ABSTRACT
The people of Ireland, Britain and the international community were somewhat amazed that the two polarised communities in Northern Ireland, namely the Protestant/Catholic, unionist/nationalist, loyalist/republican communities, could reach an historic compromise by signing the Good Friday Agreement on the 10 April 1998. The converse occurred on the 15 July 1999 when the familiar scenes of intransigence, enmity and lack of trust resurfaced at the failure of the Ulster Unionist Party to form a powersharing executive with two Sinn Fein prospective ministers. Unionists were judged by the international community to be perpetrators of a policy which locked the door to devolved government in Northern Ireland The thorny issue of decommissioning of weapons has always been at the crux of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, in reaction to unionist opposition to form a powersharing administration with his party, claimed on the BBC programme On the Record, ‘This is not about decommissioning. It is about rejectionist unionists not wanting to give equality to nationalists; not wanting Catholics in government; north-south implementation bodies; disbandment of the RUC.’ 1
Despite this chilling political diagnosis from a leading republican, even against all the odds - the use of semantics, and political spindoctoring - the second Mitchell review moved Northern Ireland in December 1999 to have a devolved powersharing administration, with two Sinn Fein Ministers holding the Education and Health portfolios. The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, entered into a partnership government with republicans with a tacit understanding emanating from the Mitchell Review that a start to decommissioning would take place by the beginning of February 2000. The high moral ground that republicans enjoyed in July 1999 now shifted to the unionists. The subsequent collapse of the powersharing executive
was a direct consequence of the IRA failure to start the process of decommissioning and indeed undermined McGuinness’ July denouncement of unionists.
