Anthony McIntyre: By Shaking the Queen's Hand, Martin McGuinness Accepts Her Sovereignty

Dr Anthony McIntyre, a former IRA prisoner, writes on Irish history and current affairs. His research for Boston College is now being sought through the US Courts by the British Government.

The former Provisional IRA chief of staff Martin McGuinness will shake hands with the British Queen at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast tomorrow. The event has been made possible by the earlier negotiated surrender of the IRA.

Surrendering honourably is better than holding out to the last. The leaders of the 1916 rising in Dublin chose to surrender rather than subject the city's population to further bloodshed – in politics as in other areas of life it is often necessary to compromise principles.

But there is a gulf between compromise and abandonment that should not be bridged. Otherwise radical ideas and the notion of oppositional currents are devalued. What does it say about the plausibility of the adversarial position if the values espoused in opposition are jettisoned just to make it into office?.. .....