Ms Áine Groogan:

When it comes to perceptions, one of the main points I want to impart to the members concerns the complexities of identity. I am not nationalist and I am not unionist. I absolutely am not and I do not take a position on that. However, I do consider myself to be Irish, and Northern Irish as well. I will be blunt, though. I lived in Dublin for four or five years when I was at college. I lost count of the number of times that I was told I was not Irish. As someone who considered myself Irish all my life to that point, it blew my mind to go to Dublin and then be told that I was not Irish. I had many conversations with people there to try to help them to understand the reality of Northern Ireland and what it has gone through over the years and what that experience means now. Therefore, I believe there is a massive disconnect across the Border, including looking southwards as well.

Senator Currie spoke about trauma and that is a massive issue that we often do not deal with. The leader of my party, Clare Bailey, often says that what we have had in Northern Ireland has been a political process and not a peace process. She states that because we have failed to confront and deal with the legacy of our past. Inequity and division are still rife. I refer to our school and housing, which are still segregated. We live segregated lives, physically and psychologically. Of course, we also still have the issue of paramilitaries, who often masquerade as community representatives, continuing to coercively control entire communities. Intergenerational trauma is threatening another generation coming into its own now. We have seen it happening. We have all seen the much-quoted statistic about the number of deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland since 1998 being greater than the total of those who died during the Troubles. That is a shocking state of affairs and it is something I deal with day in, day out. I do a great deal of case work as a councillor and in my day job. I see many people every day who have been left completely traumatised. It is a trauma that we never deal with and that we have just doubled down on it many times.

I mentioned the benefits system and how it treats people as well. It is an issue we must grapple with. We can talk all we want about looking forward and about ideas for a united Ireland or whatever. However, the reality is that we have not moved far enough from where we were in 1998. We have not done what we needed to do to move Northern Ireland forward. Therefore, to try to look ahead is like trying to run before we can walk. We must not lose sight of the fact that we are still dealing with the legacy of our past. We must deal with it. We cannot just pretend it is not there. However, there has been a complete unwillingness to deal with this issue in Stormont, Westminster and the Oireachtas. My perspective is that we need to establish an independent and international truth and reconciliation process. That is the only way we will move forward.

Regarding the best way to stop people falling into the nationalist-unionist divide, I would not frame it like that. It is within people's rights to have that as part of their political identity and aspirations. However, one major thing we spoke about earlier is integrated education. It must be our route out of this current situation.