Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Good Friday Agreement at 25 years is an endorsement of how peace, when it is pursued by all, is something that can be attained and can change lives and communities. When the painstaking negotiations were taking place that common goal of peace kept matters progressing to a stage when achievement was possible. That is the value of all sides pursuing the one objective. It is a common effort where there is a unity of purpose and that unity of purpose must be recognised for what it is and what it has achieved. We saw the desire for peace in those who laid the groundwork for the Good Friday Agreement. We saw it in the coming together of representatives who we never thought we would see in one room and in the level of support, North and South, from those who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Good Friday Agreement.

Even though there are many different opinions on this island regarding how people would like to see Ireland move into the future, we can all agree that what has been achieved must not be lost. Peace is not a single thing, however. It is dependent on a number of factors for it to work: tolerance, understanding and an ability to understand each others' grievances. The acknowledgement of these factors in delivering upon the acceptance of that has resulted in an achievement all here would welcome unwaveringly.

A generation has emerged that has no memory of conflict on this island. That is an achievement of epic proportions. We cannot lose sight of that, or how it was an achievement that must be continually nurtured. As power-sharing remained suspended, Brexit has brought us to a low point whereby the Tory Government has sought to use the Good Friday Agreement and the unique situation in the North of Ireland for its own self-interested purposes. This cynical manoeuvring has resulted in the suspension of power-sharing and the re-emergence of a type of rhetoric that should be confined to the past, as the checkpoints on the Border have been.

We have also seen elements of this unilateral attitude being adopted in legislation designed to protect British State forces from prosecution and historical inquests. Like the path pursued by some in the course of the Brexit debacle, the unilateral approach used also flies in the face of the Good Friday Agreement. Those who seek to nullify the gains of the agreement in this way are withholding progress from the people they claim to represent. Whether those representatives like it or not, they need to keep working together. The time for one section of society in the North of Ireland to have total control of others is over. The power-sharing Executive must work for the many, not just for a select few. The use of the Good Friday Agreement for self-serving purposes that have nothing to do with the purpose of the agreement must desist. The British and Irish Governments must continue to fulfil their roles as co-guarantors. I advise them to read back through their obligations and to act and engage accordingly.

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