Robert Fisk, in the Independent Easter Sunday, 2008, explains why Ireland is now at peace and how the ghost of empire has been exorcised.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/robert-fisk-how-....html
Fisk makes the case that Ireland is at peace because all sides came to see that there could be no military victory. Ireland's neutrality also helped to exorcise the ghost of empire.