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Joy, doubts mingle as N. Ireland looks ahead
Newspaper headline reads "71% YES" 'Good Friday Agreement' is a means, not an end, analysts say
May 24, 1998
Web posted at: 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT)BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- After the victory cheers faded, the question remained: Will Northern Ireland truly begin the next millennium as a province of peace?
The answer is still far from clear, despite a whopping vote Saturday by both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in favor of a power-sharing deal designed to end decades of sectarian strife.
Some 3,600 people have died since violence erupted in British-ruled Northern Ireland in 1969. One Northern Irish citizen out of five has no memory of life before the "troubles" - the bombings, shootings and beatings that have long plagued the province.
Pope urges 'reconciliation'
Roman Catholics in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic backed the peace agreement overwhelmingly in the first all-island vote since 1918.
Pope John Paul II said Sunday he is happy that voters supported the accord.
"I want to express my joy over the desire for peace and reconciliation which emerged from the referendum in Ireland," he said as he ended an open-air Mass before more than 50,000 people in Turin, Italy.
"I hope that those dear populations will continue with courage on the road that they have taken up."
The next step on that road is the election of a new 108-seat assembly to run Northern Ireland and begin cooperating with the Dublin government.
But political analysts warn that if too many opponents of the "Good Friday Agreement" are elected to the body, the peace deal could be effectively nulled.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Rev. Ian Paisley, a vociferous opponent of the deal, insisted that most Protestants had sided with him.
"I have not lost this referendum," Paisley told reporters.
Arrests in Belfast
There is also the prospect of more violence.
On Saturday, as the referendum results were announced in Belfast, police in the Irish Republic arrested two men driving toward Northern Ireland in cars filled with suspected explosives. Ireland's RTE television said about 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of explosives were seized.
Later in Belfast, an army officer escaped injury when what police called a "crude, improvised bomb" exploded under a railway bridge. Two men were arrested.
The two incidents seemed to confirm what many suspect -- that the plague of violence will not vanish overnight.
"After many false dawns, this stunning vote is a historic turning point ... jubilation in Northern Ireland, however, has a habit of fading as old hatreds return," said the London-based Sunday Times newspaper.
Some Protestants wary
Weapons experts say the IRA retains huge hidden arsenals of weapons and explosives.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was instrumental in winning over wavering Protestants by promising that guerrilla prisoners would not be released unless they renounce violence for good and that the IRA and other guerrilla groups must surrender their arms for good.
The divisions in the pro-British Protestant community in Northern Ireland remained alive two days after the referendum.
Martin Smyth, a parliamentarian in the Ulster Unionist Party who opposed the peace blueprint, lashed out Sunday at what he called "unreconstructed terrorists" and said the onus was on his party leader, David Trimble, to win over doubters.
Blair's Northern Ireland secretary, Mo Mowlam, said she hoped the deal would bring progress in taking bombs and bullets out of the province's politics.
"The people of Northern Ireland clearly have said violence isn't the way forward," she told GMTV television. "So I hope that that brings results."
Correspondent Richard Blystone and Reuters contributed to this report.
Special section:
Message board:
Newsmaker profiles:
- Tony Blair - British Prime Minister
- Gerry Adams - Sinn Fein President
Related stories:
- Irish peace accord still faces obstacles - May 23, 1998
- Resounding "Yes" vote for N.Ireland deal - May 22, 1998
- Exit poll shows Irish voters support peace agreement - May 22, 1998
- Youth vote key to Northern Ireland peace accord - May 20, 1998
- Sinn Fein endorses N. Ireland peace accord - May 10, 1998
- Sinn Fein set for crucial vote on N. Ireland peace accord - May 10, 1998
Related sites:
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- Radio Television Eire - referendum coverage
- Office of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- Sinn Féin
- The Irish Republican Army - and the armed struggle in Irish politics
- Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP)
- Ulster Unionist Party
- The Irish News and Belfast Morning News- Northern Ireland's largest morning newspaper
- Northern Ireland Public Service Web
- Britain in the USA -- Northern Ireland: Frameworks for the Future
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