No Secrets Among Enemies

By BARRY HILLENBRAND/DUBLIN

The message echoed with the melancholic fatalism that pervades much of Irish literature. "It is with total sadness that we have to accept responsibility for the recent action," the statement from the Irish Republican Army said two days after one of its bombs killed two boys, ages 3 and 12, in the English town of Warrington in March. "The last thing we needed at this sensitive time was what has happened."

The time was sensitive indeed. The I.R.A. and the British had just begun a secret exchange of messages aimed at opening peace talks to end the violence that has rent Northern Ireland for 25 years and left thousands dead. Despite outrage over these killings and others that followed, the contacts continued and the two sides edged toward full-scale negotiations. Then last week the Observer newspaper uncovered the secret talks.

Although many were delighted at the possibility of peace, others were shocked that Prime Minister John Major had been dealing with terrorists, especially leaders of the hard-line Ulster Protestants who reject any change in Northern Ireland's union with Britain. But the British government rode out the storm, arguing that it would have been remiss had it not responded to the I.R.A.'s overtures. Major insisted that he would only begin full negotiations after the I.R.A. had demonstrated that it had renounced terrorism permanently.

The Observer's scoop was clearly untimely. "Had the talks remained , secret," said a Downing Street aide, "much more progress could have been made." Now Major's government will have to feel its way forward under a barrage of criticism from Ulster's Unionists, while the I.R.A. leadership fends off Republican extremists who consider any contact with the British a betrayal of the cause. Still, the revelations brought a sense of lift to the disheartening problems of Ireland. Most important, they disclosed that the I.R.A. may at last be willing to renounce violence and participate in further negotiations for a political resolution of the Ulster problem. They also demonstrated that the British, under Major's leadership, are willing to go beyond a peacekeeping role in Ulster and try their hand at peacemaking.

Neither side would admit to initiating the talks, but Tom Hartley, a Sinn Fein official, conceded that "there's lots of support for negotiation these days." That also applies in London where the government has made clear that finding a solution to the Irish problem is close to the top of its agenda.

In fact, there seems to be a new determination to go beyond damage control and consider fundamental changes in the political status of the province. At the end of last week, Major flew to Dublin to meet with Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds. The first order of business for Major was to soothe Irish annoyance over Britain's failure to inform Dublin of the secret contacts with the I.R.A. That was accomplished in what Reynolds called "a strong exchange of views." But despite seven hours of talks, the two leaders were less successful in devising a joint declaration outlining a new political formula for Northern Ireland that would involve altering the republic's constitutional claims to the north and confirming British willingness ultimately to relinquish control over the province. The two leaders will meet again this week in Brussels to continue their talks. "We will go on and on and on until we have a solution," said Major.

Despite the new mood of optimism, the road to any lasting peace will surely be bumpy and bloodstained. As the I.R.A. was considering London's demand for a permanent cease-fire as a precondition to formal talks, Republican operatives continued their bombing and assassination campaign. Even if the I.R.A. calls off its gunmen -- and they obey -- there is no guarantee that the extremists on the other side will stop fighting. Protestant paramilitary units, dedicated to keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, have become increasingly active. In the past two years, they killed more people in Northern Ireland than did the I.R.A. Says Peter Robinson, a hard-line Unionist politician: "If they believe that the British are about to abandon them, you can expect more violence."

The question now is whether politicians can devise a framework that will satisfy the conflicting loyalties in the minority Catholic and majority Protestant communities. The British have said they will not stand in the way of a united Ireland should the majority of the people in the north one day agree to a shift in sovereignty. Dublin has pledged that it will respect the desires of the Protestant majority in the north to maintain its links with the United Kingdom as long as the aspiration for ultimate Irish unity is recognized. The devil will be in the details, and those have yet to be addressed.