Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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I have two questions and the second is one that I have consistently asked different witnesses during these hearings with the architects of the peace process. The first goes back slightly to the issue of reconciliation. That is one of the outstanding issues of the agreement, which Mr. Adams has touched on and which we deal with week in, week out in terms of implementation. How important is it that the process of reconciliation should be national? What lessons can be learned from the fact that we are marking a series of centenaries here? Last week, we had the centenary of the creation of the Free State. What can be learned from the fact that there was no process of truth recovery and reconciliation, after a period of really horrific Civil War when people were disappeared without notification to their families of where they were, people were tied to land mines, people were shot in their beds or coming and going from their work? We know the damage that caused to society in this State over a long number of years because there was no one who came forward to take part in a truth recovery or reconciliation process between parties involved then. How important is it that reconciliation is not monolithic but that it is organic, broad and national and reflects the fact that the State needs to reconcile with the abandonment of people in the North? Republicans have to reconcile with people to whom they caused hurt and harm How does Mr. Adams envisage this going forward in the context of peacebuilding and nation-building?

The second question is on the issue of the amendments to Article 2 and 3. Many people think those articles were done away with at the time of the agreement as opposed to amended. What should the Irish Government be doing, given the change post 1998, on the issue of everyone born on the island of Ireland having the right to be part of the Irish nation? I have asked other witnesses how the Irish Government could and should give practical effect to that, as opposed to it just being a notional concept.