It was "a moment in history", the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said yesterday after his first meeting at Downing Street with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
Just under an hour after he walked into No 10, Mr Adams stood in Downing Street and urged the British and Irish governments and political parties in Northern Ireland to "take risks for peace".
Describing his meeting with Mr Blair as a "strategic engagement", Mr Adams said everyone must face the difficulties ahead and learn to move "from the old failed agenda into a new agenda". The meeting was "a significant step in that direction".
"We shouldn't underestimate the difficulties. At the same time this was a good moment in history because usually the moments in Anglo-Irish relationships in history are bad moments. Today was a significantly good moment . . . We certainly had the opportunity to put our view that all of the hurt and grief and division which has come from British involvement in our affairs has to end. That will obviously mean facing up to the future with some resilience and with a determination to make a new history," he said.
Mr Adams described the talks process as a "phase" in which Sinn Fein is "absolutely committed" to bringing about the goal of "an Ireland free and united". The transfer of political prisoners and the case of Ms Roisin McAliskey must also be discussed as "part of an overall settlement", he added.
The meeting with the British government was not one where Sinn Fein "put up our stock position" and Mr Blair "put up his stock position" but a "constructive and positive" discussion. However, insisting that he did not wish to minimise the difficulties facing the political parties, Mr Adams said he was engaged in a process of unravelling and reversing "centuries of history. Today was a day, a step, a historical point in that attempted reversal."
Issuing a challenge to the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, to meet Sinn Fein "in whatever form he wants", Mr Adams said he would "dearly love" Mr Trimble to "move into a positive leadership mode . . . so that we can build a future along with all of the other parties and the two governments in which everyone can feel secure". Mr McGuinness also took up the issue of a face-to-face meeting between Mr Trimble and Mr Adams, saying he believed it to be the "next most important development within the peace process". It would present a "gigantic step forward" in the search for peace.
Mr Adams referred to the issue of consent as a "two-way street" and insisted "we are for consent". The British government must be seen to "negotiate for, seek to reach" consent, he said. "But it has to be seen clearly as a two-way street, not as a veto."
Referring to the events of Bloody Sunday, the ardcomhairle member, Mr Martin Ferris, said he had told Mr Blair Sinn Fein and the relatives of those who were killed on that day wanted an independent, public inquiry. Agreeing with him, Mr McGuinness said he hoped the British government would consider "very seriously" the feelings of the relatives of those who were "murdered" by the British Parachute Regiment.
Mr Adams was also reminded of the human casualties of the Northern Ireland conflict when he was handed a Christmas card by Mrs Rita Restorick, the mother of Stephen Restorick, who was killed by an IRA sniper earlier this year. She handed Mr Adams the card before he went into Downing Street with a note asking all political parties in Northern Ireland to "do all in their power" to ensure the talks are a success.
Mr Adams said he knew "many, many, many Mrs Restoricks" and praised her for her "courage".