This is the time for peace

National liberation struggles can have different phases. There is a time to resist, to stand up and to confront the enemy by arms if necessary. In other words there is a time for war. There is also a time to engage. To reach out. To put war behind us all.

There is a time for peace. There is a time for justice. There is a time for rebuilding. This is that time.

That is the essence and the core message of Thursday's (28 July) IRA announcement.

Others may argue that there was never a time for war or indeed that Thursday's announcement should have come much sooner. The fact is there was a war. It has lasted most of my adult life. It was a consequence of British rule in Ireland, the partition of our country and the abandonment by successive Irish governments of people in the north. Efforts by republicans, including myself and Martin McGuinness, to bring it to a negotiated settlement go back over 30 years. Those 30 years have been very difficult ones. Many of us have seen friends, family members, neighbours, and comrades die violent deaths. Many republicans have inflicted violent death on others. Most of my political peer group have spent long periods incarcerated in British prison camps, prison ships and gaols in both parts of Ireland and elsewhere. Some died on hunger strike.

This week will be an emotional one for many republicans. I am particularly conscious of all those who have suffered in the conflict, and I am mindful especially of bereaved families. I remember the day after the 1994 cessation was announced by the IRA.

Crowds of people visited the republican plot in Milltown cemetery. It was quite spontaneous. My wife Colette bumped into the mother of Mairead Farrell that day. Mairead was killed with two other IRA volunteers in Gibraltar in March 1988. They spoke of the declaration of the cessation. "It was a great day" Mrs Farrell said. "I'm sorry my Mairead wasn't here to see it."

Thursday was another day like that. It will take some time for republicans to fully absorb the import of the IRA statement. Of course it will be parsed by journalists and others, including this magazine. Former republican activists, including former IRA volunteers will be rolled out in the media to pontificate and to explain the theology underpinning this departure. Most will support or at least tolerate these developments. Some will oppose them.

There will be claims of sell-out. The IRA rank and file will be presented as if they are sheep being herded by a Machiavellian leadership. All of this misses the point though it may entertain the chattering classes.

Will there be a split in republicanism? I don't know. Our leadership has done everything possible to bring people with us.

But we uphold the right of others to have a view which might be different from ours. There is nothing wrong with dissent. But unity is the key and I have no doubt that the vast majority of republicans will keep their arguments in-house because they know the wisdom of staying together. Genuine activists will not be influenced by arm chair generals or verbal revolutionaries. But none of this is to underestimate the huge rollercoaster of emotions that republican activism is experiencing at this time. No one should underestimate the leadership challenges which all this presents to every level of activism.

I have never taken for granted the support of other activists. I value their contribution too much. Politics is about empowering people. So activists have to have ownership of all these matters.

They have to make their own judgments and be part of the collective effort to develop strategies and tactics for the time ahead.

Was it hard to get the IRA to come to the decisions it announced this week? Yes. But the IRA is a mature group of committed republicans and I welcome very much and I am very proud of the way they dealt with all the challenges of recent times.

Will the governments respond properly and adequately to this development? Beyond the rhetoric of their response and the reams of conditions and processes of verification which will qualify that response, there is a real job of work for the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister. The Taoiseach particularly will be challenged given the attitude of his coalition partners and his own party's quite tetchy relationship with Sinn Féin.

He and I have met quite often privately and mostly for one on one discussions in the last few months. He knows what his government needs to do in terms of rebuilding the peace process, getting the Good Friday Agreement back on track and moving from there to fulfil the constitutional imperative and the Fianna Fáil objective of Irish unity and independence. I look forward to working with him in the time ahead.

Do I expect the DUP to rush into government with Sinn Féin in the north? No. In fact unless both governments, and here Tony Blair will be particularly challenged, make it clear that the agreement is going to be implemented anyway, Ian Paisley's strategy, if it can be called a strategy, will be delay, delay and delay again. This is not acceptable.

Can Mr Paisley be persuaded to engage properly? Without doubt. But if he doesn't, and if all that has been achieved is not to be wasted the rest of us need to move ahead, led by the two governments, building particularly on all-Ireland structures, and establishing a way to fill the democratic deficit in the north as part of this.

This piece is written just as a media outlet has broken the embargo on the IRA statement. Such things are sent to try us. There will be many other trials in the time ahead. And undoubtedly mischief making on a grander scale. This is the stuff of struggle. There is always resistance to change. But one thing is certain change cannot and won't be stopped by anyone. This week the IRA made a huge contribution to the peace process. They have opened up an opportunity which must be seized by politicians, civic society, and citizens across this island and abroad.