Professor Peter Shirlow:

Following on from what Mr. Pollak just said, I remind the committee of what we have said today. It is not just unionists who have concerns about unification. If we are to move forward, there needs to be a public recognition of that. I am not saying to committee members that they have to agree with my interpretation of the future but there must be parity of esteem and mutual respect. It is peculiar that the committee has started this process without thinking about the outcome. I hope that one of the outcomes of us being here is that the committee endorses what we have said as being a legitimate perspective because it is evidenced. It is not rhetoric or diatribe. It is evidenced, whether one agrees or disagrees with it. It is serious thinking about the future of this island. It is also important that committee members understand from what they have heard today that nobody here is against building better relationships and broadening and deepening reconciliation on this island. The committee has also heard today that we are open to dialogue, negotiation and to building a shared society. If we walk out this door and that is not endorsed publicly and politically in this part of our island, then this project has failed. It is as serious as that. We have to get beyond the rhetorical stakes that Senator Cassells referred to earlier.

It is wrong that the Irish language does not have an equality and a status within the North or Northern Ireland. In the institute that I run, one of the first things I did was to give thousands of pounds in funding to teach over 200 people Irish in London. That is as much my heritage and my culture as Ska music, Motown music and everything else. We have to stop counting sectarian heads. Just because someone is a Catholic does not mean he or she wants a united Ireland and just because someone is a Protestant does not mean he or she does not want a united Ireland. That goes to the very heart of the question Senator Ó Donnghaile asked earlier. The rhetorical stakes I encounter are sectarian headcounts and I want nothing to do with them. I want a pluralist, hybrid society. I want nothing to do with counting heads. I do not like, as I said earlier, that the headlines were written about the census before the census data were published. People who were saying things like "The train is leaving the station" and so on, know fine well that not everyone who is a Catholic wants a united Ireland or that not everyone who is a Catholic does not have concerns about a united Ireland. I am hoping the process in which we are now engaging and what this committee hears today will prove that we have an emotional intelligence and a generosity of spirit that has not been recognised. It is as serious as that. To echo what Senators Clonan and Cassells said, if we do not get into that generosity, we will end up in a very bad place.

The other point I would make about the Irish language is that not far from where Senator Ó Donnghaile lives in east Belfast, Irish is being taught in a Protestant church. Is anybody teaching Ulster Scots in a Catholic church? I do not know but that is a sign of the political generosity that comes from the unionist community. The unionist community has led on rights for sexual minorities with nationalists, republicans and others. A quarter of the city that I come from was flattened during the conflict. The rebuilding of that city has involved nationalists, unionists and others. Where is that going to feature in the discourse and debate about this society? Civic society is actually bonding and binding the very embedding of reconciliation which we came here to talk about.

The last point I would make - this is the problem when you bring down Nordies-----