The
day the Bailiwicks met the peace process Deaglan de Breadun witnesses what
may be the last of the `defining moments' in the implementation of the Belfast
Agreement
From IRISH TIMES December 18th, 1999
The Scots delegation arrived in a modest saloon car, setting an example
to the Cabinet from Dublin, whose display of the "cavalcade complex" at
Armagh last Monday was generally regarded as unhelpful. Edinburgh's First
Minister, Donald Dewar, also set a headline for modesty when he declared
that one of his strengths as a politician was the capacity to plagiarise
other people's ideas. Tip to aspiring politicians: find out what the buzzword
of the day is and start using it. The key term at Lancaster House was "architecture".
Tony Blair spoke of "a whole new architecture of institutional links" created
by the Belfast Agreement, and the word kept cropping up. With the British-Irish
Council duly inaugurated, the main players adjourned to Downing Street for
the first meeting of the new British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference,
another part of the Good Friday architecture. Instead of the usual baubles,
bangles and beads, the Christmas tree outside No 10 was festooned with white
doves of peace against a background of cotton-wool snow.
At a news conference inside, the Taoiseach brought the first touch of real
politics to a largely ceremonial day when he was asked if he had a message
for the paramilitaries on the decommissioning of weapons. In a tantalising
reply, Mr Ahern, the most cunning, the most ruthless, the most brilliant
of them all, said: "They should assist us in decommissioning the word decommissioning. Get rid of it." |
