Blickpunkt Großbritannien Büro London The Chandlery Office 609 50 Westminster Bridge Road GB London SE1 7QY Tel 00 44 20 77 21 87 45 Fax 00 44 20 77 21 87 46 www.feslondon.org.uk Peacemaking in Northern Ireland: A Model for Conflict Resolution? August 2008 8 May 2008 saw the first anniversary of the devolved government in Northern Ireland. Its reestablishment as such was noteworthy per se, but the fact that the two once so acrimonious enemies of the republican Sinn Fein and the pro-British Democratic Un­ionist Party came together to form a coalition, rightly deserves the term historic. This development has sealed the progress made in the Northern Ireland question since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which was to a significant degree owed to the political priority given to the conflict by Tony Blair’s Labour government. With the experience gained during the peace process, Peter Hain, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, explores the key factors and expands on the question, whether the lessons learnt in the resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland can be transferred to ongoing conflicts world wide. Peter Hain* Introduction ∗ For more than three decades Northern Ire­land endured one of the most violent and intractable conflicts to threaten a demo­cratic state in any part of the world. Those long years brought into sharp focus the fundamental issues that have underlain the ‘Irish Question’ for nearly eight centuries – ∗ Peter Hain is the author of numerous books and political essays and gained international prominence as a result of his work in the anti-apartheid movement and due to his lead­ing role in the campaign for the approval of the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum. A member of parliament since April 1991, he held various ministerial posts mainly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was promoted to the Cabinet in 2002. Besides his position as Leader of the House of Commons, he also held the posts of Secretary of State for Wales, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as well as Secretary for Work and Pensions. He resigned from gov­ernment in January 2008. the British presence in Ireland, the constitu­tional status of Northern Ireland, the ten­sions between unionism and nationalism, the search for equality between all sections of the community and, perhaps above all else, the use of terrorist violence to achieve political ends. This paper explores the key factors that have underpinned the peace process in the past two decades. After the anniversary of devolved government established from 8 May 2007, reflecting an historic agree­ment between Northern Ireland’s most bitter and longstanding enemies, the Democratic