The following news roundup is provided courtesy of the Northern Ireland Information Service and the Irish-American Information Service

MORNING DIGEST 

FRIDAY 6 MAY 2005

The Belfast Telegraph morning edition is the only local paper with news of Labour's third victory. The News Letter has pictures of both unionist leaders on its front cover. Daily Ireland's leads with news that the Taoiseach is prepared to push the peace process forward after the election. The Irish News reports concerns that serious disorder could erupt at Belfast City Hall as loyalists are due to parade during the election count. 

Elections

As Sinn Fein and the DUP compete to become the largest parties in Northern Ireland yesterday, the overall turnout in the election was thought to be higher than usual and could reach between 65 and 70%. Irish News p5.

An increased vote for the so called extremes in Ulster politics will not deter the efforts to move the peace process on, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said last night. News Letter p9, Daily View pgs 8&9, The Sun p2, Daily Mirror p10, Irish Daily Star p2. His comments were warmly welcomed last night by Sinn Fein's president Gerry Adams. Daily Ireland p1.

Denis Bradley Irish News (p10) reports that now the election is over both Governments will "dust off the papers left aside from December and test again the resolve of the local political parties. The IRA will find itself at the front of the queue." 

Today's election results could lead to a new round of Assembly elections. Belfast Telegraph p4. Noel McAdam asks whether Northern Ireland is yet ready for a genuine conflict resolution on truth process. Belfast Telegraph pgs 22&23.

While history may regard the 2005 election as a watershed in Northern Ireland politics, it is more likely to be remembered for the demise of the middle ground. Irish Independent p26, The Star p15, Daily Telegraph p14.

The worst case scenario for the twin architects of the Good Friday Agreement is that Sinn Fein and the DUP could take all 18 seats. Financial Times p4, Daily View pgs 8&9.

Writing in today's Irish News (p7) Newton Emerson contends that "having achieved all they can through the ballot box Sinn Fein and the DUP will face the plain fact that their goals are mutually exclusive." 

A first duty of the parties should be to instantly remove the mass of posturing which has been cluttering out highways and byways for the past month. News Letter Editorial p8.

For Paisley, replacing the UUP as the voice of unionism is a pyrrhic victory. Daily Ireland p15.

Attendance and voting in the Commons does not seem an important priority for most Northern Ireland MPs. Belfast Telegraph p9.

Postal voting must be thoroughly reformed but not abolished. Times Editorial p21. Returning officers will have to brace themselves for Court challenges until the Government reforms an electoral system which is open to fraud. Financial Times pgs 4&20.

****

Program: GMU – Mark Devenport
Date & Time:: May 5, 2005 – 8.17
Subject:: Elections

WILL LEITCH

…as yet counting for the 18 Westminster seats gets underway in less than an hour in centers around Northern Ireland, and there will be more than a few sitting MPs anxiously awaiting those results when they start to trickle in this afternoon.

Mark, did we turn out through that rain and is there going to be a big vote?

MARK DEVENPORT

Well I think there was certainly a far more active evening than there was through the day. The day was really reflecting the weather which was very patchy and so was the turnout, but then there were a number of places, especially some of the places that we’d been talking about where there could be close results, that saw some significant voting during the course of the evening. 

For instance in Upper Bann, one voter was reporting having to wait 20 minutes in a queue before being able to cast their vote. Also reports of heavy voting in Foyle and concentrated voting in pockets of South Belfast. So it’s clear that people have responded to what they had heard would be a close result. Less clear, yet of course, what those results would be, I mean a lot of speculation swilling about amongst the parties, but they really won’t start getting a clearer idea until the ballot boxes start being opened at 9.00 o’clock.

WILL LEITCH

Some indications are there that a lot of tactical voting did, in the end, take place?

MARK DEVENPORT

Well, we got one very interesting guestimate up in Foyle where one DUP source said to us that they reckoned that as many as 1,000 DUP voters had actually voted tactically for Mark Durkan, that would obviously be very significant and I suppose you could call that the Joe Hendron factor because if it did happen it will be a repeat of what happened when the Shankill Road came out for Joe Hendron and unseated Gerry Adams. 

At the same time, Sinn Fein activists were saying that they believed they had got out their vote, one Sinn Fein activist put it to me that he thought the turnout was somewhere between 65% and 68% and they seemed satisfied that they mobilized those they could, at the same time the SDLP have been pouring resources into Foyle because they know that that’s the place that they really do have to hold. So it’s going to be interesting to see what happens there.

WILL LEITCH

As we’ve been reporting this morning there were some scalps we thought we might see across the water, they didn’t happen. Other people disappeared and lost their seats unexpectedly. Where’s the drama going to be here today?

MARK DEVENPORT

Well obviously people are looking out say for the scalp of David Trimble, if you were to believe the bookies David Simpson of the DUP is poised to take that. There was some anecdotal accounts that I heard last night that voting there in Upper Bann had been must brisker in Portadown which would generally be seen to be a DUP stronghold as compared to Banbridge where it’s generally thought that David Trimble gets more of his support. If that’s the case then that might be bad news for David Trimble, but David Trimble has made a profession out of beating the odds and it will be very, very unwise to count him out before we get to the end of the count and that’s one of those places where potentially it could, I suppose, go to recount.

WILL LEITCH

One of the local papers this morning is quoting a man in a bar in Banbridge saying, if they win then I’m leaving the country, but he was talking about Liverpool beating AC Milan and taking the Champions League. It’s the degree to which people, I think, worry that whatever results we get it makes any real difference to what happens here next?

MARK DEVENPORT

Well that is the case that one thing you can guarantee is that whoever the 18 successful politicians are at the end of today, none of them will be the future Secretary of State because they will be drawn from one of those English, Welsh or Scottish constituencies and I think that’s the frustration about campaigns here, that they do tend to be beauty contests between the parties and you can’t necessarily cross question people on what their program for government is going to be because they won’t go into government. So in terms of who will be implementing policy it could, as John McFall was saying to you there, still be Paul Murphy. 

There was some indication that the smaller the Labour majority, the less reshuffling there will be and the formation of a new government and there’s a possibility of Paul Murphy coming back. Alternatively other names that have been mentioned in the frame have been Des Browne who was here previously, who’s an ally of Gordon Brown, or David Miliband who’s the rising star of Labour and even David Blunkett’s name has been mentioned in places. 

Whoever comes back, it’s not going to be one of our local MPs. The only thing one could say is, if there is on the unionist side a greatly strengthened DUP group, they’ll be operating in a parliament where potentially cantankerous Labour rebels can make life difficult for a Labour Government and where, if they use it wisely, they could potentially use their power to a bit more effect than when they were dealing with a 180 Labour majority.

***
 

NORTH WILL BE A PRIORITY SAYS BLAIR
05/03/05 10:55 EST

Northern Ireland will remain a priority for him if he is re-elected, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said. 

Embarking on the final leg of the election campaign, Mr. Blair said the way forward was still obvious. 

He said republicans must work by exclusively peaceful means and unionists must share power on that basis. 

He said: "That's the deal there has been all these years and it is still the deal. It's the only deal that is ever going to be done." 

Power-sharing under devolution has been suspended in Northern Ireland since October 2002. 

Last month, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams called on the IRA to consider abandoning armed struggle in favor of Sinn Fein's political path. 

Mr. Blair has visited Northern Ireland more than 40 times as prime minister. 

He said on Tuesday: "I know obviously at the moment there is an impasse but if you compare Northern Ireland today with Northern Ireland eight years ago, it's a different place. That is not to say the problems aren't very frustrating but on the other hand I think given some more time and effort we can get this thing done. I am very sure of it. For the people of Northern Ireland it's essential that we do that." 

"I don't underestimate the problems at all. But I think if you look back Northern Ireland has come a long way, the economy has come a long way. As a result the communities can at least talk about working together in a way that they couldn't before." 

The DUP leader, Ian Paisley said Mr. Blair's remarks had let "the cat out of the bag" about his future intentions. 

"The Prime Minister has now revealed himself that he is determined, come what may, to bring Sinn Fein/IRA into government. He has sold himself to have the representatives of IRA terrorists in the government of Northern Ireland on their terms," he said. 

Mr. Paisley used the comments to again urge people to support his party. 

"As our forefathers were able to stop the madness of Downing Street in 1912 (The Home Rule Act), so we can stop the madness of Downing Street in 2005." 

****

ELECTION OUTCOME WILL SET POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN NORTH
05/05/05 10:28 EST

Electoral officials in Northern Ireland are now anticipating an evening rush at the polls after a slow start. 

Voters began casting their ballots at 7 a.m. local time for the general election in Britain and Northern Ireland and 26 councils in the local government elections that are likely to decide the political futures of UUP leader David Trimble and SDLP leader Mark Durkan. 

Both men are struggling to hold onto their seats in Upper Bann and Foyle, respectively, in the face of expected gains from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin. 

According to bookmakers, the Rev. Ian Paisley's DUP could increase its Westminster seats from six to up to 10. 

The race to win several of the 18 parliamentary seats could be very close-run, and recounts are predicted in a number of seats. 

A total of 105 candidates are chasing the 18 seats and, more than ever, the outcome of the fight between the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party on one side and Sinn Féin and the SDLP on the other is likely to determine the future of the peace process. 

Nearly one million people were eligible to vote at over 600 polling stations. 

Electoral officials were hoping there would not be too much confusion among voters, who were required to vote for a single Westminster candidate and a local council candidates under the proportional representation system. 

Voters entering the polling booths are individually reminded that it was an X for MPs but 1,2,3 etc for local councillors - there are 918 hopefuls chasing 582 seats on 26 councils. 

Westminster votes will be counted tomorrow, but the local council count will not begin until Monday, and will take two days. 

****
 

ELECTION 2005: West Belfast and West Tyrone
05/03/05 15:24 EST

West Belfast 

The candidates are: 

Gerry Adams Sinn Fein Alex Attwood Social Democratic & Labour Party Diane Dodds Democratic Unionist Party Lynda Gilby Vote for Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket Liam Kennedy Independent John Lowry Workers Party Chris McGimpsey Ulster Unionist Party 

2001 Result: Won by SF, majority 47.2% 

Profile: Of all the seats in Northern Ireland, this has one of the largest proportions of Catholic residents though it also includes part of the loyalist Shankill Road. Many of Belfast's best known neighborhoods are in this constituency. 

These include the republican strongholds of the Falls Road, Andersonstown, Ballymurphy, Springfield and Divis Flats. 

There is a great deal of poverty, with over half the housing stock in the public sector, and very high unemployment. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has won the Westminster election in the constituency on four occasions, although he has never taken his seat in the House of Commons because of his refusal to swear allegiance to the Queen. 

His first victory came in 1983, when the nationalist vote was split between Joe Hendron of the SDLP and outgoing MP Gerry Fitt - who stood as an Independent. 

He held the seat in 1987, but lost to Mr. Hendron in 1992 who won with the aid of unionists voting tactically against the republican leader. However, in 1997, Mr. Adams retook the seat with a much increased vote share, and a majority of nearly 8,000. In 2001, he was returned with 66.1% of the vote. 

Prediction: Adams to easily retain his seat for SF. 

West Tyrone 

The candidates are: 

Thomas Buchanan Democratic Unionist Party Kieran Deeny Independent Pat Doherty Sinn Fein Derek Hussey Ulster Unionist Party Eugene McMenamin Social Democratic & Labour Party 
 

2001 Result: Won by Sinn Fein, majority 10.4% 

Profile: This is a predominantly rural constituency of gently rolling hills, glens, forests, loughs and rivers revered by fishermen. Tourism is an important industry based on the attractive countryside. 

Textile industries in the area have faced hard times in recent years with many cutting jobs and closing factories. One of the few new industries to set up was the Northbrook IT software firm in Strabane. 

