Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This year, Europe remembers the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. For the island of Ireland, North and South, the First World War is a shared sorrow. From this island 250,000 men left to fight a war that should never have happened. A fifth of those men never returned. Some of them were Unionists, loyal to their king and country. Some were nationalists, loyal to an ideal of home rule or some other form of independence for Ireland that they assumed would follow the war.

Most were just young men who signed up to see the world. One of the most poignant Irish symbols of peace is not in Ireland at all, but at the all-Ireland peace park in Flanders, Belgium. At the entrance to the park is a peace pledge, unveiled a little over 15 years ago by former President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. The pledge contains the following words that are worth repeating in this House today: "As Protestants and Catholics, we apologise for the terrible deeds we have done to each other, and ask forgiveness."

There is a lot to forgive and be forgiven. The late Senator and peace campaigner, Gordon Wilson - one of the few true persons of forgiveness and peace to walk the corridors of Leinster House - set a very high standard with his statement "I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge," which was uttered just hours after his beloved daughter Marie died following the devastating IRA bomb at Enniskillen in 1987.

Walking out the gates of Leinster House onto Kildare Street and turning right towards Trinity College Dublin, we find ourselves on South Leinster Street, at the bottom of Nassau Street. On the footpath by the railings of Trinity College Dublin there is a square granite plaque that marks the spot where almost 40 years ago, in May 1974, two innocent women lost their lives in a UVF car bomb explosion. Anna Massey, a 21 year old employee of Lisney's auctioneers, and 51 year old Christine Lawlor, who worked up the street in the Shelbourne Hotel, died on that spot, a short walk from where I stand. They were two of the 33 victims of four bombs planted on that day, three in Dublin city and one in Monaghan. It was the highest number of casualties on a single day during the years of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Twenty of the dead were women.

More than 3,500 people were killed by violence in Northern Ireland - the population of a medium-sized town just wiped out. More people were killed by Northern Irish violence than in the Twin Towers tragedy in New York on 9/11. Tens of thousands of Irish and British people remain living victims of the terrible deeds committed, supposedly, in the names of nationalities and religions. One island and two nations share the sorrow of these deaths. There is too much sorrow and darkness in Ireland's history, too much of which is claimed falsely in the name of religion.

In this jurisdiction we have had in recent years an avalanche of reports and inquiries into church and State abuse of vulnerable people. Even more inquiries will be needed before, as a country and an island, we will have faced up to the impact of that part of our past. In Northern Ireland the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is hearing evidence from witnesses, including victims. A witness in giving evidence last week to the inquiry was asked to compare his time spent in the Termonbacca children's home in Derry with his experience of a home in Salthill, County Galway. "Salthill was Auschwitz," he said, "Termonbacca was Treblinka."

The people of this island, North and South, have been the victims of political and religious ideology and claptrap for far too long. Symbols, whether crosses or flags, hymns or anthems, are just that - symbols. If people take comfort from their symbols, let them be, but there is a bigger picture. This shared island of ours has common sorrows that must be addressed with meaningful apologies and forgiveness. Only then can the people of this island, whether they call themselves Irish, British, Northern Irish or European, move forward and embrace a future of common opportunities.

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