Unionist Party

THE MARCHING SEASON in Northern Ireland frayed nerves, undid progress and risked catastrophe. But it ended without torching sustained civil strife and disorder on the model of a quarter-century ago. Perhaps events have hit bottom and are poised to go up.The standoffs were a testament to the power of peace: Extremists leading trouble-making cohorts among both Protestant and Catholic communities acted as if they feared peace might break out on terms other...

The new coalition government of the Irish Republic, with John Bruton of the Fine Gael party as prime minister, has a better chance than its predecessor to move the peace process in Northern Ireland forward.The crucial stumbling block to progress now is the Ulster Unionist Party, representing the majority in Northern Ireland. The new leadership in Dublin has more standing than any previous Irish government to lure them into constructive engagement.What's interesting is the presence of the Democratic Left Party with two cabinet seats.

THE AGREEMENT of British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister John Bruton on a path to the future for Northern Ireland brings hope to its 1.6 million people. The two governments have posted a timetable for the peace bus to leave the station. Whether Sinn Fein and its bomb-throwing affiliate, the IRA, are on that bus is up to them.The plan gives Sinn Fein and the IRA two things they wanted. One is a firm date for the start of what will be in effect a constitutional convention, June 10. The other is abandonment of the requirement that the IRA begin to destroy its weapons before Sinn Fein takes part.

LONDON -- For the first time since the partition of Ireland more than 70 years ago, top officials of the Irish Republic have sat down at a negotiating table with leaders of the predominantly Protestant Unionist parties of Northern Ireland.At issue in the talks, which were also attended by British officials and leaders of other parties from the North, is the political future of the troubled province."I very much hope that everyone will prove up to the magnitude of the occasion and proceed in a sensible and workmanlike way," said Sir Patrick Mayhew, Britain's minister in charge of Northern Ireland.

A FEW rocket launchers and sticks of explosives stand between a new beginning in Northern Ireland and retreat to stalemate.The Irish Republican Army (IRA) must begin handing over weapons by March 10, or the new provincial government will not start on that date.Last April's Good Friday accord calls for all paramilitary weapons to be "decommissioned" -- handed over to an international commission for destruction -- by May 2000. It did not specify when decommissioning had to begin. Nor did it say when the British army needed to withdraw from the streets, or when the British and Irish Republic governments needed to begin releasing convicted killers, yet these actions are under way.David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party met this week with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, and included the IRA in the executive council.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland's main Protestant party announced yesterday that it would end the Protestant-Catholic power-sharing government set up by the province's peace agreement unless the Irish Republican Army makes credible moves by January to disband and disarm. David Trimble, the party's leader and the first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, emerged from a showdown with his 860-member Ulster Unionist Party governing council to say that he and his party members were "fed up" with the "dilatory and limited response" that Prime Minister Tony Blair and the British government gave their "very real concerns" about the IRA and the participation in government of its political wing, Sinn Fein.

THE THIRD BOMB in London since the IRA resumed its campaign of terror removes any pretext that Gerry Adams as president of Sinn Fein, the political affiliate of the IRA, belongs in peace talks. Either he is complicit, or he no longer speaks for the "military" arm of the Republican movement. In either circumstance, he could bring nothing to the table.But the 17-month cease-fire in Northern Ireland and the prospect of negotiating a decent regime in the province have convinced all others of the stake they have in peace.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Overcoming decades of hatred and deep internal divisions, Northern Ireland's largest Protestant political party decided yesterday to back a compromise deal to set up a power-sharing government with Roman Catholics before the Irish Republican Army begins to disarm.The Ulster Unionist Party council's vote clears the way for Northern Ireland to establish its first provincial government in more than a quarter-century.Parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly are expected to name a 12-member Cabinet tomorrow that would assume power from the British government before the week's end.The Ulster Unionist council's vote is a triumph for party chief David Trimble, who is to become first minister of the new provincial government.

LONDON - Moving closer to taking weapons out of Northern Ireland's politics, the Irish Republican Army proposed a method to get rid of its arms, an international panel announced yesterday as the British province's 3-year-old peace deal hung in the balance. British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the initiative as "an important step forward," and Irish premier Bertie Ahern called it "historic." But the IRA's critics, who have long demanded that the outlawed Catholic paramilitary group disarm, noted no details were provided about how, when or where it would dispose of its weapons.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- A militant Free Presbyterian preacher and a former leader of the Irish Republican Army were sworn in as the joint heads of a new government in Northern Ireland yesterday in a move to conclude more than 30 years of conflict between Protestants loyal to Britain and Catholics who fought for a united Ireland. The two still-suspicious new government leaders did not single out each other in the giddy handshakes shared among the new Northern Irish officials. But as the Rev. Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein took their oaths, both sides hailed the day as the final end of the Troubles that took more than 3,500 lives between 1969 and 2001.