Northern Ireland: a vote for peace.

The partition of Ireland stems from the Treaty of 1922, in which England agreed to withdraw from Dublin and the twenty-six counties that now form the Republic of Ireland, and created the entity of Northern Ireland from the six counties in the province of Ulster. Since then, both sides in Northern Ireland - Unionists seeking to remain within the United Kingdom and Nationalists aspiring to national unity with the Republic - have thought of themselves as beleaguered minorities. Unionists form a majority in the North, but only a small percentage of the total population of the island, and have been wary of being abandoned by London to a "foreign" government in Dublin, where they fear that the distinctive character of their community will be swallowed up by the majority. Nationalists form a minority within Northern Ireland, have suffered injuries to their civil rights (voting, employment, housing) at the hands of the Unionists, and yearn for a more representative democracy that they identify with the Republic. Both communities can articulate a list of grievances as long as an arm, and the tenacious clinging to memories of past injuries has impeded a resolution of "the Troubles."

This picture will change if voters in Ireland and Northern Ireland on May 22 ratify a complex power-sharing arrangement that was struck on Good Friday when weary negotiators produced a historic agreement that demands much from all parties. Under this proposal, the Republic would renounce any claim on unifying the island, unless a majority in Northern Ireland desired that. Irish men and women on both sides are now challenged to think of new forms of civil order that transcend national identity while acknowledging the character of local communities. Under the agreement, a new power-sharing assembly in Northern Ireland would be elected according to proportional representation (thus ending the injustice of gerrymanders). Along with a cabinet that would also reflect the diversity of the electorate, this new body would absorb some of the governmental responsibilities now exercised in London. The agreement also establishes a Council in which ministers and legislators from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would work together on issues of joint concern, such as the environment, tourism, and transportation. A new body, the Council of the Isles, in which representatives from the parliaments of Britain and Ireland (and from the proposed assemblies of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), would meet twice annually to discuss matters of mutual concern.

The biggest payoff from this agreement is that it promises a way out of the slaughter that has scarred Northern Ireland for nearly three decades. From 1969 to the present, partisan military and paramilitary violence has claimed 3,248 lives. John Hume, leader of the Social and Democratic Labour Party (SDLP), has consistently urged peaceful democratic negotiation as the only acceptable path toward the future. Noting that the problems of the 1920s - territory and imperialism - are no longer those of an interdependent "new Europe, in which sovereignty has changed its meaning," Hume stated that the challenge of today is "to replace bitter conflict and tension with cooperation and partnership." He supports ratification.

So does Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, who is more vulnerable than Hume to bitter disappointment within the ranks of the Irish Republican Army. At the time of the unilateral cease-fire by the IRA in August 1994, Adams pledged his "firm intention to see the gun removed permanently from Irish politics." As goal posts kept shifting and talks were delayed, the command of the IRA grew disillusioned and ordered the Canary Wharf bombing in East London in February 1996. This signaled an end to the cease-fire. After the Labour Party's victory in May 1997, Mo Mowlan, Secretary for Northern Ireland in the British Cabinet, signaled to Adams that Sinn Fein would be admitted to all-party negotiations within six weeks after a genuine cease-fire. With some off-again, on-again stops and starts, Adams was admitted to the talks. He proved a shrewd participant, committed to the political process.

David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, is also urging ratification. Trimble emerged with a settlement that retains the Act of Union but which moves toward a form of power-sharing that could provide the fight formula for peace at this moment. He has distanced himself from Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, who was unwilling to participate in the negotiations because Sinn Fein was at the table. Paisley is opposed to ratification, but no longer commands the kind of galvanized loyalty that enabled him to topple the attempt at power-sharing in the early 1970s.

The SDLP has always been opposed to violence. Both sides of the paramilitary armed camps must now make good on the promises to renounce warfare. President Bill Clinton, who has done more in the past year to advance the cause of peace in Ireland than any other president, offered American assistance on this issue at a crucial moment in the last hours of negotiations being conducted by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, when a lack of consensus on decommissioning of arms threatened to block agreement. Ireland now has an opportunity to forge not a national unity, but a unity at a more profoundly human level. As Hume puts it, "If we contrast the gloomy prospect of twenty-five years of armed struggle to the vision of twenty-five years of committed peaceful and organized activity, harnessing all the energies of our people to face up to our problems, should there be any doubt about our choices for the next generation?"

Edward McGlynn Gaffney is professor of law at the Valparaiso University School of Law in Valparaiso, Indiana.