Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I do not believe the people who voted in the 1998 referenda in both the North and South believed they were doing anything other than participating in or commencing a process which is still ongoing. The fact the Assembly is not functioning, that the arms on the loyalist side have not been put beyond use — although there have been some welcome developments in recent days in that regard — and that the policing boards do not include all parties, indicate the process has not concluded. These must be the focus of the work to be done.

This is a fragile peace. While like most others I desire a united Ireland, my price, like that of most others, is that peace must be achieved by consent which is the only way to ensure a lasting peace. We witnessed the mayhem of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and the daily reports of murder and mayhem, where hundreds of thousands were forced to live or to grow up in a dangerous and violent environment where hatred was the currency. Many are damaged by that experience; they must be in our thoughts when this issue is being debated as a return to that situation is simply not acceptable. Will the Sinn Féin motion move the process forward? Will it persuade and build confidence within the Unionist community or will it widen the divide?

While there has been undoubted leadership within the republican movement from Sinn Féin to gain acceptance from the IRA of the need for removal of the guns and I acknowledge the significant progress made, I wish to refer to the issue of leadership. I attended an event in Newcastle, County Down, at which a former White House adviser spoke about the issue of leadership and peace building. He said leadership was all about delivering loss and he repeated this sentence many times. It is a significant summing up of leadership. It is easy to tell people what they want to hear and it is easy to build confidence within one's own community. The real challenge is in taking on board the concerns of the other side, as is the case here.

It is easy to ask this House to persuade Unionism of the advantages of Irish unification but the real challenge will be for Sinn Féin to do that by its actions, by making the Northern institutions work and by demonstrating that Unionism has nothing to fear. I do not believe Unionists are at all concerned or feel threatened by Fine Gael, the PDs, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party or those of us on the Independent benches and this tells a tale. There is no group in society more dangerous than a group with nothing to lose. Building peace is also about offering hope. It is essential the Unionist community feels a sense of hope for its future and does not believe that every gain for Sinn Féin is a loss for them as this is a recipe for conflict.

The South has seen some dividends which are not very tangible and I will cite some examples. Right through the 1970s and 1980s the Tricolour was not flown anywhere except on public buildings because people felt that by doing so they were in some way endorsing the IRA campaign. Attitudes have changed since the Good Friday Agreement and there is a fresh pride evident.

There is a new confidence in dealing with our history. My grandfather took part in the Easter Rising and he was interned for six months in Wales. Most of the internees kept diaries which when compared to those kept in 1922 are in marked contrast. Those written in 1916 were to do with patriotism and idealism which were also evident in the diaries written in 1922 but they also included an attitude of realism. It is valid for us to learn from that era of history and from people who were direct witnesses. This is not to do with revisionism. The focus must be on building peace in the North.

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