Taoiseach's warm reception in Westminster was tribute to a flexible peace-maker, writes Frank Millar
Bertie Ahern underlined his own place in the history books yesterday as he became, in his own words, the first Taoiseach to be invited to speak "at the heart of British parliamentary democracy".
Many people, not all of them journalists, feel they have already had a surfeit of "history" courtesy of the peace process that saw the successful restoration of powersharing government at Stormont a week ago.
And there were plenty of sceptical eyebrows raised - not least, and understandably perhaps, among Irish Opposition parties - at the timing of this invitation to Ahern to follow in the footsteps of political greats such as Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela and address members of both Houses of the Westminster Parliament.
Yet it was clear from the warmth of the reception the Taoiseach received from the assembled MPs and peers that Tony Blair had properly intuited the cross-party political mood in London.
This event was intended as a genuine tribute to a man who, as the departing prime minister testified, had "never given up" on the search for reconciliation and the transformation of relationships in these islands marked by centuries of mutual suspicion, hatred and conflict. And the honour was richly deserved. For, as observed in this newspaper last Thursday in a valedictory to Blair, it is questionable whether there would ever have been a Belfast Agreement - or its successor in the St Andrews negotiations last autumn - without this particular Taoiseach. And the point is probably not made as often as it should be.
This is not in any way to deny the contributions of those who went before, in the pre-Ahern/Blair era and the evolution of what was then known as "the Irish peace process". Again, yesterday, Ahern made generous reference to former taoisigh Albert Reynolds and John Bruton among the cast of many who can claim some ownership of the eventual outcome.
Characteristically, too, Ahern acknowledged that, for Tony Blair, "this was not a task he had to take on and not one that promised quick or easy rewards".
As the perceived keeper of the nationalist flame, it is perhaps less readily recognised that it was no easier an undertaking for Ahern, and in some respects more difficult. Unlike Blair, in Sinn Féin the Fianna Fáil leader had to deal with electoral competitors. He could often appear sidelined - whether because it fell to Blair to handle the ongoing crisis within unionism - or because republicans often set out to bypass Dublin and depict the process as essentially a negotiation between themselves and the British. There was also the sense of Ahern holding back at key moments while Mr Blair sailed optimistically forth - most notably during the crisis in autumn 2003 when the Taoiseach's instincts told him that the offer then forthcoming from the IRA and Sinn Féin was not going to be enough to rescue David Trimble from the rising tide of unionist "rejectionism".
And it was, of course, in rising above the concept of an "Irish peace process" and effecting the crucial engagement with the then Ulster Unionist leader that Ahern - in his own way as much a "moderniser" as Blair - came into his own. Lord Trimble yesterday confirmed his view that the essential first step in securing that engagement had been the Taoiseach's willingness to take a more flexible approach to the Joint Framework Documents negotiated by Reynolds and then British prime minister John Major. These had envisaged cross-Border bodies with "executive" and "harmonising" powers which unionists feared - as republicans hoped - represented an embryonic all-Ireland parliament in the making.
Today it is taken as read that engagement with unionism in the quest for powersharing, equality and parity of esteem for Northern nationalists required the withdrawal of Articles 2 and 3 and the Irish constitutional claim to Northern Ireland. But that is not necessarily how it looked to many nationalists, even inside Fianna Fáil, back in 1998. Nor can it be stated often enough that, without it, there would have been no agreement with Trimble's Ulster Unionists then - much less the Rev Ian Paisley's recent celebrated trip to Dublin hailing a new era in North-South relations.
We were sharply reminded of it - and of the supreme importance of the principle of consent - in a striking section of the Taoiseach's speech yesterday.
Hailing the agreement not as an end to history but "a new beginning", Ahern declared: "It is an unchallengable consensus on how any future change in the status of Northern Ireland will be effected: only with the consent freely given, and with full respect for the rights of all traditions and identities on the island." He continued: "As an Irish republican, it is my passionate hope that we will see the island of Ireland united in peace. But I will continue to oppose with equal determination any effort to impose unity through violence or the threat of violence."
The Taoiseach rightly reminded his audience that this was no longer just about Northern Ireland, and that change there could not have happened "without the most beneficial transformation in British-Irish relations in over eight hundred years." And he invoked the words of the first American president ever to address the Dáil in proclaiming this new relationship "a partnership of people first and foremost". It was John Fitzgerald Kennedy who had described Ireland as "an isle of destiny" who, when her day came, would have something to give the world.
Ahern declared: "Today I can say to this parliament at Westminster, as John Kennedy said in Dublin, 'Ireland's hour has come'. It came, not as victory or defeat, but as a shared future for all."
Lest any thought this the end of the story or his job done, however, Ahern added a cautionary word - not least, perhaps, for the benefit of the next British prime minister, Gordon Brown, seated in the front row before him.
"Our mutual relations merit priority at the highest level," he counselled.
"We must sustain our hard-won achievements on Northern Ireland. Remembering where we have come from, we must never, ever, take for granted the stability and the hope that are now taking root in Northern Ireland."