George Mitchell, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Bertie Ahern: These well-known, even famous, names offer Northern Ireland something strange and new — the opportunity for peace.

Former Sen. Mitchell persevered for three years, keeping the negotiations alive when the smallest details conspired to kill them. President Clinton intervened at crucial moments, made it clear that Northern Ireland was at the top of his foreign policy agenda. British Prime Minister Blair demonstrated great political courage in inviting anti-British republicans to the table. Sinn Fein leader Adams and Unionist leader Trimble agreed that 3,400 murders in 29 years had settled nothing. Republic of Ireland Prime Minister Ahern will ask his parliament to relinquish its claim upon the north.

The Good Friday agreement does not guarantee peace — no mere document can do that — but it does create the possibility. It acknowledges that a lasting solution lies in politics, not terrorism. The May 22 referendums in the two Irelands is not the end, but merely the start.

But there are other names to be reckoned with — such as the Apprentice Boys, Ian Paisley, Joseph Sean Reilly — representing forces that would prevent the Irish people from making that start. The Apprentice Boys, a gang of Protestant thugs who exist to hold inflammatory parades through Catholic neighborhoods, have promised to incite a riot or two before the vote. Paisley, the fundamentalist anti-Catholic preacher, devoted his Easter sermon on the holiest day in Christendom by consigning his enemies to perdition. Various fringe terrorist groups from both sides have poked their heads from under their respective rocks to promise a surge in pre-election atrocities to ensure retribution’s constituency holds sway.

And meet Joseph Sean Reilly, a 26-year-old bricklayer, born in Northen Ireland, but for the last two years a resident of the Bronx, New York City. “The only thing that’ll settle Northern Ireland is a civil war,” Mr. Reilly was quoted by The New York Times as saying. “Bang, bang. Let’s get on with it.”

Northern Ireland has listened to the Reillys and the Paisleys for too long, it has followed the Apprentice Boys for too many miles. Mitchell, Clinton, Blair, Adams, Trimble and Ahern offer a better message and a better way.