Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by acknowledging that although many of the events I will speak of happened a mere couple of hours up the road, I find it difficult to relate to them because I was 11 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. I never had to march with my family to seek justice from state forces. The bombs had grown silent by the time I would have been old enough to hear them. The peace was hard fought for and we should cherish and fight for it every day of our lives.

I first acknowledge that last Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. It was a day of mourning and a time to reflect and think about what happened on that fateful day and the victims, and to demonstrate solidarity with the survivors, their loved ones and a community that still hurts so much despite five decades having passed. On 30 January 1972, some 20,000 people came together in Derry to protest against the mass arrest and internment of Catholic men and women across Northern Ireland and protest for their rights. Families, community groups and local people came together to demand an end to imprisonment without trial. It was hoped that a large collective action could bring about change. Days before, a protest plan was put in place. People were determined to have their voices heard. They were resolute and the march went ahead.

We have all watched the footage of that fateful day, which was caught by both Irish and British journalists who were present on the streets. We have heard the testimonies of those who watched friends and family members fleeing and then falling. We saw the bloody handkerchief in the hands of a priest who was trying to get those who were shot to safety. Twenty-six unarmed and innocent people were shot by the British Army that day, 14 of whom were killed. They were shot from behind and while trying to help the injured. They died while being blocked from getting to hospitals for urgent medical care. There are so many witness testimonies. It was quite simply horrific.

To add to the grief and trauma, we watched as a Tory narrative was constructed and is now being reconstructed to cover up and protect individual soldiers, try to prevent justice, infer that the crowd brought it on themselves and create a narrative that the soldiers believed the crowd was armed and dangerous, yet not one British soldier was shot on that day. Those same Tories who created that narrative now want amnesty for soldiers who shot innocent people in cold blood. That is not amnesty. That is an attempt at a state cover-up. It is the opposite of justice. I welcome the fact that across this Chamber Deputies will oppose that as vociferously as we can.

We also remember the Ballymurphy massacre in west Belfast, which took place just six months before Bloody Sunday as a result of British soldiers rounding up people to intern. Eleven people died in all, including a priest and a mother of eight children. This was a dark day for the entire island. It must be said that if there had been truth and accountability at that moment in Ballymurphy, perhaps what happened in Derry could have been prevented.

Of course, every single day of the year is an anniversary of another atrocity, another killing, and of families and communities torn apart by violence and hate. More than 3,700 people were killed during the Troubles and almost 48,000 were injured. The Good Friday Agreement came to pass in 1998 and, in many ways, transformed this island. Almost 24 years after this historic agreement came into being, there are still many people who have been denied access to truth, accountability, justice, safety and the process of reconciliation.

Families deserve to know the whole facts about what happened either to them or their loved ones. We must acknowledge the intergenerational pain and trauma still held by so many families across this island. Without that, there is no pathway to healing to repair broken relationships or move past the hurt. Families desperately want and need truth, empathy, accountability and justice. The process of peace cannot move forward without this, and peace is a process.

Today, people in the North of Ireland are being denied access to economic opportunity, social mobility and educational attainment. Some 17% of all people living in Northern Ireland are living in relative income poverty. Indeed, 17% of all children, 14% of pensioners and 11% of the working age population live in absolute poverty. There is no peace in poverty.

Working-class communities are underfunded. The fact that no anti-poverty strategy has been adopted to help improve the lives of people from all communities is damning. When a society emerges from conflict, that violence leaves a stain. That violence is still present and manifests itself in a number of ways.

Another important point to make about the future of the North of Ireland is the need to recognise that there are more than just two communities in Northern Ireland. We have seen the grassroots community organising by feminists, young people, civil society groups, community networks, the working class, LGBTQI and non-religious groups, to name but a few, seeking rights for abortion, the ending of religious segregation of all children in schools, marriage equality, an end to poverty, improved housing conditions and a place at the table when the future of the island is being discussed and decided upon.

We have a responsibility in this House. We watch each day in this House as leaders clash, insults are slung and words are used as pawns in a game and battle to have the final say. People watch these antics. Most of them are exhausted from seeing the same Punch and Judy show, day in and day out. Our peace is a process and it is a precious thing. It is delicate and it needs care and attention. It is not a hot potato to throw around to score points or make headlines. We must treat it with the respect and time that it deserves.

We often talk in this Chamber of the idea of what constitutes a republic. Many of us talk about being republicans in our outlook. In a republic, in a shared island, we do not get to say we will not speak to people across the Chamber or outside the Chamber. That does not respect the wishes of the voters. We have an obligation to be tolerant of each other and others' views and of what it means to live in a Republic. Parliamentary debate should be robust. We should argue vociferously about taxation, expenditure and policy direction. We should hold each other to account when our behaviour does not meet standards. However, we should not go beyond that and too often in this Chamber, we do that. We personalise issues and get into cleavages when we do not need to. If we can take any lesson from the Good Friday Agreement, it is that it brought political actors into the State and into the Republic. That should be respected.

The 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday gives us an opportunity to think about how far we have come and consider where we are going and how we will get there. We simply cannot move forward until we fully recognise and understand our past and know what has shaped us and our values, cultures, differences and conflicts. Only then can we move forward.

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