The constituency is made of the areas covered by the district councils based around the two main towns in the seat: Omagh and Strabane. On 15 August 1998, four months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a car bomb planted by the Real IRA exploded in Omagh's town center, killing 29 people and injuring many more. 

The electorate is nearly 65% Catholic, but at recent general elections the nationalist vote has been split between the SDLP and Sinn Fein. Nevertheless, in 2001, Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty took the seat from the UUP. 

Prediction: Doherty to retain his seat for SF 

***
TRIMBLE AND DURKAN IN CLOSE BATTLES FOR UK SEATS
05/04/05 06:32 EST

It's UK Election time again in Northern Ireland and many well-known politicians are having to scrap for their political lives. 

18 Northern Ireland Westminster seats will be decided tomorrow. Two SDLP members, John Hume and Seamus Mallon, as well as the Ulster Unionist, Martin Smyth, are retiring. All the other 15 outgoing MPs are seeking re-election. 

At the close of business in the House of Commons, the distribution of the 18 Northern seats was as follows: six DUP, five Ulster Unionists, four Sinn Féin and three SDLP. 

Less than two weeks ago, a leading firm of bookmakers was suggesting voters would return ten DUP, five Sinn Féin, two SDLP and one UUP. 

Eleven of the 15 outgoing MPs seeking re-election to Westminster were successful in the 2003 Assembly contest. 

But voters have not been able to assess their performance in the Stormont arena because the institution has been suspended since October 2002. 

In the tradition of elections it will produce winners and losers and this particular contest will have significant implications for the short and medium term future of unionism and nationalism. 

Since he was elected Ulster Unionist leader in September 1995, David Trimble has survived countless efforts to topple him. Now 60-year-old Trimble, the great survivor, faces his most serious challenge to date. 

The DUP's David Simpson is again contesting the Upper Bann seat Trimble retained with more than 2,000 votes to spare four years ago. If Trimble loses, his position as party leader will also come under pressure. 

Ian Paisley's DUP smells blood. The defection of the outgoing Lagan Valley MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, from the UUP to the DUP in January 2004 gave Rev Paisley's party a majority of unionist seats at Westminster for the very first time. This election provides the DUP with an opportunity to confirm and enhance their dominance. 

In his 80th year the DUP leader is fired up by the notion of not just becoming the strongest voice of unionism: there's also the possibility of taking nine and possibly ten of the North's 18 Westminster seats. For a party that eight years ago was peripheral, indeed ridiculed, the 21st century has brought a reversal of fortunes. 

The SDLP's 44-year-old Mark Durkan is the other leader under severe scrutiny on 5 May. As happened with the DUP and the UUP, the SDLP lost its position as the main representative of its community to Sinn Féin in the 2003 Assembly elections. 

Now it will compete with Sinn Féin for nationalist hearts and minds once more. The contest for the Hume seat in Foyle, between Durkan - Hume's successor as leader of the SDLP - and Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin will have consequences well beyond Derry's walls. Mark Durkan took over the SDLP reins in November 2001 so this is his first Westminster election as party leader. But Sinn Fein tallymen are calling the Foyle seat for the Sinn Fein man. 

The elections are unlikely to produce MPs from anywhere but the four main power blocs. While the Alliance Party did manage to hold its six seats in the 2003 Assembly elections, the first past the post Westminster race is a different matter. 

The Women's Coalition isn't even fielding Westminster candidates. Its two Assembly members, Jane Morrice and Monica McWilliams, lost their seats in the 2003 Assembly elections. 

***
VOTING BRISK AS POLLS CLOSE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
05/05/05 15:01 EST

Voting in Northern Ireland was described as brisk before polls closed at 10 pm local-time this evening. 

Rain during the day may have kept turnout down among the 1.1 million registered voters in what is being seen as a pivotal election. 

Results are widely expected to underscore the positions of Sinn Fein and the DUP as the big parties on either side of the political divide. 

The new British government and the make up of the next House of Commons will be known well before vote counting even gets under way in Northern Ireland. 

A 9 a.m. start - rather than an overnight count - will see results trickling out during the afternoon tomorrow, but with close races in several of the 18 constituencies, recounts are being predicted. 

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today the Irish Government stood ready to resume work on the peace process with the political parties after the election. 

Speaking in Dublin, Mr. Ahern said: "Whatever happens today and tomorrow, the Irish Government is ready to take things on. I will hope to have an early date for talks with whatever Prime Minister is elected tonight and get on with the business." 

However Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the Government stood ready to resume work on the peace process with the political parties after the election. 

Speaking in Dublin, Mr. Ahern said: "Whatever happens today and tomorrow, the Irish Government is ready to take things on. I will hope to have an early date for talks with whatever Prime Minister is elected tonight and get on with the business. " 

The new British government and the make up of the next House of Commons will be known well before vote counting even gets under way in Northern Ireland. A 9 a.m. start - rather than an overnight count - will see results trickling out during the afternoon, but with close races in several of the 18 constituencies, recounts are being predicted. 

A total of 105 candidates are chasing those seats and more than ever the outcome of the fight between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party on the one side and Sinn Fein and the SDLP on the other is likely to determine the future of the peace process. 

Nearly one million people were eligible to vote at over 600 polling stations. There has been some speculation that apathy about the failures of the peace process could lead to a low turn out. 

However low by Northern Ireland standards is the kind of high politicians in the rest of the UK would be delighted with. 

The local council count does not start until Monday and will take two days. 

****
TRIMBLE LOSES WESTMINISTER SEAT. DUP AND SINN FEIN UP
05/06/05 11:38 EST

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has lost his Westminster seat in Upper Bann to David Simpson of the Democratic Unionist Party. 

The result is a body blow both to Mr. Trimble and his party which looks likely to have only one MP in the House of Commons, in the form of Lady Sylvia Hermon, who was returned to her North Down seat. 

Confirming a pattern of huge gains for the DUP at the expense of the UUP, Mr. Simpson won comfortably with 16,679 votes, compared to Mr. Trimble's 11,381. Mr. Trimble's position as UUP leader is now in doubt. 

Mr. Gerry Adams and the Rev Ian Paisley were both upbeat after their enhanced electoral success this afternoon with the Sinn Fein leader describing the result as offering hope and the DUP leader saying his triumph was a victory for democracy. 

After the West Belfast result was announced, Mr. Adams said Sinn Fein had "stood on this election on three main planks." 

"It was about dialogue," he said. "When others were negative, we gave hope. It was about getting the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process back on track and it's about a united Ireland." 

He said that his party would use their "mandate wisely." 

Meanwhile Mr. Paisley said his re-election was "democracy in action" and called for people "to heed the voice of the people." 

"I will be telling Dublin and London tonight that they better listen to what the people of Northern Ireland are saying. The day has come when we cannot tolerate Sinn Fein/IRA anymore. The Democratic Unionist Party will be a force for all that's good and decent in Northern Ireland," he said. 

In the first surprise of the afternoon the SDLP's Mr. Alasdair McDonnell has taken South Belfast from the UUP. He said that his victory had sent a "loud and clear" message that "tribal politics" was not the only way forward. 

"I want to thank the people of South Belfast who have sent a loud and clear message that tribal politics is not the only way forward in Northern Ireland. I believe we have a major task to do to restore this once great city to the sense of pride and dignity that is possessed." 

"We are still alive and we will still be here because we have a job to do," Mr. McDonnell said. "We are still standing strong and we are ready to fight back for the values of the people out there on the streets, on the doorsteps." 

The DUP candidate in South Belfast said Mr. McDonnell's win was the UUP's fault and because it had refused to agree an electoral pact with his party. 

In East Antrim former Belfast Lord Mayor Sammy Wilson of the DUP took the seat away from Roy Beggs by a substantial margin. 

The DUP's Gregory Campbell secured his party's seat in East Derry. He increased his majority by almost 11 per cent as the Ulster Unionists and SDLP both suffered losses. 

He called on Sinn Fein to disband the IRA in order to create any prospect of face-to-face power-sharing talks. "I don't have a private army. Sinn Fein do. As long as Sinn Fein hold that advantage, they will never get us to the table," he said. 

In North Belfast, Nigel Dodds of the DUP was elected with a majority of 5,188 ahead of Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly. Peter Robinson, meanwhile, retained his seat in East Belfast with a comfortable win over Reg Empey of the UUP. 

In Fermanagh/South Tyrone Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew retained her seat she won in 2001 with 18,638 votes ahead of the DUP's Arlene Foster, who received 14,056 votes. Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty also held its West Tyrone seat. 

The UUP's share of the ballot in West Belfast was down by some 3.95 per cent. It had been predicted that both the UUP and the SDLP faced serious losses in this election. 

SDLP sources in Derry are hoping their leader Mark Durkan will be able to hold the Foyle seat in a contest against Sinn Féin's general secretary Mitchel McLaughlin. 

Sinn Féin, however, believes it will take the Newry and Armagh constituency from the SDLP. 

The UUP is holding out hope that its leader David Trimble will retain his Upper Bann seat in the face of a strong challenge from the DUP's David Simpson. 

But DUP election workers at the count center in Banbridge were confident today their candidate, gospel singer and businessman Mr. Simpson, would capture the seat. 

A defeat for Mr. Trimble could prompt his resignation from the leadership of the party. 
 
 
 
 

DURKAN EASILY TAKES HUME'S FOYLE SEAT
05/06/05 15:28 EST

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has won the Foyle seat in the Westminster election. 

The former Stormont Deputy First Minister comfortably defeated senior Sinn Fein negotiator Mitchel McLaughlin in Foyle - in a seat which republicans had aggressively targeted. 

The victory came on the back of another coup for the SDLP, with deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell becoming the first ever nationalist MP for South Belfast. 

Conor Murphy pulled off a major election triumph for Sinn Fein tonight by taking the Newry & Armagh Westminster seat held by SDLP icon Seamus Mallon for nearly two decades. 

With a resounding winning majority of more than 8,000 votes, the new MP claimed his nationalist rivals had bowed to the inevitable. 

Faced with the daunting challenge of defending the seat for the SDLP after his former deputy leader`s retirement, Dominic Bradley was powerless to stop the Sinn Fein charge. 

In the end he trailed in a distant second with 12,770 votes compared to Mr. Murphy`s 20,965 total. 

Martin McGuinness has retained the Mid-Ulster seat in the election with an 11,000 majority. 

Ulster Unionist David Burnside launched a stinging attack on his party leadership tonight after being ousted as MP for South Antrim by the DUP's Rev William McCrea. 

He said he welcomed the result because his party had lost the trust of the electorate. 

With his party decimated across the North, he said it saddened him that in its centenary year the party of Carson and Craigavon was down to one member of Parliament. 

But he said: "The unionist population lost the trust in the leadership when they broke their word on `No Guns, No Government`, and they were not prepared to stand in defense of the RUC." 

Following are the results of the 18 constituencies: 

East Belfast: Peter Robinson (DUP) 

South Belfast: Alasdair McDonell (SDLP) SDLP gain from UUP 

West Belfast: Gerry Adams (SF) 

North Belfast: Nigel Dodds (DUP) 

North Antrim: Ian Paisley (DUP) 

East Antrim: Sammy Wilson (DUP) DUP gain from UUP 

South Antrim: Willie McCrea (DUP) DUP gain from UUP 

Lagan Valley: Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) DUP gain from UUP 

Foyle: Mark Durkan (SDLP) 

Fermanagh South Tyrone: Michelle Gildernew (SF) 

West Tyrone: Pat Doherty (SF) 

Newry and Armagh: Conor Murphy (SF) SF gain from SDLP 

South Down: Eddie McGrady (SDLP) 

North Down: Lady Sylvia Hemon (UUP) 

Upper Bann: David Simpson (DUP) DUP gain from UUP 

Mid Ulster: Martin McGuinness (SF) 

East Derry: Gregory Campbell (DUP) 

Strangford: Irish Robinson (DUP) 

Party totals: 

DUP: 9 seats (+4) Sinn Fein: 5 (+1) SDLP: 3 (lost one, gained one. Net 0) UUP: 1 (-5) 

*****

HAIN TO BE NEW NORTHERN IRELAND MINISTER
05/06/05 16:11 EST

Paul Murphy will be replaced as Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary by Peter Hain as part of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet reshuffle. 

