Remarks at a Reception and Dinner Hosted by the Secretary of State for N.I., Owen Paterson
Hillsborough Castle, 18th October 2011
Secretary of State and Mrs Paterson, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the winter of 1997 when I began my first term as President of Ireland a day like this was very far from my contemplation. Yet that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is hosting a farewell event for the President of Ireland is surely a testimony to the changed times that are now our shared context and the much improved prospects for a stable long-term peace which are now within our contemplation. I am very grateful to the Secretary of State and Mrs Paterson for hosting this occasion which means so much to Martin and to me.
A glance at this audience tells me I do not need to rehearse details of the long, fraught and obstacle strewn journey to convert the deep longing for peace into the intricate, working architecture of the peace process. I am delighted that a number of these leaders who drove that process are here tonight and to them I want to register my gratitude for clearing the way to a future far beyond the dysfunction of sectarianism, the perennial paramilitarism and the frustrations of inequality, far beyond the hardwired communal distrust, the poor cross-border relations and the distant relations between Ireland and Great Britain.
So much that is good has been achieved in recent years. The cost was high for those bereaved or injured in body and soul by the conflict. The heft needed to get from conflict to peace was massive but it has created an unstoppable momentum that the episodic spasms of violent resistance to peace-making simply cannot hope to stop or slow down.
As we all move further and further away from the noxious fumes of bigotry and conflict we have a common obligation to ensure that the coming generations are as free as we can help them to be from the toxic influences that created communities where neighbours lived as strangers, as enemies, lived beside one another but not among one another. The forthcoming decade of significant centenary commemorations on this island can scare us or dare us to showcase the parity of esteem, peaceful co-existence and the mutual respect that are to be the hallmarks of the new relationships between those who share this island. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth put it well in Dublin Castle recently when she exhorted us – to bow to the past but not be bound by it.
It would have been wonderful of course if the growing peace could have been accompanied by growing prosperity but life is ever capricious and so North and South, East and West many are struggling with financial uncertainty, job losses, pay cuts, negative equity, business closures and forced emigration. Now we scrutinise the horizon for signs and sources of hope.
There was a time not all that long ago when the border between both parts of this island was not just a physical barrier, but also an obstacle to economic co-operation and to effective trade and business collaboration. Now that we have removed the physical impediments and the old fearful mindsets are being removed, we know that strengthening the cross border pillar of our economies is an essential component of economic recovery. Ireland is the UK’s fifth largest export market and its eighth largest import source. As trade and investment partners, Britain and Ireland are essential to each other and in the current difficult economic climate it is important that we get behind all those who are making sure we work well together.
And given half a chance we do work well together as all near neighbours should.
This was a particularly momentous year for good neighbourliness between Ireland and Great Britain with the successful State visit of Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Phillip back in May. One of the many thousands of people who wrote of the pride and emotion they felt during those four remarkable days said she felt they were “choreographed by the angels.”
It was an apt phrase for days that laid so many ghosts to rest in a unique journey from the solemnity of the Garden of Remembrance where those who fought for Ireland’s independence were honoured, to the respectful commemoration at Islandbridge of the thousands of Irish who died fighting for Great Britain in the First World War, to Croke Park, the very heartland of Gaelic culture where the President of the GAA, Christy Cooney, spoke of Her Majesty honouring the Association by her presence. From the Queen’s use of the Irish language to Prince Philip’s dexterity with the hurley presented to him, these were days that would have been once unimaginable, days now imagined, lived, days that set a compelling tone for future relationships, for the commemoration of our shared history and the positive acknowledgment of our divergent identities over the coming years.
Thanks to so many of you and to so many people of courage and good, so many people willing to change, to think again, to compromise a little - there is now a lot to look forward to. I was privileged as President of Ireland to join the huge team effort that day by day, bit by bit, built bridges to that happier future across history’s chasms. On my inauguration in November 1997, I used a short poem by Christopher Logue called “Come to the Edge” to illustrate the choices that then lay in front of us.
“Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and we pushed,
And they flew.”
I believe we are flying now - straight and sure, surprising ourselves, surprising the world. And now we know where we are going - the means of transport are equality, parity of esteem, mutual respect, dialogue and partnership. The destination is peace.
Thank you for being here and for fourteen years of friendship.