REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POLICE REHAB & RETRAINING TRUST
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POLICE REHABILITATION AND RETRAINING TRUST “BUILDING NEW FUTURES”
Dia dhíbh a chairde. I would like to thank the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust and its chairman Eddie Gaw, for inviting me to address this conference. It is an honour to be the keynote speaker at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Trust.
As we mark this anniversary, it is worth taking a moment to remember just how far we have travelled away from the horrors of the past which visited so much misery on so many people. Eleven years ago we reached a watershed in the history of Northern Ireland with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. A new sense of optimism and hope set the scene for a future which promised peace and a healthy new partnership instead of cyclical conflict and divisiveness. We were at the start, indeed we were all writing the opening chapters of a remarkable shift in culture which only happened because people individually and collectively committed to significant change and generous compromise. The overwhelming support for the Good Friday agreement revealed that in virtually every heart here there was a strong desire to build a society based on parity of esteem and respect for each other’s diversity and common humanity. It took a massive effort to change the wasteful direction in which we were all being dragged by the momentum that had been generated by history. Certain sectors were key to the change in direction, among them the police service and the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust has played a unique role in helping individuals, organisations and broader society shift kilter in ways that allow a new and happier future to grow and consolidate.
The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in and of itself could not heal the deep hurts which are the legacy of conflict. Some of those will never mend for we cannot bring the dead back to life nor can we always give back physical or mental health to those who were robbed of them during the Troubles. But there are things we can do to ensure that the hole dug over generations does not get any deeper and that we begin as John Hewitt says to “fill the centuries’ arrears.”
There are many problems, many differences of identity, ambition, perspective which fuel continuing divisions but the Peace Process has created a decent space in which we can work together to address those problems and reconcile those differences in ways that are safe, non-violent and conducive to growing harmony and good neighbourliness. Shared and trusted institutions, which represent the entire community and treat all in the community with respect and equality, are a vital part of the architecture of that space and policing is among the most pivotal of those institutions.
As a result, members of the policing profession have been the right in the vanguard of this historic period of transition, both challenged by change and leading change. The policing landscape, like the political landscape has been transformed and the high level of cross-community trust so much needed to police effectively is a credit to all concerned.
Despite the manifest benefits which have accrued in such a short time already, not everyone has committed to working for this shared peace, this new and noble partnership. Some are still wedded to the old culture of violence as we have seen in sporadic episodes of shocking sectarian violence and in the cowardly murders of soldiers at Massareene and Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon. Constable Carroll had been a student of the Trust, studying for a Sports Science Degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and had often spoken of his ambition to work as a personal trainer rehabilitating stroke and heart attack patients upon his retirement from the PSNI. His degree was awarded posthumously in July and his widow, Kate, made the lonely journey to Manchester to collect it. We want no more such journeys, no more such losses and we are all learning that the closer, the more collegially we work together the more we close down and suffocate the attitudes which keep alive the remnants of the tired old, redundant culture of mutual contempt and conflict.
It is ten years since the publication of the 1999 Patten Commission report which was entitled ‘A new beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland.’ The metamorphoses it set in train from the RUC to the PSNI was very difficult for a lot of people both inside and outside the police service. Yet the leap of faith made by so many of you, at times with heavy hearts and uncertainty, allowed Northern Ireland to take a giant step towards a completely new era in community policing. The new Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott I know intends to build on the legacy of his distinguished predecessor, Sir Hugh Orde with a strong focus on community policing and I use this opportunity to wish him and the police service every success.
Through these convulsive but history-making changes, it has been so important that individual officers had the support, encouragement and advice and guidance of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust. The number of police officers was to be reduced leaving some police officers facing the painful decision to leave a career they had loved earlier than they had anticipated. Others were dealing with illness, injury or disability arising from their work. Each one needed a bridge to a future they could believe in for themselves, their families and their community and that demanded customised solutions suited to each one as individuals and so involved a range of services from career advice involving new options for education, retraining and personal development, to therapies which would augment personal coping skills.
The five thousand clients who have availed of the services of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust have unique stories to tell and lives to live. All of us wish for them what they wish for themselves, a fulfilled life, where their talents can flourish and they can give of their best to themselves and all their care. In all of their journeys there will no doubt have been days of loneliness and doubt but in and through this organisation established by officers for their fellow officers, I hope they have each known the joy of a renewed sense of self-empowerment and faith in their own future as well as faith in Northern Ireland and this island. Each one is living a new future crafted by themselves but with the help of the Trust, just as each one of us is now living a new future crafted by the willingness to change and to compromise which saw us stop digging the gigantic hole of history’s making and begin to “fill the centuries arrears.” Some of these days when that hole is filled in we will stand on a wholly new landscape, one where a consolidated and strong culture of good neighbourliness characterises life within Northern Ireland, between North and South and between Ireland and Great Britain. We are a privileged generation but also a remarkable generation to have been the first to make the changes that allowed that new future in. Today cross-border policing and political relations have never been better or more comprehensive and that gives all those who live in this island’s two jurisdictions a higher than ever level of reassurance about their safety and security.
To get to where we are has involved considerable sacrifice and suffering some of it still raw and sore. The Trust has been an important companion, helping people move beyond the physical and emotional pain to new hope. That investment in people has been of enormous help not just to the clients of this service but to civic society in general and to the peace process. More importantly still the men and women who have used this service have through their investment in reshaping their own lives, become powerful ambassadors for the hope and potential that is released by such a sea change. As we join in these tenth anniversary celebrations the mood and message should be one of gratitude to those who have tried to meet and to facilitate the challenge of change and who have made transformation tangible right across Northern Ireland and indeed this island. I wish you all the very best for the remainder of the conference and for the “new futures” being built by you as an organisation and by the people you serve so well. Go raibh maith agaibh.