Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending and for his efforts in the talks, including his presence at Stormont, which we see on television repeatedly. His role is most valuable. In the life of this Seanad, we were so busy dealing with the near bankruptcy of the State, the bailout and so on that we may have lacked time to talk to our neighbours in Northern Ireland, but that has certainly been remedied, which is most important. Given the 3,600 deaths and 40,000 injuries, we cannot go back. The "house on the hill", as the biography of Stormont calls it, should be retained and made to work, and decommissioning should be made to work. We in this jurisdiction have a major interest in ensuring there is peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.

I have the honour to represent constituents in that area because so many of them are graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. When one crosses the Border in the west, one sees Portora. Samuel Beckett, Henry Francis Lyte and Oscar Wilde are three people who went from there to study just down the road from Leinster House. On the other side were Hamilton Harty in Hillsborough and Brian Maginess, a liberal who was interested in the Orange parades issue back in the 1950s. We have these connections. I regret that about four times as many Northerners come South than Southerners go North. We need to develop the North South Inter-Parliamentary Association, as the Minister said. I would like to see lots of Northern visitors here to talk to people, on a drop-in basis almost, because we are all on the one side of this.

I was with our graduates recently at Fort Dunree in Donegal. It was the last fort to be handed over in 1938, when the Union Jack was taken down and the Tricolour put up. In fact, the two officers, the one leaving and the other taking over, were brothers-in-law who had both married people who lived in the locality. That was the last piece of territory to be handed over by Britain to the Republic as part of the treaty port issue in 1938.

We have so many connections. Speakers mentioned the all-Ireland sports teams in rugby, cricket and hockey, and we all gain from that. If it is necessary to find an anthem like "Ireland's Call" that can be sung happily by people of both traditions in this country, I would think that excellent.

I wish Rosalie Flanagan, Stephen Shaw and Lord Carlile every success in their decommissioning exercise. I commend them for taking up that responsibility in the tradition of Bill Clinton, Reverend Harold Good, General de Chastelain, Tony Blair and all those who have helped us to get so much advancement on the island. We are indebted to those people.

When we were attempting a similar exercise here on the very first day of the Seanad, Arthur Griffith in particular was influential in nominating a large number of former Unionists. William Butler Yeats said he came here not as a Nationalist, not as an Unionist, but as a Member of the Seanad. As has been said earlier, the Reverend Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness had that momentum going. We have to make sure we do not lose it.

There are concerns about the murders that have been mentioned of Mr. Quinn, Mr. McGuigan, Mr. Davison and Garda Adrian Donohoe. The Smithwick report is terrifying to read in regard to what happened in south Armagh and north Louth on the day officers Buchanan and Breen were killed. There was a paramilitary takeover of a large part of territory from 9 a.m. until those murders took place. We have to get those residual issues sorted out.

Declan Kearney launched a most interesting book last week, with Derek Chilcott, the ambassador, and Dr. Heather Morris, the former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland. In the book, Uncomfortable Conversations, Reverend Earl Storey writes:

What is this peace process about? Is it about breaking down a historic cycle of division, hatred and violence? Or is it little more than a breathing space until the next round of fighting?

We want what Earl Storey wishes to be realised. In the same volume, Lord Alderdice writes that we have two identities not yet reconciled, despite all of the great efforts that have been made. He states that there is a Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist identity which involves "a sense of dominance - a disposition to think and act as though they ought to still be in charge". Of the Catholic-Nationalist-Republican community, Lord Alderdice writes, "Despite there now being parity of esteem and political, legal, social and economic opportunities, many people in [that] community still operate as though they were victims rather than the authors of our shared destiny." It is this analysis of "anxious dominance" and "victimhood" that he feels holds the clue to what Declan Kearney calls "uncomfortable conversations".

I admired the Taoiseach, at the weekend commemoration of Thomas Kent, when he mentioned the RIC man, William Rowe, who was a victim in that incident. On Saturday, Trinity College will unveil a memorial to the people of 1914 to 1918. That is coming together in places as far apart as Kerry and Donegal. Ireland is discovering its shared identity. I would hope to see that the prosperity that will follow from peace will benefit Northern Ireland, which is one of the lowest income regions in the United Kingdom. It does not help in this era of high-tech and human capital industries that we have these disputes about flags, demonstrations and so on. A new Northern Ireland will enhance its present position within these islands.

It is very important for all of us that the work of the Minister, the Secretary of State, Prime Minister Cameron and the Taoiseach succeeds because we cannot go back to the situation where so many people were killed and maimed, as Dearbhail McDonald has pointed out in her works. I wish the Minister God speed and a fair wind in his task, which will benefit everyone on the island. There are no enemies because we are all friends on this. May the Minister succeed.