REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE NORWEGIAN NOBEL INSTITUTE WEDNESDAY, 15 OCTOBER, 2008
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE NORWEGIAN NOBEL INSTITUTE WEDNESDAY, 15 OCTOBER, 2008
Ladies and gentlemen
I am delighted to be here with you this morning to share some reflections on the Irish experience of the path to peace. Over the past four decades five peacemakers from the island of Ireland have been recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize,
Sean McBride, Mairead Corrigan, Betty Williams, John Hume and David Trimble. So our difficult road to peace is one this institute knows well for you have been keen observers of our progress and important encouragers of those committed to peace. Among those in the international community of peacemakers who made a huge contribution to Northern Ireland’s search for peace was one Martti Ahtisaari and it was wonderful to hear that quiet unassuming champion of peace declared the 2008 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
My sincere thanks to our hosts today, the Nobel Institute and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. I also pay particular tribute to the Director of NUPI, Mr. Jan Egeland whose distinguished career as both a peacemaker and an international aid mobiliser is legendary.
When Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of the 1890’s, he could not have imagined the carnage that was to ensue in the twentieth century or indeed the welcome growth of stabilising regional and international organisations like the European Union or the United Nations that grew as a bulwark against future wars. Yet peace still eludes many peoples and places. The causes of conflict are diverse and often complex though one relatively common feature is that the most intractable conflicts generally involve neighbours. Finding pathways to peace, through ongoing violence is laborious and frustratingly difficult as we in Ireland are all too keenly aware.
The roots of the contemporary conflict in Ireland are centuries old. The brutal colonisation and plantation of Ireland by Britain resulted in a deeply dysfunctional relationship between Britain and its neighbouring island of Ireland. That long drawn out drama cast bitter shadows over relationships for hundreds of years but inevitably alongside periodic uprisings there was considerable interchange in terms of trade, people and culture. The early twentieth century saw a War of Independence and the partitioning of Ireland. One part became an independent republic, the other, Northern Ireland remained under the control of Great Britain. The republic had a very large Catholic majority while Northern Ireland had a Protestant majority and a substantial Catholic minority.
By the 1960’s in the memorable words of Nobel Prizewinner David now Lord Trimble, Northern Ireland had become a “cold house for Catholics”. Others have described them as second-class citizens. It was another Nobel Peace laureate, John Hume, who championed a peaceful civil rights movement designed to bring full equality to all citizens of Northern Ireland. That movement was suppressed, tensions on the ground escalated dramatically and Northern Ireland descended into over thirty years of violent conflict, rather lamely called The Troubles. A number of attempts at resolving the conflict failed until it became clear that no attempt at building peace was likely to succeed unless it took comprehensive account of three key, inter-locking relationships which were badly skewed - firstly the inter-community relations within Northern Ireland, secondly, the cross-border relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic and finally the relationships between Great Britain and Ireland. It was also realised that leaving the resolution of the conflict exclusively to the protagonists within those relationships was a recipe for paralysis and so an international dimension was constructed which allowed crucial help to flow from credible outside sources. A wise Norwegian human rights lawyer, Professor Torkel Opsahl played an important role in trying to read the minds and hearts of civic society. His 1993 report made an invaluable input to public discourse at a critical time on the pathway towards peace. Other friends such as Finland and Canada provided key personnel to act as external observers and arbitrators around sensitive issues such as the decommissioning of weapons by paramilitaries and the oversight of policing reform. This brought an important level of demonstrably independent and fresh expertise at crucial times. But it was the role of the United States which was to dominate the internationalising of Ireland’s Peace Process.
Thanks to the power and influence of Irish America, the US played a seminal role in securing the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The Chairman of the Talks that led to that landmark agreement, was US Senator George Mitchell. Senator Mitchell brought formidable personal skills and experience as well as the enthusiastic backing and active participation of then President Clinton. He also brought an essential and an unswerving non-partisanship. The engagement of America in Northern Ireland has never wavered and I am pleased to say continues to this day, through the ongoing support of President Bush and the current Congress and Irish America, for although peace is now established it is young and fragile and still needs a lot of nurturing.
