Miss Karen Jardine:

The Senator knows the same as I do. One of the themes that has come through strongly is something I mentioned, that is, thinking about tomorrow and the next 24 hours is as much capacity as some people have. There is no capacity in some communities to think about these broad and significant changes because of the other pressures they are facing. I acknowledge that some people are fully engaged with these considerations but there are also huge swathes of the community for whom these matters are not on their radar, never mind anything else.

Senator Black asked about commemoration and remembrance. It was put into stark relief last year around the centenary of the partition of the island and the creation of Northern Ireland. Looking back over the decade of centenaries, we can see that in the early years before partition, around 1914 and 1916, it was beneficial, helpful and healing to remember together. That was the case in respect of reflections on the First World War and the Battle of the Somme, and understanding the breadth of communities who were engaged in that regard. Learning how to remember together has been a healing process. That is what we have tried to do in Considering Grace, in which there is a chapter from critical friends. Those are people who would not necessarily identify as Presbyterian. A colleague of Senator Ó Donnghaile is included in that chapter, as is Mr. Séamus Mallon. It also includes other political voices. We have asked how to build a framework of commemoration and remembrance where we are able to hear how other people perceive us and that has been a humbling journey for us within the PCI.

I will pick up on the comments that have been made about the legacy Bill. Anyone who listened in to our general assembly in October 2021, which I do not imagine anyone did, would have heard the breadth of opinion within the PCI on legacy. There is no one-size-fits-all position in that respect. There was a very moving and public contribution from one of ministers whose father had been killed. He had come to a position of realisation and an understanding that getting justice in this life may not be possible but perhaps there will be justice in the life to come, which we believe in, as people of faith. Many others of our denomination have an idea of closing the books and hope for justice, even if the possibility it is very slim, and even if they know, deep down inside, that it is unrealistic and may be taken away. In our response to legacy considerations, we have always fallen back on a verse in psalm 85, which speaks about truth and mercy, righteousness and piece, kissing each other and touching each other. Somebody described it to me once as a dance, in that those concepts are in perfect harmony with each other. Another way we could consider those concepts is as a four-legged stool. If one is removed, the stool will fall over. There is a sense that in respect of the proposals as they stand at the moment, the stool has become a little unbalanced. Removing any sliver of hope that justice may be found, either through the civil or criminal courts, is damaging to people.