It has been almost seven years since the Good Friday agreement was reached among the Irish and British governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland. That agreement was subsequently endorsed overwhelmingly by the people of Ireland in referendums held North and South. Its implementation represents the democratic will of the Irish people. It remains the only route to lasting peace and reconciliation on our island.

I know that many of our friends in the United States have been deeply frustrated by the problems we have had since 1998 in securing full implementation of the agreement. I share this frustration. But I also know that enormous progress has been made. I know that the quality of life for ordinary people in Northern Ireland has improved immeasurably over the past decade. I know that the principle of equality, long denied to many, is now accepted as a fundamental right of all. I know that children growing up today on both sides of the community divide can look forward to a brighter future than that experienced by any previous generation.

But I also know that the time has come to finalize once and for all what has become a very protracted peace process.

Despite the many demands of the post-Sept. 11 world, President Bush has remained very supportive of our efforts to bring a definitive end to the conflict in Ireland. I thank him and all Americans for this country’s ongoing contribution to our peace process. We would have made far less progress without the direct involvement of successive U.S. administrations over the past 12 years.

What we have been trying to do since 1998 is to establish, as outlined in the agreement, a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland that contains representatives from both the unionist and nationalist communities and to get definitive closure on paramilitary activity and capability, including the decommissioning of illegal weapons. We came close to achieving this in early December but failed to secure agreement on how the decommissioning of all remaining IRA weapons should be verified and on the ending of paramilitary and criminal activity.

Two weeks later, almost $50 million was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast. The professional assessment of the police in Ireland, North and South, is that the Provisional IRA was responsible for the crime. Moreover, the IRA resumed vicious punishment attacks. Then, in late January, a young Catholic father of two, Robert McCartney, was brutally murdered in Belfast. It is widely accepted that he was killed by individuals who were members of the IRA and who then colluded in systematically covering up the crime scene. In a deeply disturbing response to this outrage, the IRA subsequently offered to shoot those responsible. Robert McCartney’s family, which has engaged in a courageous campaign for justice, rightly rejected this grotesque offer, insisting that the killers be brought to justice before the courts.

These events have been deeply dispiriting to those of us in Ireland and the United States who have made every possible effort to bring Sinn Fein and the IRA fully into the democratic process.

Ultimately, I believe the only way to bring lasting peace and stability to Northern Ireland is to implement all aspects of the Good Friday agreement.

This will require all sides to return to constructive engagement. In particular, Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, now Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, must share power with all other democratic parties and commit itself to working with the political institutions of the Good Friday agreement. But it is clear that there can be no political progress until Sinn Fein and the IRA bring definitive closure to all forms of paramilitary activity and criminality and conclude the process of weapons decommissioning in a manner that provides confidence on all sides. Quite simply, it will not be possible to persuade people to work together in a government in Northern Ireland until these critical issues are resolved.

There is no point in fudging this any longer. The trust and confidence necessary to sustain a power-sharing administration cannot be restored until the destabilizing impact of IRA paramilitarism and criminality has been removed from the equation.

Courage and leadership have been displayed by many political leaders at critical junctures during the course of the peace process. Today we are at another such critical moment. It is time for the IRA, indeed all paramilitary organizations, to fully accept and respect the will of the people who voted for peace and democracy in 1998.

— Bertie Ahern is prime minister of Ireland.