Orange Light for Peace |

By Helen Gibson/London

Despite the euphoria after the Irish Republican Army's cease-fire declaration six weeks ago, few Northern Ireland citizens were incautious enough to believe that the end of their long troubles was at hand. Last week, however, it looked like another critical step closer when the two most important paramilitary groups of Protestant loyalists, plus a smaller one, announced that they too would "cease all operational hostilities" effective midnight Oct. 13. The prospects of an end to 25 years of bloodshed seemed brighter. "It's a great day for the people of Northern Ireland," said John Hume, leader of Ulster's Social Democratic and Labour Party.

Spokesmen for the Protestant groups -- the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Freedom Fighters and the Red Hand Commandos -- linked their truce to the I.R.A.'s continued adherence to its own cease-fire. The Loyalists added a surprise note of apology for their terrorist actions, declaring their "abject and true remorse" to the loved ones of all innocent victims for the "intolerable suffering" they had endured. "We are on the threshold of a new beginning," the statement said, "with our battles in future being political battles."

Or so it is hoped. Like the I.R.A., the Loyalist paramilitaries avoided using the word permanent to describe their cease-fire. The term had been demanded last December by both Prime Minister John Major's Conservative government in London and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds as a precondition for any talks with the terrorists of either side. After the I.R.A. cease-fire on Aug. 31, Reynolds backed away from the condition, but Major had Protestant Unionists' fears to assuage.

Enormous obstacles remain, of course. Politically, the two camps are as bitterly opposed as ever, with the I.R.A. and its political wing Sinn Fein demanding a united Ireland -- whatever the 1 million-member Protestant majority in Northern Ireland says. Many Unionists envision only marginal changes in the status quo, with perhaps some sort of regional assembly holding limited powers under London's supervision.

In the event that the "political battles" to come cannot resolve such differences, Ulster residents are all too aware that none of the paramilitary organizations have shown any willingness to hand over their weapons. On the Republican side, armed splinter groups like the Irish National Liberation Army have not even joined the truce. For the present, though, like survivors of a long, dark winter, the citizenry on both sides came out to exult in the new light, hesitantly unwinding their nerves and reflexes after 25 years.