David Trimble outlines his concerns for the Talks process and his hopes for the New Year
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's assertion that today the picture is more cloudy than it was 12 months ago is correct. But the blame for this dark shadow lies with the resumption of IRA violence, and what amounted to a secret process between the British government and the IRA, via the conduit of John Hume.
My Party today finds itself once again in the same position, as we have found of ourselves in the past, being proved right when we would have preferred to been proved wrong. When the negotiations resumed in September after the summer recess, we made it clear to both the British government and to the SDLP that there was a window of opportunity, in which we could make real progress. We said this could happen before Christmas, with the present Parties at the talks. But this could only happen, if the British government and John Hume realised that the IRA were not serious about giving up violence for good, and concentrated on the real existing Talks. Unfortunately, they could not. They remained fixated with pandering to the very people who had nothing to offer the negotiations, the result being that we lost three months of potential for meaningful political progress to be made.
We regret that this has happened. But the British Government and the Irish government and John Hume must realise now that the weekly activities of the IRA in Northern Ireland are not those of an organisation about to give up violence.
As we expected it is now clear that the participants in the Talks are moving into election mode, and the continuation of the Hume/Adams initiative is going to contaminate yet further the credibility and independence of the SDLP. It should be of grave concern to both constitutional Unionists and constitutional nationalists, that the present alignment of John Hume with Sinn Fein/IRA could lead as we have seen already in the Forum Elections, to the further erosion of the SDLP, and the elevation of Gerry Adams to spokesman for nationalists in Northern Ireland. Where will the potential for agreement then lie?
It is time John Major, John Hume and Dick Spring came down to earth. They must face the reality that the future of this country cannot be determined by the actions of a minority of its people. The greater number of the people of Northern Ireland want constitutional Unionists and Nationalists to reach agreement and deliver a lasting political agreement that will bring prosperity and stability to their country. But we are never going to get this if we can't face up to reality. You are either in the democratic process and committed to it, or you are outside it, with no right to influence it. I hope and pray that the new year will bring a fresh approach that will allow us to concentrate on the real business of democratic negotiations, so we can at last leave the men of violence behind us for good.
19 December 1996