Another international dimension played a remarkable and vital role and that was the normalising of the once fraught relationship between Great Britain and Ireland. In part this was driven by considerable changes in Britain itself with the ending of its days as a colonising empire. In part too it was driven by engagement between the two countries within the European Union. In Brussels, former coloniser and colonised were now equal sovereign states, modern democracies, and partners in a voluntary Union underpinned by the most coherent of democratic values and human rights. Around the Union table they got to know and trust one another. The once chilly relationship began to thaw and to grow both friendly and collegial under the leadership first of Prime Minister
John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and subsequently of Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Today Ireland and Britain are true and warm friends as well as close partners in the Peace Process. The current leadership in both countries, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Taoiseach Brian Cowen continue to build on this momentous friendship.
Another important element in the pathway to peace was the example of the European Union itself. As a place where old enemies worked together for a shared future, it exerted a strong moral authority and practical example of the power of peaceful partnership. It gave those who were trying to persuade the paramilitaries away from futile violence, undeniable evidence of the power of an alternative strategy based on mutually respectful dialogue between the bitterest of foes.
Persuasion of the paramilitaries was also an important part of the path to peace. Over the thirty years of the Troubles, well over 3,000 people had died in bombings and shootings to say nothing of the wounded and the considerable infrastructural and economic damage. A number of efforts at peacemaking during those years had foundered. All had excluded the political parties connected to paramilitary organisations. By the early 90s, it was becoming clear that no matter how problematic the challenges, a lasting settlement could not be found without involving them. It was equally clear that these parties could only be involved in political negotiations if the paramilitary groups with which they were associated ended their campaigns of violence. These are very neuralgic issues in other conflicts and they were in ours too. The British and Irish governments worked in concert to establish the conditions that gave rise to paramilitary ceasefires on both sides. Although broken and subsequently restored those ceasefires permitted the inclusion of Sinn Féin representing Irish republican paramilitaries – together with parties representing the British Loyalist paramilitaries – in the negotiations that were to lead to the Good Friday Agreement.
The Good Friday Agreement
Looking now at the process leading to the Good Friday Agreement itself, among its most salient characteristics are its inclusivity in terms of those taking part and its comprehensiveness in terms of the issues covered. One of the thorniest issues was the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Irish nationalists desired the reunification of Ireland. Unionists desired the maintenance of the union with Great Britain. This issue was resolved by acknowledging the legitimacy of both aspirations and securing agreement that Northern Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom until a majority of people in Northern Ireland decided by referendum in favour of Irish unity. This we call the principle of consent.
The Irish Government and people changed their Constitution to facilitate this important breakthrough and in so doing began to change utterly one of those key dysfunctional relationships - the cross border relationship between North and South on the island of Ireland. The old culture of distrust and fear began to ebb away allowing space for the growth of a new culture of good neighbourliness which is already showing notable development. Unionist politicians began to deal more openly and frequently with their Southern counterparts and continue to do so.
The third dysfunctional relationship was of course the one inside Northern Ireland between two very divided communities. This was addressed by creating an institutional framework for government which was entirely dependant on the two communities working in a cooperative manner with each other. So a power-sharing Executive and elected Assembly came into being and is now operational. It is not without the difficulties that might be expected in such a radical shift of gear and especially in its early days but suffice to say the most bitterly opposed on both sides are now in government together. Underpinning these new institutions is a raft of rights based legislation designed to ensure full equality of citizenship for everyone. To help the key relationships to grow healthy and robust new official institutions were created to promote partnership between North and South and between both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland and Great Britain.
To copperfasten public ownership of the Good Friday agreement twin referenda were held on the same day, 22 May 1998, one in Northern Ireland and the other in the Republic. The result was a resounding endorsement on both sides of the border. It was time to start moving forward.
Senator George Mitchell wisely observed in 1998 that the process of implementation would be as difficult as the process of negotiation – and he was very right. Indeed, I would suggest that that is another lesson of our experience – that implementation is also a process of negotiation and that the signing of a formal agreement is as much a beginning as an ending. There have been frustrating delays and breakdowns and it has been necessary to go back to the negotiating table on many occasions. One of these, at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2006, produced a further clarificatory agreement.
