Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

All the speakers spoke so eloquently that I will not even attempt to capture it. We will have more conversations with the witnesses in drafting the report. Today we are only beginning a conversation. There are so many challenges and so many heartbreaking, hurtful and dreadful stories that people unfortunately feel obliged to share to move us and to make us move. I also want to hold on to hope. There is a poem that always gives me some comfort when I feel the world is against us. It is "Sometimes" by Sheenagh Pugh.

Sometimes things don't go, after all,

from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel

faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,

Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,

elect an honest man, decide they care

enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.

Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go

amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.

The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow

that seemed hard frozen;

may it happen for you.

I hope that our good efforts today do not go amiss and they lead to some better things but I recognise the enormous challenges.

The final word has to go to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who said:

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality ... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.