REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT FORTHSPRING INTER COMMUNITY GROUP SPRINGFIELD, WEST BELFAST
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT FORTHSPRING INTER COMMUNITY GROUP SPRINGFIELD, WEST BELFAST MONDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2007
I am delighted to be here with you today as part of the ongoing celebrations to mark your tenth anniversary, and I would very much like to express my appreciation to Rev John Wonnacott, your Executive Chair, for extending the invitation to me and for giving me a wonderful excuse to pay another visit to my hometown.
I would also like to thank David Gardiner, your current director, for making me feel so welcome here today. And I should, of course, mention the enormous work undertaken by David’s predecessor, Bernie Laverty, who did so much to build up this project since its inception in 1997. I understand that Bernie - like myself - has now gone south to seek new challenges in Dublin and I wish her the very best with her new role.
First of all, let me congratulate you all for the wonderful work you have been doing these past ten years, in often very difficult and tense circumstances. In circumstances where, on occasion, the tensions outside your door spilled into these premises and impacted directly on your work.
Through all that, Forthspring continued its work of bringing people of all ages and from both traditions together in a safe and secure environment. That work was so important, so necessary throughout those years, and continues to be important in today’s utterly changed climate.
It is no exaggeration to say that it was through the work of groups such as Forthspring that the first shoots of genuine peace and reconciliation sprouted and grew, often in seemingly infertile and inhospitable soil. Your group - and others doing similar work at other interfaces, in Belfast and elsewhere - pointed the way forward when others were perhaps reluctant or nervous about taking the first few steps forward. And, although frankly incredible progress has been achieved, especially this year with the return of devolved government, I know that this work, your work, will continue to be critical in embedding the peace so deeply that there can never again be a return to the cruel days of conflict.
Your own make-up as a collaborative and cooperative encounter between groups of different origins and backgrounds is an inspiration in itself. Your vision of ‘a diverse and peaceful community, where all people are free to live with dignity, hope, respect and understanding’ is one to which we all aspire, and one to which we thankfully grow ever closer thanks to those who had faith in the capacity of the human person to change, to grow beyond division and to find friendship across the barriers bequeathed by history.
Northern Ireland is undoubtedly a more diverse, a more peaceful and a more hope-filled place than it was when you set out on your journey ten years ago. A deep, secure and honest reconciliation now seems possible and we can only wonder what things will be like ten years from now if today’s momentum is maintained and developed.
So the timing and context of this anniversary could not be better for there is so much genuinely to celebrate and to be grateful for. There were, I am sure, many times in the past when you felt the strain of climbing a mountain only to find another and a higher summit up ahead. That is how it seemed to be for so long, and yet in these blessed days I hope this anniversary gives you a deep sense of vindication and fulfilment and importantly refuels your tanks for the journey ahead.
Not everyone has joined the journey yet. Some are too wounded, some are too bitter, some are too nervous. They need your leadership, your witness. Your story will, I hope, give them courage to believe in this new future and to commit their talents and energies to building up a Northern Ireland that gives heart, hope and pride to all.
This interface is a place where new seeds are sprouting, new plants are growing. Here is a meeting point, a place of potential friendship and partnership between neighbours. A place of people living close by one another, people who are not clones but rather who have very different views and perspectives and talents. Out of that great mix will come the energy to build an exciting future for that fundamental thing we all share and that is a determination to work together for the best future for this place and all its people.
People call places like this the coal-face. This is where good work is done, day in and day out, quietly, without fanfare or ceremony. Then one day a big political breakthrough happens and we talk in awe of miracles but here you know just how much hard work goes into the making of a miracle, for this is where it starts and this is where it started.
Forthspring’s work drew people into each others circle. It moved them step by step into each others lives. It made good neighbours of strangers, friends of enemies. There is no end to this work but there has to be a beginning and you have made the best of beginnings. The Irish language says that a good start is half the work - tus maith is leath na hoibre. Now comes the next half, made easier by the solid foundations laid in your first ten years.
Yes, there is work to be done - a lot of work to be done before that old, dried-up, worthless culture of conflict finally disappears, but it is on the run and the tensions that will arise in the shift to a new culture of consensus and partnership will likely be played out right on your doorstep, for it was in such places that the courage was found in the weariest of hearts to begin again.
You will be with the people of this area as they keep that courage going and play their part confidently in building a successful and reconciled Northern Ireland, a place where, for the first time, all sides work with each other, for each other and through each other, energies pushing in the one healthy direction instead of pulling against one another. What a visible difference that will make. We only have to see the marvellous reception afforded to the First and Deputy First Ministers in America when they went together, spoke together and spoke as one. Two different people, two different perspectives, representing one big noisy family of different characters, one community.
Who would have believed it? You did. Even when no-one else did. Thank you for your faith, your work and now the future you have helped to create and will undoubtedly help to consolidate.
So well done and congratulations on your first ten years, and here’s to the next ten!