United Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland -- With a parade of paroled prisoners, hours of impassioned speeches, and a few lopsided votes, Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's political wing, overwhelmingly backed the Northern Ireland peace agreement yesterday.The hard-line party that has opposed British rule in Northern Ireland for decades vowed to campaign for the peace deal before a May 22 public referendum.Sinn Fein also voted to ditch its policy of boycotting government bodies, paving the way for its leaders to serve in the proposed 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly, even though it will be under continued British jurisdiction.

LONDON -- Desperate to inject life into the fraying Northern Ireland peace process, the British and Irish governments yesterday unveiled their joint blueprint of a deal to end the conflict that has cost more than 3,000 lives since 1969.The power-sharing agreement amounts to an artful compromise, offering something to nearly everyone in a bid to defuse decades of religious and political struggle between majority Protestants and minority Roman Catholics.The document envisions the two sides cooperating in a new Northern Ireland Assembly.

LONDON -- In his most upbeat statement yet that Northern Ireland may be nearing a political accord to end decades of violence, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that the outline of a settlement was "agonizingly close."Acknowledging that 'we've obviously got to get the detail right," Blair insisted that a deal could be struck by an Easter deadline. The package of proposals could be submitted to voters on both sides of the Irish border in a May referendum."I'm still optimistic, maybe stubbornly optimistic, but I'm optimistic that we can get to that deadline, provided there's the good will there for people to negotiate," Blair told Britain's ITN television news.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - For the first time in Northern Ireland's current stalemate, the Irish Republican Army offered publicly yesterday to put its arsenal of explosives, rifles and mortars "completely and verifiably beyond use." But the 11th-hour gesture failed to break a deadlock that threatens the province's political institutions with at least temporary shutdown by the weekend. The prospect of a suspension of Northern Ireland's 108-seat Assembly inspired increasing acrimony across the province's divide, raising the possibility that the IRA's disarmament offer could be withdrawn if British authorities go ahead with the shutdown.

DUBLIN - This day of Jan. 30 is written in blood in Northern Ireland, so much so that its very name is Bloody Sunday. For it was on this day in 1972 that 13 Roman Catholic men and teen-agers were shot to death during a peaceful protest in Londonderry. A 14th marcher died later. This day gave rise to the various Protestant paramilitary groups, all the bombings, the hunger strikes and the "dirty protest," which involved smearing feces over prison walls. It led to the assassination of Lord Mountbatten (who, ironically, said before his death that he favored a united Ireland)

WASHINGTON -- Despite persistent "evil" and barbarity in their midst, people in Northern Ireland are overwhelmingly determined "not to go back" to sectarian bloodshed, the British official responsible for the province said yesterday.The peace process launched by a Good Friday agreement among Protestant and Catholic political leaders has been "moving with a speed, month by month, which isn't necessarily felt here," said Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam, Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who met with reporters at the start of a two-day visit to Washington and New York.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Irish political leaders said yesterday that they were trying to form a new government that would include a small party with past links to the outlawed Irish Republican Army and with ideological -- and possibly financial -- ties to the old Soviet Communist Party.The new effort seeks to avoid a general election at Christmastime as Ireland enters its fifth week without a government. The governing coalition between the Fianna Fail and Labor parties broke up over an extradition case involving a Roman Catholic priest accused -- and later convicted -- of child molestation in Northern Ireland.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, yesterday formally rejected crucial points the peace initiative for Northern Ireland that was advanced in December by the Irish and British governments.Officials and analysts in Ireland and Northern Ireland said the Sinn Fein resolutions on the initiative, known as the Downing Street Declaration, were tantamount to total rejection and a serious setback for efforts to end the sectarian guerrilla war involving the British province's Protestant majority and its Roman Catholic minority.

New York -- The worst-kept secret in Ireland is that if the British Army withdrew from its northern counties tomorrow -- something Gerry Adams suggests is as easy as falling off a log -- the Irish government would have a fit.One often wonders why Britain doesn't make the ultimate threat, which is that it is summarily transferring sovereignty over Northern Ireland to the one nation -- the Irish Republic -- which doesn't want it, can't afford to police it...

LONDON -- Is the Irish Republican Army about to call another cease-fire?The question is overshadowing the maneuvers taking place in advance of Monday's formal talks on the future of Northern Ireland.The IRA announced it was studying government documents that were part of the agreement to set up the talks -- a statement seen by many as a signal the IRA could be evaluating its cease-fire policy.Previously, the group had said there was little chance of a cease-fire before the talks opened.Based on results of a May 30 election, nine political parties are scheduled to be represented at the talks, to be chaired by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.