The Good Friday Agreement gave new hope to the people of Ireland. After years of Troubles, it promised justice. It promised equality. It promised peace.
For two years in total, the agreement's institutions not only worked, they worked well. In no way did they cause the current crisis that we are in. Rather, suspension was caused above all by the failure of parties and paramilitaries to live up to the agreement.
Loyalists continued to terrorise nationalist communities – and poison their own with drugs. And it just won't wash for unionist politicians to excuse their violence as "reactive". They have been responsible for far more murders than republicans for over a decade. And how can anyone call their obscene campaign of intimidation against ethnic minorities and Catholics "reactive"?
IRA activity has also badly damaged trust. Sinn Féin tries to pretend that all allegations against the IRA are just British dirty tricks. But the facts show otherwise. IRA members were convicted of gun-running – not in Britain but in the US.
Sinn Féin had to fork out compensation to one of their own members after he was savagely beaten for raising concerns about republican involvement in the drug trade – that happened not in the North but in the South. It isn't just in the North that people are being prosecuted for IRA spying but in the South too. And does anybody believe that it's British Intelligence doing the huge armed robberies of cigarettes that we have seen in recent times?
As for the DUP, they boycotted the Executive. They refused to operate the North South Ministerial Council. At every turn they worked to undermine almost all the agreement's new institutions – on equality, human rights and policing. Again and again they tried to fight back change – and far too often they were backed by the UUP.
Just as it took years of political effort to get the agreement, we have had to spend the last six years trying to get all these parties and paramilitaries to live up to the agreement.
Some say that we are now close to making progress. I hope that we are.
Like the Governments, I hope that the IRA will now end all its activity. That would be a welcome step forward. But they should have done so long ago for pro-Agreement Ireland not just now for the anti-Agreement DUP.
The Governments must also ensure that loyalists face up to their responsibilities. The message to them must be clear: wind up – or be locked up.
As for the DUP, they are making some positive noises of late.
Peter Robinson says that they now want power-sharing. So does the SDLP. But unlike them we practice it. We ask that they do likewise and end the systematic exclusion of nationalists on councils they dominate. Robinson's Castlereagh, Paisley's Ballymena, Donaldson's Lisburn and Campbell's Coleraine.
Jeffrey Donaldson tells us they want accountability and collectivity. So do we. We put 13 separate proposals on collectivity and accountability to them, including committees to scrutinise value for money and efficiency. The DUP never even responded to our proposals.
That's because it is not public accountability that they want but party control. A power for the DUP to veto any nationalist minister on any issue at any time. They accuse us of wanting minority rule. But this would in fact be minority rule – by them. And it is a power they will use and abuse if they get it. The DUP won't pass up a veto opportunity any more than Sinn Féin will pass up a photo opportunity.
Nigel Dodds says that he sees value in North South cooperation. Again, so do we. But given that he refused to operate it in the last Executive we want him to name the new areas where the DUP will cooperate now. What's wrong with that? And if there's nothing wrong with it, why are the SDLP the only party pushing for it?
Peter Robinson says that the DUP want to work with others. Again, so do we. But why are the DUP refusing to jointly elect a Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister? And why is he making clear that a DUP First Minister won't be making any joint appearances or joint statements with one either? What kind of joint leadership is that?
The requirement that the First and Deputy First Ministers be elected together and work together is about equality for nationalists and unionists. It is about accountability to nationalists and unionists. Above all, it is about building cross-community consensus between nationalists and unionists. It must not be diluted.
The SDLP has always been at pains to make honest and positive judgments. We want to make a positive and honest judgment on the DUP. They say they don't take things on a promise, they look for evidence. So do we. If the DUP people are sincere, we ask only that they show it. If they really want stability, then undermining the agreement's fundamentals is hardly a good way to go about it.
The SDLP wants a deal that has shared commitments from all the parties not a deal produced by the Governments that all the parties have the opportunity to pick and snipe at.
We can bend, we can extend, but we cannot pretend. If we make a real breakthrough, we will be the first to welcome it.
But if the agreement and the future direction of this society is being damaged, we will have to say so. Come what may, we will be constructive and honourable in dealing with whatever unfolds.
At its best politics is not just the art of the possible, it is about achieving what once was thought impossible. Few thought the end of the Troubles possible. Most thought achieving the agreement impossible.
So let's not lose what we have now. Let's not let bad politics damage the agreement, damage our society and risk storing up new trouble for future generations.
