Monday, April 13, 1998 | 10:29 a.m.
Ireland is a beautiful country. The Irish are a peace-loving people. Is now the time that Ireland will know both beauty and peace?
The world has witnessed the impossible more than once this decade as bitter and long-feuding enemies have sat together and talked of peace. Some have even gone so far as to sign the kinds of pacts and accords that will lead, eventually, to the time when the children and grandchildren of the warmakers will work and play together. That time has not yet come in war-torn Bosnia and the ever-dangerous Middle East, but there continues to be progress, however slow and painful it may be. No one said it would be easy for decades and centuries of hatreds to be subsumed to a better world where peace is at play and war is known no more. And so the efforts continue even where hope is sometimes lost in an assassin's bullet or a bomber's insanity.
And so, on this day after the celebration of Easter and its message of world peace, thoughtful people turn to the momentous agreement in Ireland that has given hope where there was none to a people tired of killing and who yearn only for the day when children can grow to adulthood without the fear and hatred that has consumed their fathers and mothers.
Mike O'Callaghan wrote last week of the deadline that the U.S. negotiator, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, set in conjunction with the leaders of Ireland and England. That Easter week was chosen as the self-imposed time for which all the parties had to come up with a plan for peace was not accidental, at least not in the minds of so many Irish men and women who knew so well the painful history of the Easter Rising of 1916. It was also looked upon with greater than the usual skepticism by those who have been down the road toward peace before only to have any prospects shattered by more death and destruction.
This time it was different. As the deadline for the improbable came and went and thoughts of the impossible lingered hours afterward, the deal that was struck was nothing short of monumental. And, given the week that just was, a word like miracle should not be ruled out of consideration. Of course, as we have learned years after the handshake that shook the world occurred at the White House between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, talking about peace does not make it happen. It takes long, hard work by those who have only known bloodshed together before the words become reality.
So the world will watch and wait while those who have the greatest stake in peace try to figure out how to achieve what their political leaders have sketched out over the past two years amongst themselves. And while we are watching, we will also be hearing -- as we already have -- from those who remain skeptical of anything approaching a peaceful settlement taking place. That is not unusual because in every country at every time there are plenty of people who would rather say "we told you so" than there are those who are willing to take the risks to life and property that an end to violence always requires.
Nobody really knows whether what those enemies of yesterday cobbled together as a framework for the people of Ireland -- North and South -- to learn how to live in peace with one another will work. It will take weeks of speeches, arm-twisting and reasoning with hate-filled hearts and minds before the referendums take place that will tell the story. If the people agree, then peace will have a chance after decades of violence and centuries of mistrust. And if the people say "no" then it will either be back to the bargaining table for more intense efforts or back to the streets where life will again become meaningless and futures continue to grow dim.
You see there aren't too many alternatives to finding a way for people to live peacefully with one another. At least not too many life-promoting ones. That, I suppose, is what finally became clear to the leaders at the bargaining table in those last few hours of Easter week. And that is what also prompted our own president, Bill Clinton, to invest so much of his own political and moral capital in the wee hours of those last days.
For failure in Ireland has always been an Irish problem. Beyond the fact that there are millions of Irish descendants in America and, therefore, a chance for some political gains to be made, most American presidents have chosen a more hands-off approach to that which they felt would only bring failure. President Clinton took the plunge and found some success. Now he has no way to go but to continue to encourage the parties to work toward a lasting peace.
Will there be more bloodshed along the way? The Middle East experience says "yes." Will there be those who speak out passionately against any form of compromise -- a compromise that is essential for people of differing views to embrace in order to move forward? Again, history says "yes." And will there be a continued need for U.S. leadership to make sure the parties understand the gravity of their assignment? Again, the answer is "yes."
George Mitchell has brought the parties a long way toward the day when the beauty of the Emerald Isle will be evident in more than the nature of its land. It is now time for Ireland to show the world that its beauty goes very deep. All the way to the soul of the Irish people.
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