It's a beautiful day

By Mark Simpson Ireland Correspondent

POSTED: Wednesday 6 April, 2050 BST

An Irish angle has emerged to Labour's re-election campaign - and it's nothing to do with the latest manoeuvrings by Sinn Fein and the IRA.

The U2 song Beautiful Day is being played religiously by Labour officials before every set-piece appearance by Tony Blair.

At Wednesday afternoon's Blair-Brown news conference, the lights dimmed, the assembled reporters went quiet and suddenly Bono's husky Irish voice boomed out of the loud speakers: "It's a beautiful day... sky falls, you feel like ... it's a beautiful day... don't let it get away."

During the 75-minute question-and-answer session that followed, Northern Ireland wasn't mentioned once. No surprise there. It's well outside the top 10 issues in this campaign, in fact it would struggle to make the top 20.

Nonetheless, you can bet that as soon as he came off stage in London, Mr Blair was being telephoned by his officials at Number 10 to be told about what Gerry Adams had just said at his afternoon news conference in Belfast.

"In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle...now there is an alternative," said the Sinn Fein president, in a landmark speech.

After the gloom surrounding the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney, hopes are starting to flicker again.

Unlike in London, there were no questions in Belfast. Reporters desperately wanted to ask - does this really mean the IRA is about to disband? Destroy all their weapons? Give up violence for good?

We shouldn't have long to wait for an answer to those questions. The IRA is considering its response. It may well come before polling day.

No-one will be more anxious to hear it more than Tony Blair. Whatever the criticism of his handling of the Northern Ireland problem (and there is plenty of flak on both sides of the Irish Sea), few doubt that Mr Blair is genuinely committed to sorting it out. That's why he's been to Belfast almost 40 times since he was elected prime minister.

If the IRA was to announce before 5 May that it intended decommissioning all of its weapons and going into a new peaceful mode, it would certainly reflect well on Mr Blair.

But would it have any impact on the Labour vote? Is Joe Bloggs from Basingstoke really going to choose Labour because it looks like the power-sharing government at Stormont might be coming back? I don't think so.

What it would do, however, is make Mr Blair's life a lot easier if he manages to get re-elected.

What the peace process has lacked in recent months is a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

After the gloom surrounding the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney, hopes are starting to flicker again.

Much depends on what the IRA does next, and whether Sinn Fein's appeal turns out simply to be an election gimmick.

For the moment though, some people are starting to dream again about the possibility of the peace process being completed in Northern Ireland. Now that really would be a Beautiful Day.

Your comments

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Nah... The use of U2s Beatiful Day is totally wrong. Shouldn't it really have been: Send in the Clowns?
Milo Bramble, Suffolk

Mark Simpson's choice of phrase in suggesting that Gerry Adams' historic announcement may not play in Basingstoke is an ironic choice. Considering Bsingstoke is currently represented by an MP who takes the DUP whip, is a key marginal with Labour neck and neck, and has a significant Irish population he might wish to have chosen almost any other consitituency to compare the announcement against!
Daniel Yates, Sompting West Sussex UK