North's never-ending dance marathon

For anyone interested in the peace process, the next few months are going to be interesting ones. In my opinion, while public attention may wane at times, the vast majority of people want the process to succeed. This is not to say that everyone sits on the edge of their seats waiting for the next twist in the developing situation. On the contrary, the process has not been like that for some time. Although certain events, such as the arrival home of the Colombia Three, have the capacity to cause some excitement, the process has become something of a slow dance. A bit like a film called They Shoot Horses Don't They? I vaguely remember it from ages ago. It's a pity I can't remember the end. It was set in the US during the Depression. Couples competed in a marathon dance for a cash prize.

So, as this heat of the dance draws to a close and with it the summer break, the next heat gets ready to start. The begrudgers will have plenty to keep busy with. In Northern Ireland it looks like the DUP may try to spin things out. That probably means them being very upset at every announcement made by the British government, even though they have been very aware of all these announcements for some years now. This is not to say that some of the outrage is not genuine. It may well be. But as the import of the IRA's July decision starts to sink in and as it becomes clear to everyone that the IRA is genuinely about the business of fulfilling the commitments it made, what happens then?

Are the DUP going to gainsay the work of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) when it completes the work of dealing with IRA weapons? Or will Ian Paisley welcome such a development? Maybe he might even be moved to encourage a process that will also get all other weapons put beyond use? And while I reject utterly the so-called Independent Monitoring Commission's (IMC) ability to interfere with the rights of citizens and political parties, what happens when it reports that the IRA has ceased all unacceptable activity?

Are the DUP going to gainsay the work of the IMC? Or will Ian Paisley welcome such a development? Maybe he will even turn his attention to the fact that Unionist paramilitaries are continuing to kill people. Maybe the IMC will spend some time examining how some of these unionist paramilitary forces were actually set up by British government agencies. Maybe someone will ask Ian Paisley what happened to Ulster Resistance, an organisation he helped to establish? Maybe he will be moved to find out what happened to the weapons it imported from apartheid South Africa.

Maybe the opposition here will encourage him in this task? Or maybe not? Maybe they will be too busy fulfilling their own responsibilities to be bothered with any negativity. I am thinking here of the recommendations of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution with regard to northern representation in southern institutions. After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Taoiseach asked the Committee to look at this issue. It reported in 2002 and recommended that MPs would have "a limited right of audience within the Dáil". MPs would "speak on Northern Ireland matters and on the operation of the Good Friday Agreement".

The Taoiseach is committed to implementing the Committee's recommendations and to starting this process next month. Maybe Enda Kenny will remember that Fine Gael voted for a Dáil motion in support of the Committee's recommendations in 2003? Maybe he will support the Government's efforts in September and hasten the day when Ian Paisley will be welcomed to join with the rest of us in debating matters of mutual interest to all the people of this island?

Of course all of the above presupposes that everything else will flow fairly uneventfully in the wider process. I haven't even touched on the challenges involved in getting the political institutions back in place. And I have not mentioned the obligations of Tony Blair and his government. Maybe I won't ever have to take issue with the British government on these again? Maybe others from within so-called constitutional nationalism will do that? Or maybe I am now part of constitutional nationalism? And if not why not?

I only wish I could remember what
happened at the end of They Shoot Horses Don't They?