The Hand of History

I must admit to still being surprised at the news from Northern Ireland. Gery Adams and Ian Paisley sat at the same table, and devolution set to start on the 8th of May.

Much has been made and in many ways rightly so, of Tony Blair's involvement in the process. Others also rightly mention Sir John Major.

Both deserve quite a lot of credit. However Margaret Thatcher and Tom King also deserve some of the credit for putting in the security polices that made the IRA realise they were not going to win. In short the IRA had to talk because they were contained. If they could have achieved what they wanted to achieve through violence alone they would not have come to the table.

Dr No says yes?

I was going to write this one up before I went to bed, but alas power cuts intervened. In short it looks like Dr Ian Paisley is set to accept power sharing with Sinn Fein which may well have looked like being on the card for a while, but is still stunning news.

It appears that they have already met this morning and are going to release a joint press statement soon.

The Guardian trailed the meeting here, on its front page (The only paper to do so, which is surprising as it is such big news) whilst the BBC has this here.

I don't know what shocks me most. Dr No saying yes, or the face to face meeting. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams have been the big political figures in Northern Ireland for a generation yet have never before met.

Power sharing is set to resume on the 8th of May after a bit of DUP brinkmanship that saw Peter Hain's last never to be shifted deadline of today shifted.

I just hope it all works out in Northern Ireland.