Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

All we have heard is the particular narrative that the war was justified because of discrimination, that there was no alternative for the Nationalist people of Northern Ireland but to take up the gun. Where does that leave those who pursued the constitutional Nationalist narrrative? Are they to be consigned to the dustbin of history as if they do not count and that in the new Ireland, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams were solely responsible for taking Northern Nationalists out of squalor, prejudice, discrimination and so on? I have a real difficult about that. I am sad - Senator Conway referred to his generation - that the generation before him, the younger people, seem to have no understanding and are accepting this particular historical narrative. I do not wish to be critical of the role or the contribution that Sinn Féin has made and continues to make to the peace process. Sinn Féin is working it and we applaud it for that.

There is also a view of the enormous economic damage the IRA campaign did not only to this island but also to the perception abroad that we were nothing more than a bunch of people who like fighting among each other. It did enormous damage to job creation, tourism and the widespread perception which is not talked about. When people like me make these comments we are immediately accused of looking backwards as, after all, history starts from now and, therefore, we should only think forward, and also that there are former terrorists who became leaders - one can quote them from all over the world.

That is not the point I am making. I applaud and welcome the fact that my party was directly involved in trying to encourage the men of violence to come into the political mainstream.