IT has been officially announced that the Loyalist paramilitary groups the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commandos have made their weapons and explosives “totally and irreversibly beyond use” while another Loyalist group, the Ulster Defence Association, has confirmed it has begun to decommission its arsenal.

This act of decommissioning by the Loyalists was only made possible because of similar decommissioning four years ago by the Provisional IRA and their effective disbanding last year – actions which came about because of the courage of those within the security forces, the willingness of people from all Northern Irish communities and from a Conservative and then a New Labour government to deal with the root causes of the conflict.

Due to its turbulent history, Ireland and the Northern Irish conflict will always be an emotive and for some a painful subject. But people in Northern Ireland and on both sides of the Irish Sea have a peaceful future ahead, while Anglo-Irish relations are the best they’ve ever been in recorded history.

Things aren’t perfect, and despite major problems there is peace within Northern Ireland which grows stronger with each passing day – because the Northern Irish peace process is working.

CT Riley, Spennymoor, Co Durham.