Courtney McGrailMartin O’Brien and Mags Gargan
Lord Robin Eames, former CofI Archbishop of Armagh and one of the leading figures in the Northern Ireland peace process, has said he believes the political parties are close to agreement on legacy.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Irish Catholic, Archbishop Eames said he was disappointed that the recommendations of the Eames–Bradley consultative group, which he led with former Derry priest Denis Bradley, had not been implemented. However, he said “the architecture of Eames-Bradley is now beginning to be recognised” by the parties, having been accepted more than two years ago by Richard Haass.
He said he was “reasonably certain” that the political parties in the North “are closer to agreement on the legacy question than has been made public”.
“I cannot and do not know what the detail will be but I have reason to believe that when the dust settles after the election we are going to see some broad agreement on how to deal with the legacy issue,” Archbishop Eames said.
Amazed
Lord Eames said he is “not despondent and not surprised” that there has not been more progress in the 18 years since the Good Friday Agreement but was amazed by the “reaction of people I meet in England now who say that the agreement and decommissioning means the end”. “I say, listen, it was only a stage in the way, we are not nearly there yet.”
He also criticised some voices in Westminster who have the attitude of “you’ve got all you’re going to get, get on with it”. “And I have to say to them, look, the struggle we are having now at the moment is we are slowly getting to some sort of real democracy, if you want to call it that, but it is a long hard road to achieve the sort of peace that we need,” he said.