The new Northern Ireland Secretary will continue to work in his old portfolio as Welsh Secretary, it has emerged. 

This is not the first time Mr. Hain has taken over from Mr. Murphy, having replaced him in the Welsh job in 2002. 

Mr. Murphy leaves government to become chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Hain's appointment followed a day of big changes in NI's political landscape with the DUP and Sinn Fein making big electoral gains. 

The DUP's Nigel Dodds said Mr. Hain's dual portfolio meant the job of Northern Ireland Secretary was being downgraded. "I suppose it's true to say the secretary of state's role is not what it was," he said. 

"Tony Blair and Jonathan Powell have taken over more and more of the heavy lifting in the process and have left Northern Ireland Office ministers to just get on with the day to day operation of local government departments. Maybe under a new prime minister, when Tony Blair eventually goes, the role will alter again but it remains to be seen how that will work out." 

He paid tribute to Murphy as having "a genuinely warm personality," a sentiment echoed by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. 

"On a personal level, Paul Murphy is a nice man and he's fairly straightforward in private conversation," he said. 

Adams said Murphy was "a safe pair of hands for the British Labour government here but he didn't break any Delft over the matters affecting us." 

Mr. Hain has long been a believer in direct political action - and is now one of a clutch of cabinet ministers who in younger days had the security services monitoring their activities. 

He first came to national prominence as a radical Young Liberal in the forefront of the campaign against apartheid in South Africa, where he lived until he was 16 and his activist family fled to Britain. 

Once here, he led the 1969/70 Stop the Seventy campaign to disrupt the South African cricket tour of the UK, and helped found the Anti-Nazi League in 1977 - the same year he moved over to Labour. 

He spent 15 years working as a political researcher for a trade union, entering the Commons at the 1991 Neath by-election. 

In opposition, he was a whip and then shadow employment minister. But his Welsh seat meant that when Labour won office in 1997, his first government job was at the Welsh Office. From there, however, he moved on to the Foreign Office and then the Department for Trade & Industry. 

After the 2001 election, he was appointed Europe minister, in which role he sounded a pro-euro note that was a change from the more euro-wary tone of his earlier pronouncements on the issue. 
 

*****

TRIMBLE RESIGNS AS ULSTER UNIONIST PARTY LEADER
05/07/05 12:58 EST

David Trimble has announced his intention to step down as leader leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. 

"At a private meeting with the president and chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party this morning I indicated to them that I do not wish to continue as leader," he said in a brief statement issued this afternoon. 

The move follows yesterday's general election results which left his party with just one Westminster having had five previously. 

He lost his own seat in Upper Bann to the rival DUP and today the Nobel Laureate issued a brief statement indicating he would step down. 

He will hold a press conference on Monday but today simply indicated he did not want to continue in the post. "I am pleased to have had the privilege of leading what I regard as the best and most democratic political grouping in Ulster," he said. 

He said he will formally resign as leader when the party executive has been convened to arrangement for the election of a new leader. 

He thanked party members for their support over the last 10 years. "There have been difficult times, but also times when we have been able to make a difference," he said. "I have no doubt that Northern Ireland is a much better place and unionism greatly advantaged because of our efforts."

Earlier, he blamed the failure of Republicans to honor the Belfast Agreement caused the electoral collapse of the UUP vote. 

The British government's indulgence of Republican maneuvering since the Agreement was signed was a contributory factor, the former first minister claimed. 

"If they had implemented the Agreement then they would have disarmed completely in May 2000, that is what they undertook to do, that is what they failed to do. The net result of all of that is that there is total disgust in the Unionist community with them. That is the basic underlying factor. A contributory factor is that the Government, which ought to have upheld the Agreement and policed the Agreement, has been far too indulgent to Republicans," Mr. Trimble said. 

He also said the DUP would likely drop their opposition to the Agreement and seek to have it implemented in full. "The DUP, despite the rhetoric, appear to me to have given up the objective of destroying the Agreement," he said. 

He also indicated during this morning's interview that he would not step down this weekend. "I'm not sure what I will do, to be quite honest," he said. Trimble indicated he would discuss the matter with close colleagues and it appears that afterwards he made the decision to step down. 

****
DEVOLUTION A PRIORITY SAYS HAIN
05/07/05 14:52 EST

New Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain today said his priority was the restoration of the Assembly. 

He said goodwill and effort on all sides would make it possible to "crack this problem". British prime minister Tony Blair had stressed the importance of securing a permanent peace deal, Mr. Hain said. 

He will arrive in Belfast on Monday to begin work. "There is no prize more important than peace," he said. 

Mr. Hain, speaking in London where he was being briefed by officials, said the election results in Northern Ireland had sent out a message. "I intend to take account of this and to make sure we bring everybody together. I believe with effort and goodwill we can crack this problem and make sure we get progress and momentum and get everybody working together. We have had now a tremendous period of peace since the Good Friday Agreement was signed and got on the road. We must get that back and working together." 

Mr. Hain said he was privileged and delighted to have been given "this absolutely crucial Cabinet job" and said it would not be in any way diminished by him combining it with the post of Welsh Secretary. 

Creating the conditions that would lead to the restoration of the Assembly had to be the first priority, he said outside the Northern Ireland office in London. 

Meanwhile, Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today that Hain's appointment would be a considerable asset to the peace process. 

The Louth TD also paid tribute to the outgoing secretary Paul Murphy who, he said, "made an immense contribution to the political process". 

"It was an honor to work with Paul [his] qualities of political wisdom, forbearance and unfailing courtesy were widely admired and appreciated by all of those in the process who had the privilege of working with him," Mr. Ahern said. 

He congratulated Mr. Hain on his appointment, saying his ability and experience "will be considerable assets to the process". 

"I look forward to working with him in the same spirit of co-operation and partnership that has characterised my working relationship with Paul Murphy." 

Ahern added that both governments remain committed to advancing the peace process and implementing the Belfast Agreement. Meetings involving all the parties and the two governments will be arranged in the coming weeks, he added. 

****
 

DUP, SINN FEIN UP IN COUNCIL ELECTIONS
05/09/05 12:15 EST

DUP and Sinn Féin candidates are making gains in the Northern Ireland council elections, in line with predictions. 

Counting began this morning and may take several days to finish. More than 900 candidates are running for seats in 26 council areas. 

Latest results show the DUP has increased its share of the vote by some 7.8 per cent, while Sinn Féin's increase stands at 3.2 per cent. 

Reports also suggest the Ulster Unionist Party's vote is down by almost 5 per cent. The party had hoped to put up a better showing in the council elections following its disastrous result in last Thursday's British general election when its Westminster representation was reduced to one MP. 

Among the losers were the UUP's Ken Maginnis, who has served on Dungannon district council for 20 years. 

The SDLP vote is down by just over 2 per cent but the Alliance Party has gained some new seats. 

The DUP is seeking to cement general election gains in the local government elections. 

The party, which secured nine MPs in last week's Westminster elections, is targeting local gains in Belfast and Derry at the expense of the SDLP. 

In Belfast, Sinn Féin had won five seats by 1pm. Former RUC reservist and Orange Order member Billy Leonard, who defected from the SDLP to Sinn Féin, retained his seat in Coleraine. 

In Derry, where SDLP leader Mark Durkan comfortably defended the party's Foyle Westminster seat, his nephew Mark H Durkan won a seat, along with rising star Gerard Diver. 

Following the resignation for their leader David Trimble at the weekend, former Stormont economy minister, Sir Reg Empey, who has been tipped as a leadership contender, was returned in Belfast along with Jim Rodgers. 

The moderate unionist Alliance Party was also pleased with its initial results with Assembly members Seamus Close and Naomi Long securing seats in Lisburn, and former Belfast Mayor David Alderdice and Ian Parsley capturing seats in North Down. 

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, Sammy Wilson, Peter and Iris Robinson, Gregory Campbell and Jeffrey Donaldson all comfortably won council seats. 

****
 

HAIN PLEDGES HANDS ON ROLE IN SEEKING DEVOLUTION
05/09/05 14:09 EST

New Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain insisted today he would have a direct, hands-on role in trying to bring devolution back permanently to Northern Ireland and cement the peace process. 

After his first walkabout around Belfast city center since taking over the job from Paul Murphy, Mr. Hain, who is also the Secretary of State for Wales, insisted the post had not been downgraded. 

He said: "The prime minister made it clear that he will keep a very hands-on approach to the whole process for securing peace and building the institutions. It is very, very important to him and it is important to the whole of the government. "It's an absolute priority, he told me when he appointed me on Friday night," Mr. Hain said. 

"(Mr. Blair's chief of staff) Jonathan Powell's involvement is also crucial to that, but I intend to take myself a very direct, leading role in this alongside the prime minister and we will work together in partnership." 

"We have had seven years of peace and stability and increasing prosperity in Northern Ireland as a result of the events which followed the Good Friday Agreement," he said. 

"We now intend to take that forward. The people of Northern Ireland, and we have heard on the streets of Belfast here today, want peace, want stability, want self-government and that is something which we are going to take forward." 

He insisted all criminal and paramilitary activity needed to end in Northern Ireland if it was to continue to make political progress. "I think we have a window of opportunity which we must open and walk through as soon as we can," he said. 

Before visiting Belfast, Mr. Hain met the Rev Ian Paisley at Stormont following the DUP's successes in the Westminster and local government elections. 

Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey urged the minister to avoid becoming embroiled in a new set of negotiations with republicans on ending criminal and paramilitary activity. 

The former Stormont Economy Minister said: "Peter Hain mustn't fall into the trap of starting another set of negotiations which give republicans the chance to sell the same horse for the 25th time. Everybody knows what republicans have to do and it has to be done clearly. People are sick listening to euphemisms like `going into a new mode'." 

Meanwhile, former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble has blamed republicans and the two governments for the collapse of his party's vote in last week's Westminster elections. 

He also predicted a stalemate in efforts to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland and said the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would be unable to strike a deal with republicans. 

The UUP secured only one seat in the House of Commons, compared to the DUP's nine. Mr. Trimble, who lost his own seat in Upper Bann, resigned as leader at the weekend. 

Speaking at a press conference in Belfast this morning he said there was "no other course" for him to take after the election result but said he had no regrets about the strategy he took. 

"Clearly the most important thing that happened was the negotiation of the Belfast agreement. . . . I have not regrets about the strategic position or the approach or about the fundamentals of the agreement. I'm quite sure that the future development of Northern Ireland is going to be based on the agreement, give or take a little bit here or there," he said. 

But he insisted the agreement was never properly implemented by republicans. "If they had implemented the agreement then they would have disarmed by May of 2000," Mr. Trimble added. 

"That is the basic cause for the shift that has taken place in unionist opinion. The other factor is that the government, primarily our own government but to an extent also the Irish Government, were seriously at fault in not upholding the principles of the agreement. I see unfortunately there is the likelihood of a significant stalemate here until the [British] government changes it approach, until republicans change the way that they ought to and there's no point people turning around blaming unionism for voting they way that it has when that vote was a not unreasonable reaction to the failures of others." 

Mr. Trimble said the DUP were unable to make an agreement on powersharing late last year. "My own personal view is that we are likely to see a similar breakdown from the DUP in the future if they do indeed engage in negotiation, and that must be an open question." 

Mr. Trimble said the new Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain, had gotten off on the wrong foot. 

