Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In many respects it is appropriate that Senator Blaney should open the debate. He comes from a generation of republican families and it is apt that he should open this Fianna Fáil republican family motion that is before the House. At college I invited Neil T Blaney, Senator Blaney's uncle, to a discussion. It was well attended. That was at a time when the voices of republicans south of the Border were few.If you remember the three elections in the early 1980s, Sinn Féin, then Provisional Sinn Féin, skipped one of them. It was a very small party at the time. Neil Blaney was a forceful voice. I also supported prominent unionists coming to the college at the time.

I draw an analogy between the Good Friday Agreement and Bunreacht na hÉireann. Although Bunreacht na hÉireann is a living document - it has often been described as such by academics and lawyers - the Good Friday Agreement has the potential to be a living document. Before it becomes a living document it ought to be an implemented document. Unfortunately, we are a long way from that happening at the moment. However, we should not lay too much emphasis on its implementation, although it is critically important in the long-term to consolidate peace.

We should know the difference and, without looking to the Good Friday Agreement as a moral compass, the retrograde step it is to glorify or celebrate incidents where people lost their lives . I especially think of recent incidents where the bereaved members of the family are still alive and well. That is not true republicanism. If unionists and loyalists are doing that, it is not the way forward.

It is with deep sadness that it took such an extended generation, a lost generation, to get from the Sunningdale Agreement to the Good Friday Agreement and we more or less got the same agreement. The late Seamus Mallon called it, if I recall correctly, "Sunningdale for slow learners".

There is a lovely quote from John Hume, which some Members may well have heard before, but it is worth placing on the record of the House in case it has not been done yet. In the famous Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech he gave in 1998, when an Irishman was treated with such exuberant and spontaneous respect in the European Parliament, he said, among other learned words:

All conflict is about difference, whether the difference is race, religion or nationality. The European visionaries decided that difference is not a threat, difference is natural. Difference is ... the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be ... [a] source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace – respect for diversity.

We have a long way to go to respect diversity and we can start by healing. I am a proud Irish republican, but essential healing must happen before we can think of a united Ireland in real terms. We have a peace but it is not an authentic peace.

I am sorry to pick on one tradition because both sides lost so many, but the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, is an inspiration. His father, an RUC officer, was killed. Drew Harris was asked in an interview how he got over it. He said he had not but he did not want his children to have that bitterness, so he worked on it very hard and, although he thought about his late father every day, it was not the way to go forward. It was very inspiring that, although Drew Harris lost his father, he now leads our police force south of the Border. That is a true republicanism of forgiveness and not allowing judgementalism to become septic and festering.

It also involves a generosity, and that involves listening. In one of Arlene Foster's last big interviews before she was recently removed as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and I send my political sympathies to her on that, she said, and I paraphrase, "You know, you guys in the Republic of Ireland, you think I'm a misguided Irish person, that all will be okay someday soon when I realise that I'm actually Irish and not British." She said there lies the fundamental misunderstanding of republicans and nationalists.Members might be surprised by that statement from someone who was, until recently, the leader of unionism. We have a job of work to do before we conduct a border poll because it is a once in a generation event and I want to ensure it is successful. We have much work to do. Can we start by asking the leader of the Northern Ireland Assembly to address the Houses of the Oireachtas? Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Michel Barnier and Tony Blair have all done so, but it gets more politically difficult and testing when it is closer to home. Can the Taoiseach address the Stormont Parliament? Then we would have normality. We have a job of work to do before that happens. I hope this is the start of many debates and much coming together where we can forget the bitter past and first heal ourselves in the South of Ireland as one voice of republicanism. We can then be a wonderful advertisement and inspiration to our Irish brothers and sisters north of the border.