Remarks at St Columb’s Park House
Derry, 23rd March 2013
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you all for that warm welcome. I particularly wish to thank Brian Dougherty for facilitating my visit to St Columb’s Park House.
This is my third visit to Derry-Londonderry as President of Ireland. The first took place on my third day in office when I came here to attend the All-Island School Choirs Final at the Millennium Centre. On the second occasion last April, I visited Magee College and the historic St Columb’s Cathedral. Today, I am particularly delighted to be here at St Columb’s Park House in the Waterside, a place of healing that offers a vision of hope and looks forward to a future unburdened of the weight of past pain and suffering.
As you will all be only too aware, Derry-Londonderry is a city which has seen more than its fair share of suffering in the past. Today, it is thankfully making news for very different and very positive reasons. Derry’s status as UK City of Culture has given the City an opportunity to show the world that it is an exciting and vibrant place. I am confident that this opportunity will be seized with great enthusiasm and great energy as the citizens of Derry-Londonderry demonstrate the talent, the creativity and the vision that exists in abundance in this dynamic city. Indeed, the programme so far – including the recent “Other Voices” festival – has already vindicated that confidence.
The people of Derry-Londonderry can be proud of the way they have shown to the people of Ireland, North and South, and to the world at large, how communities working in partnership and solidarity with each other can transform a city; and how, despite ongoing challenges, they are determined to remain a beacon of hope and of the transformational power of reconciliation.
Despite all these great signs of hope, I am very conscious that the difficult legacy of the troubles continues to cast a shadow over many lives in Northern Ireland. While the City marches confidently onwards towards a brighter future, there remain areas of Derry – on both sides of the Foyle – that continue to be darkened by the scourge of high unemployment, social disadvantage and economic vulnerability. And within these dark and shaded areas there are many people who still do not see themselves as fully participating citizens – citizens with voices that must be heard and must be respected. They are citizens who remain burdened by the weight of an unresolved past; by a feeling of powerlessness and isolation which clouds their sense of hope about the possibilities that the future might offer.
There can be no doubt that a narrative of past hurt left unresolved and un-reconciled leaves not just a bitter legacy but a festering wound that infects the present and may even endanger our shared future. In this City, across communities in Northern Ireland and in the border regions of Ireland there remain many unresolved narratives; many vulnerable people unable to close a chapter on the bitter divisions of the past and the sense of injustice and exclusion those divisions have bequeathed them.
For almost twenty years, St Columb’s Park House has been bearing witness to, and seeking to relieve, much of that pain and hurt. The centre has also been doing much valuable work in enabling the powers of forgiveness and renewal to close the chasms that prevent so many citizens from unburdening themselves of their past and moving forward free from any resentment and embitterment.
In recent days we have been celebrating the life and legacy of st. Patrick. What strikes me most forcibly from Patrick’s life was his decision to forgive. This was not a casual forgiveness or an expedient amnesia. Patrick was the victim of a huge injustice; a terrible hurt was inflicted upon him by people who regarded his life as of little value. After years of suffering misery at their hands, he managed to escape to return to his family in Britain. Then, almost inexplicably, Patrick decided to return to Ireland to minister to the very community that had enslaved him.
From our historical experience in this island, we are sadly familiar with the phenomenon and consequences of the negative spiral of hatred and hurt. As Séamus Heaney wrote: “Human beings suffer. They torture one another. They get hurt and they get hard”. Patrick had been hurt but he refused to get hard. He did the opposite; he devoted his life to addressing the needs of those who had hurt him and, through conscious acts of generosity and forgiveness, set about dismantling the infrastructure of hate of which he had been a victim.
Thankfully, in recent years many people on this island have followed the vision, generosity and forgiveness of Patrick. I commend all the people – including all of you who are involved in the operation of St Columb’s Park House – who have made the conscious and strategic decision not to get hard but to tackle the mountain of accumulated hurt by acts of courage and generosity towards the other community. These decisions were made not because they were easy, but because they were right and because they represented the only pathway out of the cul-de-sac of injustice and violence that offered only embedded misery to every community in Northern Ireland.
St Columb’s is not only a beautiful physical space offering an environment conducive to learning and to the generous sharing of experiences and viewpoints; it also provides space for personal development, a space large enough to accommodate forgiveness, reconciliation and resolution. The range and breadth of your initiatives and projects is indeed impressive. It includes matters as diverse as the funding of youth led projects; promoting links between cities emerging from conflict; the use of culture in furthering a spirit of community participation – something that is particularly close to my own heart; skills training for ex-combatants; employability issues; and many other activities aimed at contributing to the peace building, active citizenship and social inclusion that lie at the heart of St Columb’s mission.
During my time as President I have never failed to be deeply moved by the commitment and openness to breaking down barriers that I see time and again in communities and centres such as this. It gives me great hope for the future when I see the many citizens who are so willing to come together, to build and re-build communities and try to find ways of understanding the perspectives of others as they craft a shared future together.
I am therefore delighted that representatives from Youth Action Northern Ireland are present here today. Youth Action Northern Ireland are an inspiring organisation who reveal the simple truth that, when people are shown respect for who they are, they can more easily show respect for others; when people are taught to find joy in their own talents and potential, they will find joy in the creativity and contribution of others. Building up the personal values of self-esteem and mutual-respect are critical building blocks in developing flourishing communities.
I know that these values and objectives are fully supported both by St Columb’s Park House and by Youth Action Northern Ireland. We need groups from all religious and cultural backgrounds to build vibrant societies based on the principles of equality, respect for diversity and an openness to work in solidarity with other communities. But first we must help build up the individuals who, in some cases, have not had a chance to develop their own self-respect and talents or who, through place and circumstance, have been inhibited from discovering the diversity of gifts which resides in each one of us. I am delighted today to be in a place and amongst those who are to the forefront of unearthing those talents and life-skills within the community and are instrumental in building a positive future for all.
As mentioned, my first visit to Derry-Londonderry as President of Ireland was to attend the All-Island Schools Choir Competition run by Cooperation Ireland. At that time, I said that ‘a people that can sing together in harmony is a great omen for the future.’ There is much work going on in Derry today aimed at crafting a future where all of the voices in every community will be valued and respected and where the harmony and beauty that exists in diversity will be recognised and celebrated.
St Columb’s Park continues to make its own valuable contribution to that harmonious future. I thank you for that and I wish you all every success as you continue with your important work. Thank you very much.