UN General Assembly
1995

When I spoke last year to the Assembly about the Northern Ireland situation, I stressed the importance of the announcement, a few weeks earlier, of the complete cessation of military operations by the IRA. This was followed, some weeks afterwards, by a similar announcement by representatives of the loyalist paramilitaries. Thankfully, the guns have now been silent in Northern Ireland for the past year. This has brought the gift of peace, and the gift of hope, to a situation where both had been sorely lacking. The gift of peace has been profoundly welcome. The unremitting toll of death and destruction which disfigured Northern Ireland for the past generation has been halted. The economic opportunities offered by peace have rapidly begun to be exploited. Freed from the shadow of terrorism, human contacts have multiplied across the divide in Northern Ireland and between both parts of the island. The paramilitary leaders, through the maintenance of their cease-fires, have made an important first contribution to the climate of hope. However, only the two Governments and the political leaders in Northern