No, I’m glad I didn’t know about it. If I’d known, it would have put me in a difficult moral dilemma. But everyone knew the IRA ceasefire wouldn’t continue indefinitely in a vacuum . . . I continued to warn those I was meeting in private [about the] unbearable strain on my capacity to keep the republicans in check. I brought them to the negotiating table and kept them there for 18 months. The reality was that the process was at a breaking point. It was rescued by President Clinton’s visit, and we in Sinn Fein cooperated with the Mitchell commission. But when John Major put the Mitchell report in the rubbish bin, the IRA–and I wish they had not done that–decided their cessation was over.
That’s for others to judge. I have done my best. The irony of this situation is that John Major needs me, and people like me. If he wants to put the peace process back together, he has to have a bridge.
Proximity talks might be useful. But what’s required are public assurances that the two governments will create a facility for all-party talks as soon as possible. All these other matters, like elections, should be part of that dialogue, not preconditions to talks.
The bombing may have given them an extra excuse not to talk. But look at the Middle East. When there were breakdowns in the peace process, Rabin said clearly, as did Arafat, that we are going to redouble our efforts. The same thing happened in South Africa. Of course, the bombing marks a grave, grave situation which will be exploited by opponents of the peace process for their own selfish ends. But it has to be seized by the rest of us.
No, I’m not sure. But I’m sure of this: there has to be a restoration of the peace process . . . and that includes an end to all armed action. Will it fail now because the IRA have become frustrated with British and Unionist intransigence? Will it fail because John Major wants to stay in power another six months? Will it fail because Dublin doesn’t stand up to the British? All these are imponderables. . . . I’m going to try anyway, because the alternative is too bleak.
I have honored every commitment I gave to the White House and the North American public. [But] I understand the realpolitik . . . What the White House has to decide is if I’m a positive element in the peace process and make its judgment accordingly.
There are no risks involved in that, no relation between Sinn Fein’s funding and IRA arsenals. A lot of people have invested in the Irish peace process. We still need [it] today.
The black dog of depression [has] nibbled at my heels. But I’ve often used a phrase which I’ve plagiarized from somebody else–“the optimism of the will has to override the pessimism of the intellect.” Irish republicans can say, “It’s the same old story. The British government won’t listen to the force of argument.” We can all say whatever we want . . . [But] we are now at a defining moment. We have to assert the optimism of the will.