Today the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrews Agreement, taken together, constitute a charter for a durable way forward that has the support of the British and Irish governments and the people who share the island of Ireland, in particular those who live in Northern Ireland. If the journey has been slow and disappointing at times the truth is that for all the obstacles and roadblocks we have made enormous progress and frankly miraculous changes. There was the reassuring sight of the Reverend Ian Paisley working happily with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as first Minister and Deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive. Now Rev. Paisley has been replaced as First Minister by his party colleague Peter Robinson. It is very clear that Peter Robinson and
Martin McGuiness and their colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive continue to face many challenges as they seek to chart that shared future that the vast majority of people now want. Theirs is no easy task, but given all that has been overcome to date and given the support of both the Dublin and Westminster Governments and the people of Northern Ireland, I remain confident that solutions to outstanding issues can be found which, as the process requires, will work for everybody.
Which brings me to what could be called the software of the process.
That is the human relationships between people especially at community level. This has been too often the hidden story of the Troubles - the story of men and women who despite division and distrust, despite cruel hurts inflicted on one another maintained their belief in our common humanity and worked together to keep those human connections alive. Cross-community work is incredibly difficult and testing in a highly segregated environment where people live, learn and work separately. Yet champions of such work emerged and endured despite threats and manifest danger to themselves. Their work was often carried out under the radar, away from spotlights but it managed to heal and to reconcile, to stitch strangers together so that one day they could begin to believe in one united community instead of two warring factions. These people, and they are legion, infused goodness into a culture dangerously consumed by sectarian hatred, anger and resentment. The hope and goodwill they generated were a source of energy and validation to the political leaders as they made the necessary compromises and the sacrifices that opened up the space for consensus to grow.
During my 11 years as President my theme has been “Building Bridges” and I have been privileged to meet hundreds of those quiet, unobtrusive peacemakers. Many among them have suffered dreadful personal loss as a result of the violence and instead of withdrawing into self-pity or vengeance they set their faces towards reconciliation, knowing it is the best guarantee of a humanly decent future for all. Not everyone is ready yet for a new beginning. For some the hurt is too deep. For some the old prejudices and distrust are so deeply ingrained that they are hard to shift. But what is wonderful is that a critical mass sufficient unto the day and unto the peace is behind this new beginning and longing for its success.
Ireland and Conflict Resolution
Our path to peace is not a roadmap which is instantly applicable to other conflicts. For one thing we have made a start, we have not arrived at a destination. Yet we have learned many lessons along the way and these may well be worth sharing with other conflict ridden areas of the world. The Irish Government has taken the decision to establish a conflict resolution unit so that our distilled and indeed still distilling experience can make a contribution to peace building in other parts of the world.
In taking the decision to embark on this course we were inspired by countries experienced in conflict resolution such as Norway and indeed sought Norway’s advice from an early stage. Norway has proven that a relatively small country with high principles and values, a commitment to the United Nations, to human rights and the rule of good law and an unselfish passion for peace, can make a real contribution in global conflict resolution. Your country has brought much fresh thinking to peacemaking and has pioneered a holistic approach that integrates the work of conflict resolution with complementary efforts in development assistance and a commitment to bodies such as the peace building commission.
We in Ireland share your values and your vision. We believe in the primary role of the UN, in the rule of international law and above all in the essential dignity and human rights of each and every human being. John Hume said here in Oslo in 1998 that “all conflict is about difference, whether the difference is race, religion or nationality”. We believe in the right to be different. We also believe in our capacity to make a difference. We have today the most successful generation in our history, a problem solving generation whose genius is lifting from us the dark shadows of the past among them poverty, emigration and political conflict.
Conclusion
The Northern Ireland Peace Process taught us much about the nature of conflict, the psychology of conflict resolution, how to manage negotiations - and not just the negotiations with your adversaries across the table, but just as critically, if not more so, how to manage the negotiations with your own constituency which is not at the table and which is keeping the pressure on for maximalist outcomes - how to assure the implementation of agreements, and how necessary are those rare human traits of patience and perseverance. These are the indispensable tools of all peacemakers. This Institute through the Nobel Peace Prize gives to all who make a stand for peace, the courage to persist until peace prevails. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats once said though in a different context that “peace comes dropping slow.” He was surely right about that but come it does as the story of Ireland North and South has shown. This Institute is and was part of that story, a proud part. I hope that your faith in us will be vindicated in the years ahead when this Ireland of good neighbours shows for the first time in its history the potential that is unleashed and only unleashed by partnership and by peace.