original Stevens inquiry.

Sources within the inquiry team, set up 18 years ago to investigate collusion by the security forces in Northern Ireland, say the pressure upon them to return confidential documents is growing before the inquiry into the murder of the loyalist terrorist Billy Wright starts on May 30.

The four public inquiries are:

Billy Wright

The hardline leader of the outlawed Loyalist Volunteer Force, Wright was ambushed by the nationalist Irish National Liberation Army in the Maze prison on December 27 1997. He was shot three times by an INLA team led by Christopher "Crip" McWilliams, and died at the scene.

The killing, within a high security prison where republicans and loyalists were segregated, raised questions about whether the authorities colluded with the INLA to have Wright murdered because he was a danger to the emerging peace process - Wright had opposed the ceasefire ordered by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1994 and formed the breakaway LVF.

Wright's father campaigned for a public inquiry into his son's murder. The killing was investigated by the collusion inquiry carried out by the retired Canadian supreme court judge Peter Cory and it was recommended that the UK government launch an inquiry.

A public inquiry was announced by the then secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, in November 2004, and changed by Peter Hain, the current secretary of state, into an inquiry to be held under the Inquiries Act 2005. Its remit is: "To inquire into the death of Billy Wright with a view to determining whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the prison authorities or other state agencies facilitated his death, or whether attempts were made to do so; whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent; and to make recommendations."

Full hearings are due to start in May.

Patrick Finucane

In May 1999 Lord Stevens was asked to reinvestigate the murder of Patrick Finucane, 39, who was killed in front of his wife and children on Sunday February 12 1989. Finucane, who worked as a solicitor in Belfast primarily representing nationalist clients, was shot 14 times by two masked men who entered his house in the early evening. The gunmen escaped in a car. The murder was claimed the next day by the Ulster Freedom Fighters. One of the firearms used was found to be from a gun cache stolen in 1987 from an Ulster Defence Regiment barracks. By November 1989 the murder remained unsolved.

In 1990 a journalist, Neil Mulholland, came forward with information from a man called William Stobie, who claimed to be a quartermaster for the loyalist terror group the UDA and an agent of the RUC special branch.

It was established that Stobie had supplied information to the RUC of a murder being planned. He also gave information after the killing which never reached the murder team. Stobie was arrested and charged with the murder following the Stevens investigation, but the trial collapsed when Mulholland failed to give evidence because of his mental state. Two weeks later Stobie was shot dead by the loyalist terror group the Red Hand Defenders.

The Stevens inquiry also reviewed the role of army agent Brian Nelson. He is said to have passed Finucane's picture to another person to identify him as a target. Nelson has since died.

Rosemary Nelson

Rosemary Nelson, a solicitor who represented men accused of terrorist crimes, was murdered as she drove away from her house in Lurgan on March 15 1999. She had spoken of personal threats. Allegations of collusion were made within hours of her death. On the basis of investigations carried out by Peter Cory, it was recommended there should be a public inquiry.

The terms of reference are to: inquire into the death of Rosemary Nelson "with a view to determining whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland Office, army or other state agency facilitated her death or obstructed the investigation of it, or whether attempts were made to do so; whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent". Hearings are due to start in September.

Robert Hamill

Robert Hamill, a 25-year-old Catholic, died in hospital after being attacked by a loyalist mob in Portadown in 1997. Armed Royal Ulster Constabulary officers were stationed in a Land Rover near the scene but allegedly failed to intervene. The inquiry into Hamill's death was announced in November 2004 by Mr Murphy. He said the terms of reference were to inquire into the death of Hamill with a view to determining whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the RUC facilitated his death or obstructed the investigation of it, or whether attempts were made to do so; whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent; whether the investigation of his death was carried out with due diligence; and to make recommendations.

The inquiry remains adjourned pending a legal battle over whether RUC officers can give evidence anonymously.

Investigation could reveal hand behind four Ulster murders, G, 10.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2053425,00.html