At today's end Ireland will stand as never before in its long political history. The representatives of the people who live on this island, nationalist and unionist, men and women of all religions and of none, have forged an understanding as to how they will live together within the territory they share. On Good Friday of last year that understanding was given form in the wording of the Belfast Agreement. In the following May it received the approval of the people of Ireland, North and South, Irish and British, in simultaneous referendums. Today, it assumes substance with the transfer of authority to the new executive and the fulfilling of parallel legal requirements by the two Governments.
Future generations of historians may conclude that this was a more momentous day than December 6th, 1921, when the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. Some of them may find that today was more significant than December 6th, 1922, when the Irish Free State came into being. The conclusion of the Treaty and the establishment of an independent State for part of Ireland were incomplete constructions. Though democratically endorsed within the new Free State, they largely banished Northern nationalists from the new definition of Irishness. Simultaneously, unionism began to build another State, with the aim of maintaining the ascendancy of the majority within its boundaries.
The institutions of governance which come to life today reflect a deeper and more complete expression of the democratic processes. Each community and every loyalty has had its say. Every man and woman of voting age has had the opportunity to accept or reject what has been put on offer. It would scarcely be possible to identify a more complete exercise in democracy or one in which a more fair definition of consensus has been applied. The Belfast Agreement was not endorsed by a simple head-count across the island but on the basis of majority support within each of the two communities in Northern Ireland as well as within the Republic.
A great gulf of mistrust remains and must be bridged. In the aftermath of more than 3,000 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries it could hardly be otherwise. There are those within both communities who yet dissent from this historic compromise. Dissent must be respected, as long as it does not use improper methods to subvert the will of the majority. It has been heartening to hear Ministers-designate setting out, often in trenchant terms, their reservations about the new institutions but going on to accept their responsibilities and to declare themselves the servants of all the people of Northern Ireland. The history of this State can offer similar examples of political dissent being accommodated successfully within a democratic framework.
But there can be no tolerance for those, on either side, who still claim the right to kill or injure in pursuit of their objectives. That there are yet people so disposed should not be doubted. There remains a security threat and the police and security services in all three jurisdictions face a continuing challenge in the task of thwarting the would-be bombers and gunmen. It would be foolhardy to believe that they may not attempt to strike again or to assume beyond doubt that there can be no further victims of politically-inspired violence.
It is highly unlikely, nonetheless, that such violence, even if it were to occur, would bring down what has now been established. Nor is the present Executive or Assembly likely to be vulnerable to the sort of pressures which brought down the 1974 power-sharing executive. If the arrangements which have come into place this week are to fail, it will be because the IRA refuses to begin the process of decommissioning by the end of February, triggering Mr David Trimble's post-dated resignation and effectively collapsing the new government.
There is little purpose in lecturing Sinn Fein as to its responsibilities on decommissioning for it claims to have discharged these and that it cannot speak for the IRA. This is probably true, for all that there has long been a significant overlap in membership between the leadership of Sinn Fein and the IRA's Army Council. But in his statement of last week, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, accepted the necessity of decommissioning as part of the peace process. Neither Sinn Fein nor anybody else, therefore, can purport to be taken unawares or not to understand what will happen if, come the end of February, the IRA has not made measurable progress towards putting its weaponry beyond use. No true democrat will take issue with Mr Trimble if, in those circumstances, he walks away from an arrangement which proves to be hollow and flawed. Mr Trimble has accepted that there may be a period of overlap in which an organisation, wishing to embrace the democratic process, finds that it requires some time to disengage from a paramilitary past. It happened in this State in the spring and summer of 1922. But it must be limited in time. If Sinn Fein is to be part of the new democracy, its sponsoring body - the IRA - cannot retain to itself the right to make war upon other citizens or upon that democracy's own security forces.
On this day we witness nothing less than the birth of a new Ireland. It is an Ireland which rejects the simplistic and majoritarian politics of the past. It acknowledges the diversity of culture, of race, of religion, of identity, which span this island. The arrangements and institutions which now come into place are the product of many years of patient, wearing, sometimes heart-breaking struggle by political leaders, officials, religious leaders, security personnel and activists in political parties, voluntary organisations and groups of every kind. The faces on television and in the newspapers are those of the known heroes who have won through - Hume, Trimble, Mallon, Adams, Alderdice, Mitchell - and many others. But everyone who voted for this new day - and those who voted against it but who accept the democratic verdict - can claim a share of what now becomes possible in conditions of peace and prosperity. There are literally hundreds of thousands of heroes and there can be more than five million winners in this story.