"The fact that government is still not putting pressure on the republican movement is ... a mistake," he said. "Peter Hain will be a failure unless he changes his approach." 

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who joins over 50 other world leaders in Moscow this morning as part of the Victory in Europe Day commemorations, said he was optimistic about reaching a political solution in the North. 

"If we can make the progress that we have requested of the parties to deal with the issues of decommissioning, to deal with the issues of criminality and move to a new future and the IRA stepping aside, then we can make a lot of progress," he said. 

****

May 9, 2005

Politics

UUP is faced with a task to find a new leader to rebuild the party. Sir Reg Empey may emerge as one of the front runners. Other names in the frame include Jim Nicholson, Lord Kilclooney, David Burnside and Lady Hermon. Irish News (P13), News Letter (P1,6,7), Belfast Telegraph (P2), Sun (P2), Mirror (P9), Irish Times (P6), Irish Independent (P22), Guardian (P6), Belfast Telegraph (P8). 

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Premier Bertie Ahern led the tributes to David Trimble 'a man of courage who took risks for peace'. News Letter (P6), Irish Star (P12). 

Former UUP man Jeffrey Donaldson claimed that David Trimble's resignation marked the beginning of the end for the party. Daily Ireland (P5). 

David Trimble has blamed Tony Blair and republicans for the decimation of his party and his leadership of the UUP. News Letter (P6). 

The Ulster Unionist Party is facing potentially serious financial problems as a result of the loss of four MPs. News Letter (P7). 

Stephen Dempster News Letter (P8,9) comments that David Trimble's place in history is secure although final verdicts on his leadership of the UUP and his role in the peace process will vary. 

David Trimble may get a place in the House of Lords by the summer. News Letter (P8), Belfast Telegraph (P8). 

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to meet Tony Blair in Moscow today for an informal discussion on development in Northern Ireland. Irish times (P1,7), Irish Independent (P1). 

Chris Thornton Belfast Telegraph (P26) comments that the SDLP look like winners but Mr. Durkan still has to prove that the obituaries for his party were wrong rather than just premature. 

Noel McAdam Belfast Telegraph (P27) reports that the DUP have some tough choices to make, will the party sit on the sidelines or finish the journey the Ulster Unionists began? 

Roy Garland in the Irish News (P2) comments that Paisley's chosen task was to undermine Trimble and damage the UUP and that his actions can be understood as rivalry for power and little else. 

Damien Kiberd comments in Daily Ireland (P17) that the DUP triumph kills off the Agreement. 

Frank Millar in the Irish Times (P6) comments that David Trimble's political fall was due to trying to save the Belfast Agreement once too often. 

Malachi O'Doherty in Belfast Telegraph (P9) comments that putting trust in Adams is the big challenge for Blair and Ahern. 

Editorials and Opinion pieces

UUP must move fast to get its act together. News Letter (P8). 

Trimble's stance was courageous. Irish News (P10). 

The Daily Telegraph (P21) comments that David Trimble was destroyed by the Belfast Agreement and that it is the kind of result that convinces English voters that Ulster is another country. 

Daily Ireland (P16) comments that the leader matters little for a party in terminal decline. 

The Belfast Telegraph viewpoint (P26) comments that the new Secretary of State, Peter Hain, faces the daunting task of replacing direct rule with devolution and that it will be wrong to interpret the swing to the DUP as wholesale rejection of the Good Friday Agreement. 

The Irish Independent (P24) comments that all the parties should catch their breath and calmly survey the scene before entering the talks to get it right. 

Maurice Hayes in the Irish Independent (P25) comments that David Trimble was undone by his failure to trumpet gains. 

The Times (P19) comments on David Trimble, that the most courageous Ulster politician pays the price of defeat. 

Tom Kelly Irish News (P10) comments that the breathing space created by the victories of the SDLP is timely for the party and it will have to be used wisely. 

*****

Program: Talkback
Date & Time: 07.05.05 (12.35)
Subject: Should Peter Hain be Doing Two Jobs?

DAVID DUNSEITH

Peter Hain, we were talking about him a moment or two ago, so you might say it’s a sort of indirect rule, he’s going to look after the Celtic interests. Well I suppose that there’s an overlap there, Wales and Northern Ireland, a sort of joint Stateship. Helen Mary Jones is the Plaid CyMr.u Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales. Well Helen Mary we’ve got to share Mr. Hain.

HELEN MARY JONES

Well of course we’ve had the dubious privilege of sharing Mr. Hain with his job as Leader of the House for a couple of years and we’ve clearly felt that hasn’t been in the interests of Wales and we’re very concerned, both that he won’t have proper time to give to progressing Wales’ interests in London or indeed, and perhaps more urgently and importantly, to spend on moving the Northern Ireland peace process back on track.

DAVID DUNSEITH

Yeah because it is a tough old challenge, I’m not saying that there aren’t challenges in Wales but they’re pretty rough here, you would agree?

HELEN MARY JONES

Well exactly and I think anybody who was doing a joint job would be, and probably ought to be, giving priority to the very serious challenges in the North of Ireland. And we’re concerned, of course that, that’s going to leave us completely on the back burner at a time when the Labour Party in their manifesto were saying, you know they’ve acknowledged that the model of Assembly that we’ve got isn’t working, that we need to be working towards having full law making powers. 

Now it’s supposed to be Peter Hain’s job to drive that through Westminster and get the Bill drafted and so on, but we don’t see that he’s going to have time to do that when he needs to be concentrating on the very urgent issues in Northern Ireland. If he is of course giving that time to Wales, then that’s time that he can’t spend getting all the parties in Northern Ireland round the table. So we think this is a bad decision for Wales and for Northern Ireland and to be honest we think it’s a bit insulting to both parts of these islands.

DAVID DUNSEITH

Finally given your reservations which you’ve just expressed, what do you think of him as a Minister, has he been doing you know a good job, fairly good job?

HELEN MARY JONES

Well we, as a person he’s extremely able and I’ve actually got a lot of respect for him as an individual, but we haven’t felt when he was sharing the job of Secretary of State of Wales and Leader of the House, we didn’t feel then that Wales was getting its proper attention. 

Sharing a job as important, and I think it’s probably one of the most important jobs in the Cabinet now, of the Northern Ireland Secretary with being the Secretary of State for Wales, we think that’s going to create real problems. But he is able and he is you know an approachable person and hopefully that will be useful to the Northern Ireland peace process, because we all feel very strongly that we wish you well with that. But it’s not good news for either of us that we’ve got a part-time Secretary of State when there are two full-time jobs to do.

****

Program: BBC News 24
Date & Time: 07.05.05 (15.26)
Subject: Trimble Resigns

NEWS READER

Now we’ve got some breaking news. A statement by the Ulster Unionist Party Leader, David Trimble. And I quote "At a private meeting with the President and Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party this morning, I indicated to them that I do not wish to continue as leader. I want to thank all the members of the party for all the support and help they’ve given me over the last ten years. There’ve been difficult times but also times when we have been able to make a difference. I have no doubt that Northern Ireland is a much better place and Unionism greatly advantaged because of our efforts. I’m pleased to have had the privilege of leading what I regarded as the best and most democratic, political grouping in Ulster." And he says there has been "arrangements made for a special meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council to elect a new leader, at which point I shall formally resign".

****

Program: The Politics Show – Alasdair McDonnell
Date & Time: 8.5.05 – 12.52
Subject: Voluntary Coalition

JIM FITZPATRICK

Alasdair McDonnell, of course, the DUP and even the Ulster Unionists were insisting before the election, they won’t go back into government with Sinn Fein in a mandatory coalition, in fact they’d much rather get into government without Sinn Fein, but with the SDLP. Is that completely off the table now?

ALASDAIR MCDONNELL

It’s completely off the table, the point is that we’re not prepared to do some side deal with the DUP in order to get the DUP off the hook. And the reality is, and I echo back a lot of what Alex was saying here, the reality is that any, we created in 1998 a framework for progress, it was years in the making, it was very difficult to get it together. It’s known as the Good Friday Agreement by some, it’s known as the Belfast Agreement by others. That is the only show in town, the only framework, and the reality is that the DUP have to come up to the mark on that.

JIM FITZPATRICK

Yes, not so long ago but you and Eddie McGrady were sending out messages that actually it was the IRA that needed to come up to the mark?

ALASDAIR MCDONNELL

Messages were picked up on the margins of interviews and discussions and other things and I know what I said and I know what Eddie McGrady said (unclear) voluntary coalition in a civilized way, I said it would be considered, we’ve considered it and I’m dismissing it and the party dismisses it for now and forever. It’s not on, we have a framework in the Good Friday Agreement and we’re sticking with that, and the problem here is that we have to get the DUP to face up to that. 

They’ve reneged on their responsibilities to the community and to the rest of us for the last seven years. Equally the thing is, and I say this honestly and openly, we need Sinn Fein to move forward, we need to abandon the military wing, it’s out there and we need to, basically Sinn Fein have a very strong mandate and I congratulate Conor on his success, he has big shoes to fill in the shape of Seamus Mallon, but I wish Conor, on a personal level, well.
 

****

Program: Sunday with Adam Boulton
Date & Time: 08.05.05 (10.03)
Subject: Labour Party’s Third Term

DAM BOULTON

Joining me now is Peter Hain MP, who in Friday’s Cabinet reshuffle was appointed the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. He will keep his hat as Secretary of State for Wales as well. Welcome to you indeed Peter Hain.

PETER HAIN

Morning Adam.

ADAM BOULTON

Are you one of those who thinks Tony Blair would be well advised to go sooner rather than later?

PETER HAIN

No this is a story that the newspapers have been waiting to write for weeks now. Once we had won the election this was always going to be written, the same people who have been making the same case, who didn’t support Tony when he was elected leader ten years ago and haven’t supported him ever since, are making the same arguments they made all over again.

ADAM BOULTON

But a number of your Labour colleagues in the House of Commons are making this point, people like Frank Dobson, Glenda Jackson, people who have been Blarites at one stage or another.

PETER HAIN

Well I think in the case of both Frank and Glenda their positions have been previously stated, I don’t think there’s anything new there. Really what people, I thought, on the doorstep were saying was they wanted us to focus on the issues that mattered to them, not some kind of Westminster bubble, self-indulgence over when Tony will stand down, he’s already made it clear he will serve a full term. 

Not this recycled old story, but tackling the problems of childcare, making families, allowing families to have more support and more flexible forms of support, tackling the pensions issue that effects the whole of the advanced world. Some of those issues are what people want us to focus on and that’s what we’re going to focus on.

ADAM BOULTON

It also comes down to who people trust as their national leader and I suspect on the doorsteps in your constituency a lot of people are saying, we’d prefer to see Gordon Brown leading the country.

PETER HAIN

Well the Prime Minister took a hit over, has taken a hit over the last few years on Iraq and other issues, and if you’ve been in power eight years then, as he himself has said, there’s a certain amount of wear and tear. And yes that did come up on the doorstep. But you know, if people really didn’t want Labour re-elected and didn’t want Tony Blair as Prime Minister they’d have voted us out, they didn’t, in fact we got a very good result. We’ve got a third successive victory which we have never had in our hundred year history as a party and the Tories, as important, have been consigned to something they’ve never experienced before, three successive defeats. That’s very important.

ADAM BOULTON

But do you think Tony Blair was a liability to your vote in this election, Labour’s vote?

PETER HAIN

No I don’t, I think he was very popular with an important section of the population. I think there was a small, but important group for whom Iraq and his leadership was a defining issue, often Labour supporters who lent their votes the Liberal Democrats and who I think will come back in time when they see us concentrating on the big issues facing the country. You see if you look at some of these big issues, that’s why I find all this newspaper speculation just a diversion from those issues.

ADAM BOULTON

It’s not just newspapers, you must accept it is coming from within the Labour Party as well.

