The fifth anniversary of the Northern Ireland peace accords came and went with little to celebrate. The peace process remains in a state of suspension over the Irish Republican Army's failure to commit to a permanent end to violence. Hopes that Britain and Ireland would be able to unveil a plan that would end the logjam have been frustrated by the IRA's reluctance to definitely renounce the use of violence.
With local elections due in weeks, IRA inaction could undermine the support of moderates that have championed the peace process. The course is clear: Renounce violence and make an unequivocal commitment to peace.
The IRA waged war for three decades to free Northern Ireland from British control. In 1998, the British government brokered a deal that provided for self-rule of the province's Catholics and Protestants in a power-sharing arrangement. A critical element of the Good Friday Accords, as they are known, was the IRA's readiness to abandon the armed struggle and commit to change by ballot, rather than bullets.
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