While the Ulster Unionists, SDLP and Sinn Fein back the deal, minority Unionist parties and a splinter group of IRA gunmen have come out strongly against it. What we will not do... is engage in a process that ignores Britains centuries-old subjugation of the Irish nation, read a statement from the Irish National Liberation Army. Which shows how difficult it will be to achieve the next goal on the road to peace -- the decommissioning of weapons.
As if that didnt give party leaders enough to argue about, a hot little debate has broken out over whether a visit by President Clinton in mid-May would help or hinder the referendum. Nationalists say it would help; Unionists say it would hinder. If they think I should go -- and theyve got the biggest stake and the closest sense of the public -- I would be happy to do it, Clinton said Monday. If all goes well, hell be dispensing up to $100 billion in investment goodies. No doubt Ulster will say yes to that.