PETER HAIN

Well it’s coming from people who have expressed dissatisfaction with Tony’s leadership now for a very long period of time.

ADAM BOULTON

But the question also is, if you’re going to move on to these policy areas, whether he is master in his own home, whether for example he’s got the Cabinet re-shuffle he would have liked.

PETER HAIN

Well to date, I’ve read all sorts of excitable speculation in the papers about the Cabinet re-shuffle. What is quite clear is we have a Cabinet determined to drive forward on these agendas, whether it’s as I say better and more flexible forms of childcare, whether it’s tackling the pensions crisis, it’s affecting the whole of the world, whether it’s getting public health legislation to protect people from smoking in enclosed public spaces, whether it’s tackling the problems of asylum or violent crime, especially knives and guns. All of these measures and all of these policies which will be driving through the Queen’s speech and in the Government’s Program: for the next years, I think that’s what people want us to focus on rather than this Westminster bubble …

ADAM BOULTON

But you would get, you would get most of those policies if Gordon Brown was Prime Minister as well, wouldn’t you? I mean there isn’t a (unclear). Do you think there’s a great ideological difference between the two?

PETER HAIN

No I don’t, and remember all of the MPs who are adding their names to the newspaper columns this Sunday morning, all of them were elected on a manifesto which we’re now going to deliver on. Including by the way identity cards, which some have said is going to run into trouble as a piece of legislation. Every Labour MP was elected on a manifesto which said we intend to legislate for identity cards, overwhelmingly supported by the public incidentally.

ADAM BOULTON

How much more difficult do you think it is going to be to get the will of the Government past your own MPs in this Parliament, because you got a much reduced majority which therefore means rebels have more power, doesn’t it?

PETER HAIN

Well we’ve had two successful landslide victories and in a way if you look at the history of the House of Commons, that’s quite unusual. More often Governments have had narrower majorities like we have now, but we’ve still got a pretty comfortable majority. We may have to proceed in a way that doesn’t assume you’ve got to necessarily win a vote before you have started, as perhaps we were able to in our first two Parliaments. 

And I think we will need to build more consent, we will need to engage the Parliamentary Party and we’ll need to engage the whole of the House of Commons in a more active way than we always had to in the past. 

But actually, I think when you look at the policies which are going to be in the Queen’s speech and which we’re committed to and which were in the manifesto in considerable detail, and as I say, every MP was elected on that manifesto, every Labour MP, then that I think leaves us a popular Program: for reforming radical Government led by a Prime Minister, despite the newspaper headlines this morning, whose won something that no Labour leader has ever done in our history, three successive elections. 

Now that’s a pretty good achievement. The idea that people suddenly want to have his head on a plate within hours of winning this historic third term of office and consigning the Tories to a terrible result and a third successive defeat. The idea that that would be welcomed by the public I just think is a fantasy.

ADAM BOULTON

So how long do you give him?

PETER HAIN

He has said he’ll serve a full term in this Parliament and that’s what he’s going to do.

ADAM BOULTON

And you’ll support him in that?

PETER HAIN

Of course I will and I think the whole of the Parliamentary Party will as well.

ADAM BOULTON

Big job in Northern Ireland that you’ve got now because effectively the Good Friday Agreement is dead, or at least it’s in the deep freeze, and you appear to have a polarization of voters with gains for the DUP and for Sinn Fein in these elections, two sides who in the past have made it clear they don’t trust each other and don’t think they can do business with each other.

PETER HAIN

Well let’s just remember we’ve had seven years of peace and stability and increasing prosperity in Northern Ireland and a whole change in the political culture in the way the different communities live their lives, and that needs to be built upon. 

But yes there has been increasing polarization in the outcome of the election, a trend by the way that was clear in the Assembly elections and the local elections before last Thursday. You don’t necessarily win agreements and produce a final negotiated acceptance by congregating in the center. 

Actually if you look at conflicts worldwide, and Northern Ireland is no exception in this, in some ways if you can get the two groups that seem to be most polarized, in this case Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party, if you can get nationalists and unionists accepting that they do need to work together, unionists accept and recognize, having it clear that there’s no paramilitary activity or criminality and nationalists accepting and recognizing and have an assurance that unionists are not going to block or veto their participation.

ADAM BOULTON

Are you going to move this forward, or are you going to wait for changes for example, the IRA and Sinn Fein to finally make a move, or have you got plans for a conference, get the leaders talking again?

PETER HAIN

I want to work very actively with all the leaders and indeed all the different representatives in the coming weeks and months to try and get this peace agreement back on the road to a permanent settlement. The Prime Minister has told me, on Friday night when he appointed me, it was an absolute priority for him. We’re determined to take it forward and you just need to keep rebuilding trust.

ADAM BOULTON

Have you talked to Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley?

PETER HAIN

I talked to Ian Paisley last night and I have a phone call with Gerry Adams awaiting me after your interview.

ADAM BOULTON

I do have to put it to you though, that again trust in Tony Blair seems to be a big feature in this. I talked to Mark Durkan, the Leader of the SDLP during the campaign and I said do you think that Tony Blair’s a liar? And he said, oh yeah he lied to me throughout this peace process about what he was doing. David Trimble yesterday says you can’t trust Tony Blair, Tony Blair has let me down and even Ian Paisley has been let down and not told the truth by Tony Blair. So we do come back to trust in the Prime Minister, even in Northern Ireland, don’t we?

PETER HAIN

Well people say all sorts of things in the heat of the moment.

ADAM BOULTON

But these are party leaders. People who have negotiated with Tony Blair say they don’t trust him.

PETER HAIN

This is the Prime Minister, Tony Blair who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement, people said that that wasn’t achievable, he did it. This is the Prime Minister, Tony Blair who’s maintained the situation where the people of Northern Ireland have had seven years of unparallel peace and prosperity and stability, and this is the Prime Minister, Tony Blair who I believe will actually crack this problem in the coming period and we will get a permanent peace settlement and a new political dispensation which all the parties and all the communities, especially those representing the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, but together with the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists and the other political forces, can come together and govern their country in the devolved Assembly that we have legislated for.

***
 

Program: GMU
Date & Time: 09.05.05 (08.09)
Subject: Peace Process

SEAMUS BOYD

Following the elections and the appointment of a new Secretary of State there’s an expectation that there will be renewed efforts on the part of the British and Irish Governments to restore devolution here. The Republic’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, is on the line now. Good morning Mr. Ahern.

DERMOT AHERN

Good morning.

SEAMUS BOYD

You’re going to try and push that heavy stone back up the hill again?

DERMOT AHERN

Oh absolutely. I think now that the dust has settled on the election we have to pick up the pieces and already the Taoiseach has spoken with Tony Blair. I over the weekend spoke with Peter Hain and each and every one of us I think spoke with the parties. I had contact with a number of the parties as well and there’s an understanding that we should get back to try and pick up where we left off before the election, but particularly before December.

SEAMUS BOYD

You say there about Tony and Bertie meeting, are they meeting again today, do we understand?

DERMOT AHERN

They are meeting today, they’re both over in Moscow and they will take an opportunity to basically reiterate what they’ve said on the phone call and that there is an absolute commitment, I was speaking to the Taoiseach’s people last night, by Tony Blair who assured the Taoiseach, and obviously the Taoiseach is (unclear) with him on this that we should do everything now that we can do to bring power sharing, to have it restored to Northern Ireland.

SEAMUS BOYD

You’re limited in what you can do though aren’t you? The DUP are quite clearly saying that Sinn Fein’s not in a position and doesn’t look like it will be in a position for a very long time to share power with anyone?

DERMOT AHERN

Well I don’t accept that. I mean I think you know back in January when Sinn Fein came to Government Buildings in Dublin, we clearly indicated to them that, and this was just after the Northern Bank raid, we clearly indicated to them that the Irish Government had made commitments, we had agreed in December to do various things which that we were prepared to do, some of them unpalatable, but the British Government equally had agreed to do many other issues than we had on their agenda and that they had agreed to do those. 

The only two remaining issues we told them were the issues of decommissioning, full decommissioning, and an end to paramilitarism and criminality and that that had to be done in a clearly demonstrable way. Those two issues are still remaining and you know the fact that Gerry Adams has now reacted to that call from the Taoiseach, particularly by calling on the IRA to in effect go away, we’ll have to wait and see. 

We’ve got a partial answer to the initiative that the Taoiseach took back in January and we just have to wait and see what the response is on that. I have no doubt that it will come sooner rather than later, I have no doubt that the IRA will in effect go off the scene and that they will allow the politicians to take full reign in relation to this and at that stage then obviously the whole agenda is clear.

SEAMUS BOYD

And yet your Government and the British Government, the Chief Constable, the Garda Commissioner, you’ve all been supplying information to the IMC, the Independent Monitoring Commission, which will report in the next few weeks if the IRA is still recruiting, still training.

DERMOT AHERN

But the IMC have also said quite clearly that the level of violence and the level of criminality has dramatically reduced, not finished yet, not over yet I accept so that’s why the IMC is there to independently monitor whether or not, and this will continue even if an Executive is up and running, to monitor whether or not there is continuing paramilitary activity from all quarters. 

So unless and until it is the case, unless and until people are absolutely cast iron sure, and this is not just the DUP it’s my own political party down in the Republic, but it’s the Government here in the Republic, it’s the British Government. Unless they’re absolutely clear as Tony Blair said the time for creative ambiguity is over he said that back in December, it is now clearly the case that there has to be absolute clarity in relation to these issues and equally so on the other side there has to be in effect the quid pro quo, which is in effect the commitment that has been made at least orally by unionist politicians that they would share power with nationalists. 

They obviously, and that is one of the regrets of mine particularly and I think most people on the island, that that oral commitment wasn’t put up to them in effect back in December and indeed March when the Executive was supposed to be up and running, because of the issue over the Northern Bank raid and more recently the Robert McCartney murder. 

SEAMUS BOYD

Give me two timescales because you mentioned there that you would reasonably expect the demise of the IRA within what, 3 months, 6 months and how soon devolution then?

DERMOT AHERN

Well I would reasonably expect that there would be a response very quickly or fairly quickly over the next couple of months. But that won’t be good enough for us or for others obviously. It would have to be clearly shown and clearly independently verified that they have gone off the scene forever and a day and that they’re going to allow ordinary politics, I mean the people voted in the election for politicians, they didn’t vote for these politicians to stand on the sideline and be hurlers on the ditch to not have their hands on the rudder as it were of power. 

These people want to get into power to see what being in Government means. When they look down to us in the Republic, we’re the authors of our own destiny down here, and I think that’s important for people in Northern Ireland as well.

SEAMUS BOYD

So what’s a realistic timetable for the restoration of devolution?

DERMOT AHERN

In any of this I wouldn’t like to give timetables but I do feel that while people may say that it’s more difficult after the election, I don’t believe it is. I believe with goodwill on both sides, and I think there is goodwill, behind all the rhetoric there is goodwill, there is a sense that, particularly amongst younger people, that you know we have to leave the past behind us, that we have to obviously quite clearly be satisfied that the war is over forever. 

That politics, as per the Good Friday Agreement, said, gave an opportunity to nationalists and unionists to live side by side and politically live side by side as they do in a lot of councils round Northern Ireland. And it’s in everyone’s interest, you can see the economic and social benefits that people have got.

SEAMUS BOYD

Now you have a job, because according to Sinn Fein you’ve been meddling in the business of Ulster affairs really haven’t you? You’ve been up campaigning for the SDLP and …

DERMOT AHERN

I made no bones about the fact that as Minister over the years, and as a back bencher for many years, I’ve canvassed for the SDLP on many occasions.

SEAMUS BOYD

Does this not compromise you a bit?

