Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Good Friday Agreement is now 15 years old. This historic Agreement presents all involved in the Irish peace process with the opportunity to resolve all outstanding issues associated with the military conflict, now thankfully in the past. However, there remain painful difficulties involved in truth recovery, particularly for victims and their families. Sinn Féin believes that as a society seeks to leave conflict behind and to move forward, there is a requirement that all of us address the tragic human consequences of the past.

Republicans are very conscious of the hurt and suffering which has been caused through conflict in our country. We reject any attempts to create and sustain a hierarchy of victims. All victims and survivors of the conflict must be treated on the basis of equality and in order to deal with our past, do justice to the memory victims and give closure to families of victims and survivors, we need to put in place a mechanism to facilitate that. Sinn Féin believes an independent international truth commission is required as a vehicle for truth recovery. Sinn Féin is very mindful of all the difficulties involved in truth recovery, particularly for victims and their families, but there is an onus on all political leaders to promote this. The discharge of these responsibilities needs to be rooted in the political dispensation agreed on Good Friday, 1998.

Howwe deal with our past will also help to shape our future. We must also learn from our past. The civil war in this part of our country in 1922 and 1923 left a bitterness and hurt which was allowed to fester for generations and shaped the very nature of politics in this State - civil war politics. There was no truth recovery process and the consequences of that remained with us for many decades. A truth recovery process would have helped to heal the pain of that particular period.

In contrast, Nelson Mandela's government initiated, in 1995, a commission of inquiry, known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in to all apartheid-related activities, with the objective of mending unbridgeable racial disparities. The politics of reconciliation embodied in that inquiry was predicated on the fundamental principle that to forgive is not just to be altruistic but is the best form of self-interest.

For many years Sinn Féin has worked alongside victims and survivor organisations in their efforts to uncover truth, particularly those people killed directly by the British State or by surrogates of British Government agencies in the Unionist paramilitaries organisations. An independent international truth commission is required now, with all participants in the conflict sincerely and genuinely embracing it. All process should be victim-centred and should deal with all victims of the conflict on the basis of equality. There are vested interests who do not want the truth to come out and who will oppose the creation of a meaningful truth recovery process. The disgraceful British and Unionist wrangle over the definition of a victim and the recognition payment are cases in point. Truth recovery cannot and will not be dealt with through a British-Unionist prism or, for that matter, through an Irish-Republican prism.

The British Government, which has historically played such a divisive and violent role in Irish affairs, must join in an honest endeavour which allows the people of our island to carve out a new future. The British Government has pursued, as a matter of policy, the use of administrative and institutional violence and collusion. It has employed the full weight of its political influence and authority to deny actively, cover-up and block truth recovery processes. This has involved the suppression of reports by various commissions from Stalker, to Sampson, to Stevens. It has also refused to fulfil its commitments with regard to the Pat Finucane murder case and to co-operate with the Barron commission.

If there is to be an inclusive healing process and a genuine process of reconciliation then the British Government must face up to its responsibilities. The Irish Government has a constitutional, legal and moral responsibility to actively promote and encourage this course of action. All of us must pledge ourselves to tell and hear the truth about the past. Only then can the healing really begin.

See this speech in context