To be sure, the “troubles” in Northern Ireland since the Easter Rebellion in 1914 represent one of the most confounding conflicts of our times.
I have been writing that leadership arises in taking a stand that a difference can be made in situations that look difficult or impossible, and until recently, few have risen to the occasion.
But this past month, Ian Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party and Protestant groups, and Gerry Adams, head of Sin Fein and Catholic groups, began face-to-face negotiations that led to a historic breakthrough.
The two announced a breakthrough deal Monday to forge a power-sharing administration by the end of May, a long-elusive goal of peacemaking, since the Good Friday Meetings.
The two foes, who previously negotiated only via third parties, sat across from each other at a table in the main dining room in Stormont Parliamentary Building in Belfast, but reportedly did not shake hands.
The historic icebreaker came on the day that Tony Blair set an “unbreakable” deadline for a Catholic-Protestant administration to be formed. “We’re very hopeful that progress can be made,” the Sinn Fein Chairwoman Mary Lou McDonald said as the talks began between Paisley (80) and Adams (58)—long sworn, bitter enemies.
If there is any leadership lesson that can be learned from this story, it is that even those who are sworn enemies want to leave a legacy and can thus find it within themselves to subordinate their egos to a higher cause.
Perhaps another lesson is that all the posturing and defensiveness that goes on in the absence of communication accomplishes little, while if we sit down and talk to someone we might rather avoid, we often accomplish a lot.
Also sitting down face-to-face – however distasteful the idea may be – is a much better way to resolve conflict than going through a third party
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