AMY GOODMAN: And this news from Ireland: The IRA announced yesterday it’s put some weapons beyond use in what’s widely seen as a historic breakthrough for the Northern Ireland peace process. The move could lead to the restoration of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive if unionist parties agree.

We’re joined right now by Goretti Horgan, human rights and peace activist. Can you talk about the significance of yesterday’s announcement?

GORETTI HORGAN: Yes. Well, it’s really a huge breakthrough for peace here in Northern Ireland. Basically, over the last four or five years, actually for the last seven years, there’s been a great level of peace here with the IRA guns being entirely silenced. However, there’s been a sort of a push from mainly the unionists, and particularly the anti-agreement unionists. Those who really don’t want to see power sharing and don’t want to see civil rights here have used the question of the IRA arms not being decommissioned as a block for progress on the development of new structures here. And really, what’s great about the decommissioning of the IRA arms is not so much what it means in terms of the availability of arms for anybody who does want to be involved in terrorism. After all, they can just go and buy some more if they want to do that. But what it does do is it sort of takes away the excuse from the anti-agreement people who haven’t wanted to see a new society emerging here in Northern Ireland.

AMY GOODMAN: Goretti Horgan, we also understand two people were arrested yesterday in County Down. Who were they?

GORETTI HORGAN: They were republican dissidents, and they were arrested with a submachine gun in the car. I think what that really says is that the — they’re probably Real IRA people, what are called Real IRA, and they are a very, very small group. They represent a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority on the island of Ireland. And really, the fact that they were arrested as they drove along a motorway suggests that the police knew exactly who they were and what they were going to do. And one of the reasons why very few people in Northern Ireland are concerned about these dissident republican groups is because, clearly, they are infiltrated at every level by the security forces, by the secret police.

AMY GOODMAN: Goretti Horgan, finally, you have worked for peace in Ireland for more than 30 years. You have organized trade union rallies before the ceasefire, that brought tens of thousands of people into the streets. Do you think that yesterday’s breakthrough will make a major difference at this point?

GORETTI HORGAN: As I said earlier, I think the main breakthrough is in terms of the atmosphere here and the fact that those who have been trying to resist a more just and equal society here no longer have the excuse of the fact that the IRA had not decommissioned any arms. Now the ball is back in their court. Are they willing to accept, for example, more human rights legislation? Are they willing to accept that we need to have legislation that’s going to ensure equality between Catholics and Protestants, between men and women, or are they going to just throw up more obstacles? And already, I’m afraid, there are some signs that some of the unionists are going to be throwing up more obstacles. And they’re saying that this isn’t enough. You know, they want evidence that the IRA is completely broken up, you know, that it no longer exists and stuff like that.

AMY GOODMAN: Goretti Horgan, I want to thank you very much for being with us, speaking to us from Derry, Northern Ireland, human rights and peace activist, as we move now to Edwin Starr’s “War.”