Speech at a Garden Party Celebrating the Pursuit of Peace and Reconciliation
Áras an Uachtaráin, 13 June 2018
A chairde,
Tá áthas orm féin agus ar Saidhbhín fáilte a fhearadh romhaibh go hÁras an Uachtaráin. Tá áthas orainn go raibh sibh in ann a bheith linn le haghaidh tráthnóna aoibhnis, cairdis agus comhráite spreagthacha.
Dear friends,
It is a great pleasure for Sabina and me to welcome you to Áras an Uachtaráin today. This garden party provide an opportunity for us to honour so many citizens who contribute so much to the process of reconciliation on our island through acts of friendship, solidarity and compassion, whether in the world of commerce and public service, or through community groups, faith organisations, trade unions, academia and civic organisations. It is wonderful to see so many people here today representing and reflecting the diversity of Northern Ireland.
If I may say so, I am particularly pleased to welcome members of the Corrymeela Community, who have played such an important part in the promotion of peace and reconciliation on our island, and who have provided such an important space in which we can encounter one another.
I was honoured to address a conference held in Corrymeela in 2016 entitled ‘Living Well Together Beyond 2016’. I spoke of utilising in our efforts of reconciliation, the concepts of ‘remembering, forgiving, forgetting’ which I believe are so vital to the effort of reconciliation.
These were themes to which I returned when I gave the Sixth Annual Harri Holkeri Lecture at Queen’s University Belfast last month, and I know they are tasks that many of you seek to accomplish through your own work. Before I travelled to Belfast I had the honour of visiting Tyrone and Derry, and of witnessing there the spirit of community that animates and sustains Northern Ireland.
That recent visit was a reminder not only of the diverse traditions on our island, but of our shared heritage and history, one which has created distinctive and interactive cultures of song, music, dance, sports and language.
At Drumragh, the birthplace of the ‘Bard of Ulster’, William Forbes Marshall, a renowned linguist, poet, scholar and Presbyterian Minister, I attended the opening of the new grounds of the Drumragh Sarsfields GAA club, a sign of the growing strength of Gaelic games, and of course football, in Tyrone.
Later, in a fortunate symmetry, I visited the wonderful Ulster American Folk Park, which owes so much to the work carried out by William Forbes Marshall in recovering the experiences and of telling the story of all those who sailed from Ulster to North America in the eighteenth century.
At Queens University, I spoke not only of remembering, forgiving and forgetting, but of ‘imagining’, for it is in imagining a shared future released from, though not forgetting, past memories and from seemingly insurmountable present challenges that the energy can be found to build a bridge to the future.
Today is an opportunity for us to celebrate the contribution that all those assembled here have made to imagining that shared future, and to opening a window to all the possibilities for a just and peaceful island, and, in this the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, to recognise the many civic organisations that worked and campaigned tirelessly to create the conditions for peace and who now work towards reconciliation.
I do not wish to ignore any of the present challenges. The implementation of the Good Friday Agreement remains a work in progress. Indeed, as Northern Ireland continues to operate without an Executive, the Agreement is in some respects a work that is stalled for the moment, on a siding as it were. We must move it from that siding.
Yet the task of building a shared future has not, nor will it ever, cease or halt, and it is thanks to all of you gathered here today that it continues. Your daily actions, whether it is in one of our North South Bodies, through cross-community work, or in your workplaces, is so vital and important to the project of building the open, generous and inclusive society that we all seek on this island. It is work that continues in the absence of the Executive, and indeed for some of you has been an integral part of the Peace Process itself, even when it was in its infancy.
The spirit of generosity, of inclusivity, and of community in its widest sense which you demonstrate will be required now more than ever as we together seek to meet the challenges presented by the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
I know that many of you will share my deep regret that this decision was taken. Though we do not yet know the manner in which all the complex matters raised by Brexit will be resolved, I believe that it is more essential than ever to continue to maintain the deep friendships that have developed between Britain and Ireland, and on our shared island.
So, may I pay tribute to all of you here who have devoted yourselves to building a bridge to our future. Your work and your organisations contribute so much to enriching the ties which bind us together as citizens, building a vision of the common good capable of bringing together all the communities on our island.
I would like to conclude by thanking all those who have worked so hard on behalf of the Áras to make this a wonderful occasion for you. May I thank our Master of Ceremonies Andy Pollak, who has made such a contribution to the understanding of all the possibilities for cross-border and cross-community co-operation.
May I thank The Deaf Choir for Girls from St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls in Cabra, and their Director, Shirley Higgins, together with our Sign Language Interpreter Pauline McMahon.
May I also thank Mary Kelly, Seán Keane, Róisín O’ Flaherty, Gearóid Keane, Conal Duffy, Rebecca, Catriona and their father, Mr. Atkinson, and the Havana Club trio, who have provided such magnificent entertainment throughout the afternoon. Sabina and I are greatly looking forward to seeing the performances of Bernadette Morris and The Four of Us in a few moments. They have all been so well served by the incomparable master of sound – Dee Rogers and his team.
On your behalf and my own, I salute the hard work, unfailing good humour and – not least – culinary skills of the staff here in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Finally, may I offer our thanks to the Civil Defence, our friends from St. John of Gods, the Defence Forces, and our Gaisce volunteers for all their assistance.
Sabina and I hope you have a great afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your time here and thank you for coming.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.