Seanad debates
Wednesday, 20 November 2002
Northern Ireland: Statements.
I agree with Senator Norris, to a degree, that unionism seems to be struggling, but the single biggest compromise made in the Good Friday Agreement – there were many – was the willingness of the Ulster Unionist Party to share government with the political party which had made no secret of its connection with a paramilitary organisation which had killed large numbers of members of Northern Ireland's security forces. That compromise was made because of the spirit and letter of the Good Friday Agreement which, it was understood, would precipitously lead to the decoupling of the political party in question from paramilitarism. Unionism is entitled to expect that decoupling will happen.
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