
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995                   TAG: 9502280013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NORTHERN IRELAND

OPTIMISM about the end of sectarian strife in Northern Ireland must always be kept carefully measured. The troubles have gone on for too long, and have been too bloody, for unconditional hope.

Even so, the agreement between London and Dublin this week on a formula for negotiating the province's future must be regarded as a positive sign. Perhaps the possibility of a lasting settlement can no longer be dismissed as utter fantasy.

Not - contrary to the opinions of many on both sides in Northern Ireland - that the government of either Britain or the Irish Republic has really been the problem. For London, the province is more trouble to govern than it's worth; for Dublin, agreement to drop its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland is formal confirmation of what has been de facto accepted for years.

Nor, for that matter, is it clear that a majority of the people in Northern Ireland, whether Protestant or Catholic, ever approved of the resort to violence taken for the past quarter-century by paramilitary Protestant groups and the Catholic Irish Republican Army. At a minimum, however, those organizations have had sufficient popular support to keep matters boiling.

That is, until recently.

When the IRA announced a unilateral cease-fire a few months ago, Protestant extremists refused at first to do likewise. In time, however, they did so.

Now, British Prime Minister John Major and Prime Minister John Bruton of the Irish Republic are counting on public appreciation of the peace to overcome the initial storm of criticism from leading politicians of Northern Ireland's Protestant majority.

Two key points in the agreement are self-determination for Northern Ireland, and formation of a new Northern Ireland assembly. If nothing else, they reflect the truth that any lasting settlement ultimately must come from within the province, rather than be imposed from without.

by CNB