Word: paisleys
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Three decades of sectarian conflict faded, at least temporarily, when Protestant Democratic Unionist Party head Ian Paisley, 81, became Northern Ireland's First Minister and Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness, 56, became Deputy First Minister. The historic union of Northern Ireland's major Protestant and Catholic parties prompted praise from Paisley for the "new beginning" and an optimistic declaration from Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams: "We are going to succeed...
...both sides. The peace process had initially been built around moderate parties - David Trimble's Democratic Unionists and the Social Democratic Labor Party of John Hume - but voters from each community gradually opted to be represented at the negotiating table by tougher parties. A majority of Protestant voters thought Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party, which had rejected the earlier process, offered the best to chance to stop Sinn Fein from dominating; many Catholics felt safest being represented by Sinn Fein, the IRA's political allies...
...Once the two ?extremes? dominated the mainstream, the only way to an agreement was to get them to strike the deal. Now that they have, the very fact that Paisley and McGuinness have been so tough with each other in the past means that that only marginal elements reject the new deal...
...lesson would be the subtle use of carrots and sticks: Blair was frequently berated by Unionists - usually Paisley - for granting concessions to the IRA. But he usually did so only in exchange for an irreversible step by the militants: First they gave up their campaign of violence; then they destroyed their weapons. This year, as one of the final pieces of the jigsaw, Irish nationalists gave up their longstanding taboo against cooperating with the Northern Ireland police...
...Another lesson is flexibility: When Unionists dumped Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble as their leader, Blair adapted the process to bring in Paisley. He also employed "creative ambiguity" to get over the toughest hurdles by letting each side believe they were scoring points. Even today the central question of whether Northern Ireland will ultimately be British or Irish remains unresolved, but the matter will be settled in politics...