DERMOT AHERN

And on this occasion I made it quite clear when I had a long standing engagement with Eddie McGrady, it was made prior to the election. A number of arrangements had been made, particularly to meet young people who were interested in politics, who wanted to know about a politician’s life in the Republic. I had a choice of canceling that, which would have disappointed them or proceeding. I made it quite clear to the SDLP that I would not canvass when I went up, which I didn’t. 

SEAMUS BOYD

In any event you were there, you were there ….

DERMOT AHERN

… Just on, sorry just on the accusation that I’m meddling in Northern Ireland politics across the border. I am as entitled to go North of the border as Gerry Adams is to come South of the border. And I regard it as extremely partitionist and …

SEAMUS BOYD

But you are lending support for one party in the middle of an election?

DERMOT AHERN

… by people who said that I, as a member of Fianna Fail, the largest republican party on this island, the largest by far, that I didn’t have a right or indeed a duty to go North and to represent the interests of people in Northern Ireland. I was a member of the cabinet …

SEAMUS BOYD

No just let me check. Do you see it as a duty of an Irish Government Minister to come North and quite clearly mark your support for one political party? Does that not compromise your position in future negotiations?

DERMOT AHERN

It most certainly does not. I didn’t mark any support for any party. I made it quite clear that I wasn’t …

SEAMUS BOYD

You met Eddie McGrady, you went to meet …

DERMOT AHERN

If I had been asked to any other function I would have gone to it.

SEAMUS BOYD

So if the DUP had asked you to come to Ballymena you’d have been quite happy to go …

DERMOT AHERN

I would have yes, I would have within reason, yes, provided I wasn’t …

SEAMUS BOYD

And if Gerry Adams had asked first you’d have gone to West Belfast?

DERMOT AHERN

Yes of course I would. And I’ve attended functions where people from Sinn Fein have been at in the North for years. So I make no bones about the fact that I am entitled as, not just as a Minister, but as somebody born and bred within five miles of the border, I am entitled to go northwards as Gerry Adams is to come southwards. 

And I don’t query his right to come south nor do I believe that he should query my right to go North. I have all my life, my political life I have taken a keen interest in matters to do with Northern Ireland. Why, because the area that I represent economically was a wasteland because of the violence that was perpetrated in the name of republicanism and nationalism. My town, Dundalk, and the general area of North Louth, thankfully is much better today because of the peace.

****

Program: BBC News 24
Date & Time: 9.5.05 (10.34)
Subject: David Trimble
 

DAVID TRIMBLE

I thought it would be appropriate just to make a few observations. You will not be surprised, I am sure you weren’t surprised over the weekend by my decision to resign. After the result there was no other course. But it is the case as the News Letter said this morning that something of this nature had been in my mind for some time. 

And if we had had a better election result I don’t think I would have continued as leader of the party as long as Mr. Blair is likely to continue as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Indeed, in the run up to the election my primary objective in party terms was to lay the basis for a transition to someone else who could carry on the task of leading the party. Now that has now been down more rapidly than had been in my mind before hand. But there you are, that’s what life is like. 

With regard to looking back over 10 years as party leader, clearly the most important thing that happened was the negotiations of the Belfast Agreement. And I want to make it absolutely clear that I have no regrets at all about involving ourselves in that negotiation or about the outcome. 

Of course you have a negotiation and you have an agreement which involves an element of give and take, there will be details of it that you might like to be slightly different. But I have no regrets about the strategic decision or the approach, or about the fundamentals of the Agreement. I am quite sure that the future development of Northern Ireland is going to be based on that Agreement, give or take a little bit here or there. 

I don’t think the fundamentals are going to change and that view is hugely reinforced by the negotiation of the Democratic Unionist Party engaged in last autumn, where they showed that they were not able to or anxious to, it is for them to say which, change any of the fundamentals of the Agreement. But that negotiation also demonstrated something else, that the DUP were not capable of making an agreement because they didn’t close the deal that was there.

****

Program: BBC News 24 
Date & Time: 09.05.05 (10.43)
Subject: Questions & Answers (David Trimble)
 

MEDIA

… IRA to the effect that they’re going away, have gone away whatever. Given your experiences, what would your attitude to such a statement by the IRA be and do you believe that the DUP will inevitably have to respond to that should the IMC say yes it’s real?

DAVID TRIMBLE

I think there’ll only be an obligation on parties to respond to it if you had assessments from the Independent Monitoring Commission saying we are satisfied that the IRA has disbanded. Now if statements like that came then I think yes there would be an obligation to respond. But that isn’t likely to be the case because I don’t think that republicans have yet realised that they have to disband the private army, and Government is not making it clear to them that they must. 

The reluctance of Government to use the terms that I have just used is in itself a mistake. The fact that Government is still not putting pressure to bear on the republican movement is also a mistake, and its part of the mistake that has caused the problem that has led to the outcome last Thursday. That’s why I said earlier that Peter Hain will be a failure unless he changes his approach. 

MARK DEVENPORT

Mr. Trimble you mentioned Peter Hain, who’s only just taking over the job. What about Tony Blair who you worked with so closely over the years? I mean did he let you down personally or not?

DAVID TRIMBLE

I’ll let other people make that judgment.

MARTINA PURDY

Mr. Trimble you’ve said that the unionist people need their party. What is it going to take for them to (unclear) in the Ulster Unionists?

DAVID TRIMBLE

Well that is the task for my successor and I would be reluctant to start speculating about things, because then I would be appearing to set out an agenda for my successor who will want to do things his or her own way.

MARTINA PURDY

Would you like to endorse anyone?

DAVID TRIMBLE

No.

MARTINA PURDY

You talk about your regrets, (unclear). What will you miss least about this job?

DAVID TRIMBLE

Ah, well I don’t know. There have been times when criticisms that, in terms of their substance might be valid, are expressed here in far too directly personal a way. And I’ve had to put up with a lot of personal abuse from a variety of quarters, most of which I consider to be ill founded and I won’t miss, obviously, that. I won’t miss the occasional mistake that creeps into the media’s reportage of events. 

I’m thinking here of something in yesterday’s Sunday World, which ended up its piece on me by referring to the acquisition by me of a house in the countryside in Cambridgeshire so that I could be close to my son whose studying in Cambridgeshire. It might be an admirable idea to do that.

MEDIA

As long as you’re not going for a massage you’ll be all right …

DAVID TRIMBLE

It would be an admirable idea, and I wish I had the resources to acquire such a home but I don’t have. But if the Sunday World reporter wishes to present me with one that would be excellent and I’m doing my best to ignore the interjection that came from here.
 

****

Program: GMU – Lord Maginnis
Date & Time: 9.5.05 – 8.25
Subject: Demise of UUP
 

SEAMUS BOYD

Just reading the News Letter editorial at the moment and it says the DUP triumph was built on strong leadership, a clinically effective election campaign and by staying in touch with the grass roots opinion. The UUP vote collapsed for all the opposite reasons, is that fair?

LORD MAGINNIS

I think there’s an element of truth in that. I think that there is a fundamental difference and has been a fundamental difference in that the Ulster Unionist Party has always willingly put itself in the front line. It has attempted to resolve problems that exist in Northern Ireland, problems that brought us death tolls as high as 400 people per year and a pretty average death toll of 100 people every year. 

David Trimble tackled that and I believe he made a success of it. Now while the Ulster Unionists, if I can put it like this, had their heads down the Democratic Unionists were electioneering, they were using every opportunity…

SEAMUS BOYD

That’s politics, that’s what happens.

LORD MAGINNIS

…to communicate with people. That’s the way forward, it’s about elections, it’s not actually about resolving problems.

SEAMUS BOYD

Yes, but you can’t blame politicians for wanting to win and quite clearly the people have decided they don’t want the Ulster Unionists?

LORD MAGINNIS

Well I say, we are perhaps architects of our own downfall. It’s easy to judge a doer, a tryer. It’s much harder to assess somebody who is traditionally in opposition and insofar as our communications problems, we did not communicate effectively, very obviously, with the electorate and that’s something we’re going to have to look at in the future. 

So rather than try to judge and even imply that David Trimble somehow has been a failure as a leader, I have to look at where he’s brought Northern Ireland. We now do not have political killings, we have criminal activity of course, but we do not have political killings. We have our place in terms of our political integrity secured, Articles II and III have disappeared, there is no territorial claim…

SEAMUS BODY

So you’ve achieved all that but…

LORD MAGINNIS

…republicans have accepted that Stormont is, and Stormont is my Britishness, that Stormont is acceptable, they may not want that but they’ve accepted it…

SEAMUS BOYD

But all of that at the expense…

LORD MAGINNIS

…all of that has been achieved by David Trimble.

SEAMUS BOYD

All of that at the expense of his own party. Is his legacy, on the one hand, what you’ve just outlined, but on the other the sacrifice of its own party, the one in ten party?

LORD MAGINNIS

Yes, well we’ve seen over the last 30 years, we’ve seen huge sacrifices. We’ve seen the sort of sacrifices that were made by members of the police, the RUC, the Ulster Defence Regiment and more lately PSNI, those who are in the PSNI and the Royal Irish. 

We’ve seen those sacrifices and the sacrifices of ordinary members of the community and to turn your back on that or to capitalize on that for a personal gain is not in the nature of Ulster Unionism. That is not what the principle of politics is about and the one thing I’ve got to say this morning is, I hope that those who have been faithful to the Ulster Unionist Party, however they voted on Thursday last, will not lose their principle, will not fail to recognize that Ulster is British, that Ulster intends to remain British and that to do so we’ve got to, in a positive way, demonstrate our Britishness. 

We cannot now retreat into some sort of (unclear) and hope that we will forever be able to live there and to exist there. 

SEAMUS BOYD

In a yes or no answer, would you take the leadership yourself if it was offered to you?

LORD MAGINNIS

I will do whatever is best for Ulster… 

SEAMUS BOYD

I think that’s yes.

LORD MAGINNIS

…I was loyal to Molyneaux, I was loyal to Trimble and I’ll be loyal to whoever takes the leadership of the party at the moment. I believe in the principles of Ulster Unionism and I’ll defend those to the death.

*****

Program: GMU
Date & Time: 09.05.05 (07.14)
Subject: Demise of UUP

SEAMUS BOYD

We’ll be hearing more about Peter Hain in a moment, but first let’s look at how the Commons is reacting to the demise of the UUP. David Lidington, who’s the Tory spokesman on Northern Ireland, is on the line now. Good morning Mr. Lidington.

DAVID LIDINGTON

Good morning.

SEAMUS BOYD

No big surprise about David Trimble. The voters made up his mind really, didn’t they?

DAVID LIDINGTON

I think that’s right and I think David will be regarded I think kindly by history. He’s a very bold, courageous unionist politician. I think the other great strength he had, and we’ll miss him in the House of Commons I think on all sides, was his ability to articulate unionist case to a wider UK and international audience that have often in the past not really understood the case for unionists, and David was able to articulate that to audiences outside Ulster. Sadly the voters have taken their decision about his future and all of us as democrats have to accept that verdict.

SEAMUS BOYD

He had withstood some pressure over the years, not many party leaders could really quite frankly have been bothered with the numerous Council meetings that he had to get his policies through on a very regular basis?

DAVID LIDINGTON

Yes, I think clearly one read about these battles within the Ulster Unionist Council and the other bodies in the party. I think also, and I look at it, that David Trimble took some bold steps and I think at times he was very badly let down by Tony Blair in whom he placed a great deal of confidence. 
And I think that the criticism one could make of the British Government was that they rather took David Trimble and his party for granted and just assumed that they’d be able to swallow a further side deal, a further concession towards the republican side. And I think that that’s proved to have been a historic mistake.

SEAMUS BOYD

Of course historically there used to be very close links between your party, (unclear) Conservative and Unionist Party. That all ended many years ago, but the Ulster Unionist Party it’s not quite dead but it’s on a life support machine and you need to move on and deal with the DUP now.

