The most important political talks in the recent history of Northern Ireland, which began on Thursday last week, appear to hang on the uncertain health of the 78-year-old Ian Paisley.
Paisley, the undisputed leader of unionism, resolved to make the 640km journey to Leeds Castle in Kent, south-east England — where British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted the three days of talks — by car and ferry after doctors banned him from flying after a week of mysterious hospital tests.
Paisley, whose hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has resisted compromise for most of the 30 years of the troubles, has dismissed fears that he is not fit enough to lead his community during Blair’s drive to restore devolution to Northern Ireland.
But attempts by his party to deflect the focus from Paisley’s health have increased speculation about his willingness to forge a deal over the weekend and the possible gap between the fundamentalist and liberal wings of his party.
While the DUP played down the speculation, Paisley appeared at Stormont to accuse ”Romanists” in the media of peddling lies about his health.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, has powured oil on the fire on the eve of the talks by saying that Paisley ”appears to be in something of a physical and mental turmoil at this stage in his life; it’s quite possible that it is impacting on the situation”.
Alasdair McDonnell, the Social Democratic and Labour Party’s (SDLP) deputy leader and a practising doctor, on Wednesday said Paisley deserved privacy, but if he took up an office such as that of first minister, he would have to make any health issue public.
Paisley’s son, Ian Paisley Jnr, who is also a Stormont assembly member, told the BBC his father would be leading the talks ”from the front”.
Paisley Snr led a DUP delegation to Blair’s office at Downing Street on Wednesday in advance of the talks, which hope to secure a DUP-Sinn Fein power-sharing government.
Leeds Castle is the perfect setting for the two parties at opposing ends of the Northern Ireland spectrum to walk off into the sunset together.
But it is unclear if a deal can be achieved. It is two years since the power-sharing arrangement between unionists and nationalists fell apart and Stormont was suspended amid allegations of an Irish Republican Army (IRA) spy ring.
Ironically, it is Sinn Fein that now accuses the British government of espionage after two bugging devices were found last week, in an office and a party worker’s flat.
The previous attempt by London and Dublin to restore devolution, last October, was an embarrassing eleventh-hour failure. In elections a month later, the DUP and Sinn Fein took over from the middle-ground parties, the SDLP and David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists.
The DUP and Sinn Fein want devolution and Blair has threatened to pull the plug on Stormont if progress was not made on the weekend, including cutting the salaries of assembly members who have pocketed £2,8-million collectively in the past 10 months since elections last November.
Six years of repair jobs, talks and tentative deadlines have passed since 1998’s Good Friday agreement and the prime minister is determined to rescue his greatest legacy: the Northern Ireland peace process. Yet much remains to be resolved in two and a half days.
The DUP reiterated last week that it would not negotiate with Sinn Fein until the IRA was ”out of business for good” and all its weapons ”dismantled”.
The party wants a transparent act of decommissioning, with a list of the amount and type of weapons destroyed.
It also seeks to renegotiate the political institutions of the Good Friday agreement. But Sinn Fein and others say that altering the agreement would be unacceptable.
Sinn Fein has said it wants a ”comprehensive and conclusive deal” on the weekend. It wants power over Northern Ireland’s reformed police service devolved from London to Belfast in a short time frame. The DUP has been hesitant about how long this might take.
Sinn Fein has also said it wants Britain’s military presence in Northern Ireland to be scaled back, as well as the British government to stop ”protecting” human rights abusers, and republicans who are on the run to be allowed to return home. — Guardian Newspapers 2004