DAVID LIDINGTON

We have to deal with the people whom the electorate support and I’ve certainly found the 15 months I’ve held the Northern Ireland brief for the Conservative Party that I’ve had very friendly and productive dealings with the Democratic Unionist Party. I think it’s completely wrong to write the DUP off, as some in GB tend to do, as a bunch of very wild people beyond the political pail. You know you talk to the DUP politicians and one doesn’t have to agree with absolutely everything someone says to understand what they’re saying. 

Very coherent point of view, articulately presented and a great deal of thinking is going on within the DUP about the future of Northern Ireland’s relations with the rest of the UK and its relations with the Irish Republic and the wider world. And I think that one does need to appreciate the distance that the DUP has come over the last decade or so.

SEAMUS BOYD

So despite the DUP manifesto, and I take it you haven’t read it in full detail, but it doesn’t really make many encouraging signs and noises about a link with Sinn Fein at some stage in the near future. You still think there’s hope for an agreement of some kind?

DAVID LIDINGTON

I think that’s up to republicans. I think that we saw last autumn that the DUP against all expectations was prepared to contemplate power sharing with republicans, but you can’t have power sharing with a party that is inextricably linked, in Tony Blair’s words, to an armed criminal gang that is still recruiting people, that is still targeting potential future victims, that is still reaping in the proceeds of organized crime. 

And if Bertie Ahern won’t have Sinn Fein in government in Dublin while those links with criminality and violence are still maintained, then I don’t see why unionists or democratic nationalists should have to have Sinn Fein in government in Belfast, while those, until those conditions of breaking with crime, breaking with violence are fully met.

***
 

Program: GMU
Date & Time: 9.5.05 (7.20)
Subject: Peter Hain appointed as new SoS

WILL LEITCH

What kind of a man have we got at Hillsborough now?

QUENTIN OLIVER

I think we will find him a real human dynamo. I mean when I knew him 30 years ago it was in the anti-apartheid movement and he was an amazing activist with incredible strategic understanding of what was going on. Those were big moments in the mid and late 70’s, the Soweto uprising, the death of Steve Biko in prison and how you work out what you can do on the other side of the world to help that struggle for justice requires strategy which he had in loads and also operational detail. And I think he commands both and he has shown that in his political and other careers since then. So I think we are in for a real pro-active Secretary of State.

WILL LEITCH

But you said he is pro-active. He likes things to happen, he likes to make things happen. We are not expecting anything much to happen in the short term here.

QUENTIN OLIVER

On the contrary I think there is a lot of positive building blocks in place. You can see that Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern both need progress in Northern Ireland for their respective political legacies. You can see that the DUP and Sinn Fein have both done well in the elections, they are not going to be outflanked by outriders. 

You can see that they are hungry for decision-making politics. Now there are big barriers but that is where good political leadership and that is where a Secretary of State who understands conflict, who understands detail and who understands strategy can play a very positive role. I think we will see change.

WILL LEITCH

He has called it a unique and challenging environment to work in. Does he have that drive to make it happen?

QUENTIN OLIVER

Oh yes. This is a politician who is on the up. A politician who is ambitious. A politician who as you say wants to deliver change and wants to deliver change within a value base of justice and progress. So I think both Northern Ireland needs that sort of approach and I think for him he will come with a very positive agenda and with a whole range of skills to do not just the big constitutional question, which obviously all eyes are turned on, but also running Northern Ireland requires a bit more active intervention than maybe we have seen in the past as we have drifted into suspension and drifted in a form of direct rule, it hasn’t done us much good. 

WILL LEITCH

He has been talking to the main party leaders already at the weekend, arriving in Belfast today. What about the personal relationships? Is he the kind of man who can get that relationship with leaders and make progress through that relationship?

QUENTIN OLIVER

Indeed he is noted for his charm and his ability to build relationships, but then there is a steel backbone there in terms of change and in terms of delivery. And I think he will not give a blind eye to some of the other big policy issues, the questions of investment and infrastructure which had lagged behind, the issues of transport and education and the whole water thing, not just water charging, but water investment, clean water, environmental protection, those sort of issues I don’t think will go on the side as maybe they have in the last couple of years as we have hoped that devolution was on the brink of coming back.

WILL LEITCH

What has his journey been since you first met him, this young radical 30 years ago?

QUENTIN OLIVER

He at that stage was a young liberal, but also was very keen on the involvement of civil society, so he was one of the prime movers in setting up the anti-Nazi league which was a very big mass movement against the rise of the far right at that stage in Britain. He then moved into the Labour Party. He had a trade union job in the Post Office workers union rising to head of research there and then found the bi-election in a Welsh seat in (unclear) which took him into Parliament where he has shone ever since.

WILL LEITCH

He doesn’t really like devolution. He is going to have to sort of swallow it here.

QUENTIN OLIVER

I think you will find a real understanding, Kinnock was against it, Paul Murphy was against it and Peter had converted to it by the 97 referendum when he campaigned on the yes side and I think that will be a big benefit. He understands the relationship of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to the center and I think we should see that turning into a bottom-up relationship rather than London telling us what to do and he is the man to help that happen.

*****
 

Program: Radio 4, Today Program:
Date & Time: 9.5.05 (8.43)
Subject: Challenges facing NI, Peter Hain

JAMES NAUGHTIE

The new Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain is on his way to Belfast this morning. He will find a political process there in deadlock, not apparently helped by the crest of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists in the election. Mr. Hain has described reaching a permanent political solution as his absolute priority. I spoke to him earlier. I did ask him what he thought were the immediate challenges facing him in Northern Ireland.

SECRETARY OF STATE

The first thing is to give an absolutely crystal clear signal that we can’t continue to be bogged down, as we have been, in stalemate. We need to move forward, we need to get the Institutions up and running. We need to bring the Democratic Unionists and the whole of the unionist community into Northern Ireland Government alongside the other parties, including Sinn Fein, and we need the Provisional IRA and the other paramilitary organizations to end criminality and end their paramilitary ambitions. 

Now if we can do that, and I am confident we can having talked to the party leaders, including Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams over the weekend, I think there is an intention to move forward and we need to take this opportunity because the people of Northern Ireland have now had 7 years of peace and stability interrupted by the odd crisis or other. They now need to be sure that this is permanent.

JAMES NAUGHTIE

Well that was Peter Hain talking this morning. DENIS Murray, our Ireland correspondent is on the line. It is fine for Mr. Hain to say that they need to be reassured that this progress, relative peace is permanent, but the problem is that we are still in a deadlock here, aren’t we? Mr. Trimble says that the refusal of the IRA to disarm in any real sense has so disgusted the unionist community that it turned increasingly to Mr. Paisley’s party rather than his own and there seems little way forward.

DENIS MURRAY

I couldn’t agree more. I think there seems little way forward and then I think Peter Hain and I have just been listening to Dermot Ahern, the Irish Foreign Minister on BBC Radio Ulster and they are making all these right noises if you like and they will certainly have another try and I have always said that one thing about Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern they aren’t going to let this go. But I mean the reason people voted for Sinn Fein this time is that large sections of the nationalist community see being in powersharing as a stepping stone to a united Ireland. 

And it is for precisely that reason that people voted for the Democratic Unionist Party on the other side because they don’t want it to be used as a stepping stone to a united Ireland. And I mean how you square that circle I just don’t see it. It depends what you accept from Ian Paisley. At one point he said on Friday he would never share power with Sinn Fein, at another point on Friday he said he wouldn’t talk to them, then he said he wouldn’t talk to them until the IRA had gone away and all the weapons had been decommissioned and a period of decontamination after that. It depends what comes out once the heat of the election battle is over.

JAMES NAUGHTIE

A problem with the heat of the election battle is that it is not just the election battle, it was the McCartney murder and the Northern Bank robbery which seemed to convince a lot of people that really nothing had changed under the surface and many people concluded or felt that as a result of those things that the whole thing was really rather fake and they got a bit fed up of it, that’s how it looked didn’t it?

DENIS MURRAY

There is always a tide in these things and I think that certainly the core republican vote felt that Gerry Adams had done everything that he possibly could, certainly in the case of the McCartney murder, and I talked to several people at the Sinn Fein annual conference who were genuinely, it seemed to me, shattered by what had happened. 

But the Northern Bank robbery was never going to cost Sinn Fein a single vote because I mean the Protestant community laughed as well, because let’s face it who likes banks? Now it was a crime and I probably shouldn’t be saying things like that but it is a political reality, but in the case of Robert McCartney the core republican vote felt Sinn Fein had done what it could but there was also a tide of momentum behind Sinn Fein just as there was a tide and a momentum behind the Democratic Unionists.

***

Program: RTE 1 Q&A
Date & Time: 9.5.05 (22.53)
Subject: Is Peter Hain a safe pair of hands?

BEN ARCHIBALD, AUDIENCE MEMBER

After the General Election just having happened and the Cabinet reshuffle I would like to know the panel’s view on Peter Hain. Is he a safe pair of hands or Blair’s walking, talking insult to the people of Wales and Ulster?

JOHN BOWMAN

You are making a point about insults because he is holding down the job of Secretary of State for Wales and for Northern Ireland, Willie O’Dea.

WILLIE O’DEA, DEFENSE MINISTER

Well do you give any new Minister a chance (unclear) expressed the opinion that Peter Hain is suffering from a dysfunctional modesty gland and I notice that one of the satirical writers in one of today’s English newspapers said that what have the people of Northern Ireland ever done to deserve having Peter Hain appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland? 

From what I know of Peter Hain he is a very, very able politician, a very, very able politician. A very ambitious politician. I have no doubt that he will strive mightily to leave his mark on Northern Ireland, he has a very tough job. There has been some criticism expressed of the fact he is also Secretary, he retains his position as Secretary of State for Wales. Now I don’t know what being Secretary of State for Wales entails…..

(Unclear)

WILLIE O’DEA, DEFENSE MINISTER

I imagine it is something of a (unclear) area.

JOHN BOWMAN

Susan McKay, he wasn’t of course first choice for this job. Is it a botched reshuffle?

SUSAN MCKAY, IRISH TIMES, IRISH NEWS

It does seem very peculiar, it is a job share and he is Welsh. I saw him actually earlier on on television, he was doing a walkabout in Belfast city center and he said rather unfortunately ‘we have a window of opportunity, it is time to walk through it.’ I don’t know whether he meant the British or the whole lot of us. 

But I think that he has succeeded already in making both sides a little bit wary of him in that the BBC’s correspondent unearthed a quote from him where he talked about unionists mis-rule of Northern Ireland in the past and that obviously won’t please the DUP, but on the other hand he has one of his first statements (unclear) that there has to be an end to all paramilitary activity. So he is going to put the other side on edge as well. 

So I think that Northern Ireland is still very important to Tony Blair and I think that he probably wants to prove his peace-making credentials on us, given that he has kind of lost them on Iraq. But on the other hand it does appear that he is not giving it the importance that he might have done in the past by giving this on a part-time basis.

JOHN BOWMAN

(Unclear) what message do you take from the fact that he is holding down two jobs?

DERMOT NESBITT (UUP)

Yes the question was is he a safe pair of hands? As was said by Susan there the first thing he did today was go for a walkabout around Belfast. When I saw it, it reminded me of Mo Mowlam going for a walkabout around Belfast when she arrived. 

But I think it links into the first question, the template if I can use that, is there for a settlement in Northern Ireland, indeed this comprehensive agreement of December 2004 that the DUP bought into in total except for the modalities of decommissioning, so let’s be very clear. 

And that comprehensive agreement stated in paragraph 2 that the two Governments were fully committed to implementing the Belfast Agreement. So the modalities are there. So what needs to be done is for that to occur and that can only be done by the people in Northern Ireland and in particular by the republican movement fulfilling their obligations. 

Now Peter Hain can make his contribution and the Prime Minister in London and in Dublin have made very clear what the position is, that paramilitarism and all of its activity has to cease and we have to be certain about it. Now the point is those are their credentials for moving forward. We take the position and in fact maybe resent is too strong a word but I got to know the Ministers from Fianna Fail during the time we were in Government. I see them exercising and discharging responsibility on behalf of their electorate and yet I can’t do that. We are under the control of direct rule ministers. Why? Because for some reason we can’t progress forward because there is paramilitarism……

JOHN BOWMAN

The question is about Peter Hain really…….

DERMOT NESBITT, UUP

But what I am trying to (unclear) when the question is about Peter (unclear) the key element in resolution is not Peter Hain, it is the dimensions that need to be resolved in Northern Ireland. 

I stood in (unclear) for the Westminster count whenever the DUP was making a very joyous speech and I said yes you can be very joyful today but tomorrow is a new day and the problems of yesterday are the same as the problems of today and tomorrow. I have enunciated what the problems are (unclear) in fact Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, he may have much more to do as he is quite often in Belfast.

JOHN BOWMAN

Alasdair McDonnell, you are meeting him tomorrow morning.

ALASDAIR MCDONNELL, SDLP, MP

From where I am sitting I wish Peter Hain well and I believe that he has a difficult enough time ahead of him getting things sorted out. But from my perspective he has to literally go back to the Good Friday Agreement and stick with it and have no side deals, or back door deals or any other parallel deals. 

The reality was and part of the erosion of the Good Friday Agreement was that efforts were being made, dare I say, really by both Governments to work out deals with Sinn Fein on the one hand and try and suck the DUP into the process and they left the rest of us that were standing in the middle holding the fort, high and dry. 

So the reality is that if we do go forward Peter Hain’s responsibility is to stick with the Agreement and to have an inclusive debate and discussion that involves all four parties. There is no point in taking one or two or three parties with you. But I think the important point about Peter Hain is that he will have to use politics and he will have to hold the DUP on the one hand and the provisional movement on the other hand to account so that we get movement and we get real movement and no ducking and no diving as we have seen in the past. The other point about it is it would appear to me that this, his double jobbing if you like, is largely part of the reality, because Tony Blair is still at the wheel, what this tells us is that Tony Blair is controlling the show and Tony Blair intends to sort out whatever sorting out has to be done and he may have Peter Hain there but the reality is the real decisions will be taken by Tony Blair and perhaps Jonathan Powell and others around Tony Blair. And certainly from my perspective I want to see them getting on with it. I want to see devolution. I want to see things……

JOHN BOWMAN

Conor Murphy, on what sort of timescale?

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

Well as soon as possible…….

JOHN BOWMAN

No but (unclear) the ball is obviously in the IRA’s court…..

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

Not necessarily at all. And I mean we have tried to take an initiative to try and rescue the sort of impasse that has been……..

JOHN BOWMAN

(Unclear)

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

In relation to Peter Hain I find that I agree with what Dermot and what Alasdair are saying, for us it has never been about personalities, it is about British policy in Ireland and I do think that a large amount of the dealings with what hopefully will be a comprehensive agreement has been done by Downing Street. So in that sense the various Secretary of States have been largely irrelevant to all of that. Obviously we want to get an agreement back going to together as quickly as possible.

JOHN BOWMAN

(unclear)

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

In an agreement there is always other people. I mean we have a position now where the DUP are talking about a generation and what we are talking about is trying to get things done as quickly as possible. Dermot is quite right, we did almost have a very comprehensive agreement reached last December. I would like to get back to it as quickly as we possibly can. I believe and am confident that republicans will play their part in trying to make that comprehensive agreement work…….

JOHN BOWMAN

And that includes the IRA?

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

Yes, that does include the IRA.

JOHN BOWMAN

And what timeframe do you think?

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

I would expect it to be certainly within weeks but months at the outset to get some sort of an answer, that is the sort of timeframe……

JOHN BOWMAN

And that would mean that they’ll go away and we have total disarmament?

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

Well let’s see what they say is the answer. The situation and the atmosphere will be greatly enhanced by focus being brought back into getting an agreement from both Governments and an indication from the DUP that they are going to adopt a more pragmatic approach to all of it.

JOHN BOWMAN

What is your reply to Brian Cowen’s point last week that it is not for any of us to ask the IRA to go away, it is the Irish people who want them to go away. The most republican thing they could do would be to listen to the will of the Irish people?

CONOR MURPHY, SINN FEIN

And Sinn Fein want them to go away. We have always recognized that they won’t be wished away, nor will the unionist paramilitaries, nor will the British Army, or the heavily armed police service that we have with us. So what we have to do is create a set of conditions whereby we can get rid of all of the armed groups, that is what Sinn Fein have been striving towards for the last 10-15 years. Now we are not there yet but I think we have made substantial progress and I think progress can be picked up now that the elections are out of the way.

BEN ARCHIBALD

I think it beholds us all to wish the man well and to hope that he gets on with the job of bringing a sustainable peace to Northern Ireland. But I have been studying his progress since 1997 and I do think it is kind of difficult for me to think of a more appalling useless person to put in the position.

JOHN BOWMAN

Why do you say that?

BEN ARCHIBALD

There is the danger here that he does as you say want to make a name for himself. He always seems to have wanted to do that. I suspect that that is going to lead to more capitulation and more giving in to the extremes in Northern Ireland when what we really need is moderate peace.

****

May 10, 2005

Politics

Peter Hain arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday and got straight down to work by meeting both the DUP and Sinn Fein. Mr. Hain also insisted that the post of Northern Secretary had not been down-graded because he retained his Welsh Secretary post, News Letter (p3), Irish Independent (p11), FT (p2), Independent (p9). After the meeting Gerry Adams said the peace process had been paralyzed in recent months by the politics of recrimination and the blame game, Daily Ireland (p4).

The DUP left the new Secretary of State in no doubt about its views on the peace process as its political strength continued to grow. They presented Peter Hain with a copy of their party manifesto and warned him that transparent IRA decommissioning and total disbandment with a testing period were required before they would even start to consider powersharing with Sinn Fein, News Letter (p1).

Unlike his predecessor, Peter Hain knows how to make an entrance. Where Mr. Murphy went for a stroll around Bangor in 2002 the 'dashing' Mr. Hain opted for a walk about in Belfast city center, Irish News (p9), Belfast Telegraph (p3), Irish Times (p8), Mirror (p9), Sun (p14). 

Angela Smith is the only Minister to retain her position in Northern Ireland as part of the Prime Minister's ministerial reshuffle, News Letter (p9), Irish Times (p8). Shaun Woodward has been appointed NIO Junior Minister, Daily Telegraph (p2), Guardian (p4), Independent (p7), Daily Mail (p5).

David Trimble has warned the Secretary of State that he will be making a grave mistake if he fails to put pressure on republicans to disband the IRA. Mr. Trimble also said he had no regrets about his role in the Belfast Agreement, Irish News (p3), News Letter (p3), Irish Independent (p10), Irish Times (p8), Daily Telegraph (p4), The Times (p1,2), Guardian (p5), Mirror (p9), Sun (p2). David Trimble has admitted that he considered quitting as UUP leader after the 2003 Assembly Election when the DUP topped the poll, News Letter (p2). A private poll has revealed that almost half of UUP members want Sylvia Hermon to get the job, Daily Ireland (p5).

In an Opinion piece Susan McKay says unionism is to blame for David Trimble's downfall as it has shown that while it knows what it is against it doesn't know what it is for. 'What will become of God and Ulster when the IRA goes away?' Irish News (p10).

Maurice Hayes says history will be kinder to David Trimble than to his contemporaries, Belfast Telegraph (p9).

News Letter editorial (p9) states Peter Hain has moved on considerably in his political career from his radical days and is very much an establishment figure in the New Labour administration. Northern Ireland will undoubtedly be his toughest assignment to date and he needs to be more assertive in politically punishing Sinn Fein for the failure of the IRA to decommission its weapons and abandon its criminality. He must listen to the genuine concerns of the populous at large and particularly those in the unionist community. 

Belfast Telegraph editorial (p22) says Peter Hain must try to persuade the IRA to leave the stage and if he needs inspiration then he could do no better than to reread the Prime Minister's Belfast speech from October 2002. The choice outlined then has still to be made by the IRA. 

Daily Mail editorial (p12) - with quiet dignity David Trimble has resigned from the leadership of the UUP. Hasn't Mr. Trimble been ill-served by the Prime Minister and doesn't the decision to send Peter Hain and Shaun Woodward to Northern Ireland show what little importance Mr. Blair now attaches to the Province? 

UKUP MLA Robert McCartney has said that it is time to unite unionism, Belfast Telegraph (p22,23).

***

Program: Doorstep
Date & Time: 10.05.05
Subject: SDLP Meeting with Peter Hain

MARK DURKAN

Well obviously it was our first meeting with Peter Hain, as Secretary of State. We made it very clear to him that the Good Friday Agreement has to be the agenda, that the first task for him as Secretary of State had to be to work with the Irish Government and with the parties to make sure that we restored the institutions of the Agreement, institutions that all parties already were in, and already worked well. 

That has to be the first priority and we made it very clear to him that as we’ve made clear to the public, we’re not turning our back on inclusion and we’re not turning a blind eye to crime. Governments, both Governments need to be very focused on what is required and where parties fall short, no matter whether they’ve got increased mandates or not, where parties fall short of what is needed, Governments have to call them short.

REPORTER

Well with that increased mandate, the shinners and the DUP, does that mean that there is a possibility of a deal at this point?

MARK DURKAN

Well the Governments have to learn the lesson of past failures, the fact is the December deal wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It wasn’t just a failed deal, it was a flawed deal that didn’t solve the problems it intended to solve. Similarly, the previous deals before that, and the Governments need to learn the lesson of those failures. They maybe need to run the process on a more accountable, a more transparent plan of course and on a more inclusive basis. And the best way of doing that is by showing that they’re moving to restoration of the institutions as far as possible. And then those parties that are content with their pumped up mandates will have somewhere in which to exercise those mandates, and they can show whether they’re up to the task or not.

***
 

LOCAL ELECTION COUNT NEARS COMPLETION
05/10/05 06:19 EST

The counting of ballot papers in the local government elections in Northern Ireland is continuing. Most of the 582 seats are now filled with the remainder to be declared through today. 

A total of 918 candidates are contesting the seats across Northern Ireland's 26 council areas. 

So far, the results have more or less mirrored the pattern of the general election. The DUP are well in the lead with Sinn Fein lying a strong second. 

The Ulster Unionist Party's share of the vote has dropped in many areas. 

The SDLP's share was reduced by several percentage points while the Alliance Party has held its share, gaining several new seats 

Sinn Fein took a seat for the first time in Ballymena although it lost a seat in east Belfast. 

The DUP won control of two councils for the first time. They gained 12 seats out of 23 in Ards Borough Council and also have 13 councillors of 23 in Castlereagh. 

Among the candidates elected to Belfast City Council early on Tuesday were Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey and the DUP's Diane Dodds. Thy topped the poll in Laganbank and Shankill. 

Meanwhile, an Ulster Unionist candidate who withdrew from the election has been elected in Lisburn anyway. 

The withdrawal of David Archer Jr. followed an alleged incident inside the city's council offices. 

His name remained on the ballot papers because they had already been printed. It is likely there will have to be a by-election for his seat unless the other parties agree that the UUP can co-opt another party member onto the council. 

Veteran socialist Eamonn McCann has failed to get elected to Derry City Council. He was standing for the Socialist Environmental Alliance. 

In Fermanagh the gender balance of the council has been among the notable changes. Six women have been elected compared to the previous tally of one. 

The overall turnout has been gauged at 63%.