Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope the official translation hub in the Oireachtas will run with it and that we have just had another historic wee moment in the Seanad. The Cathaoirleach mentioned that the Lord Speaker's people are from the great county of Tyrone, the O'Neill county with its own proud history, rich in Gaelic lords, chiefs and history. It does not have a bad football side either at the minute. He also spoke about a number of what-ifs. If the Lord Speaker's father or grandfather had gone west, might he have come back as the Speaker of the House of Representatives? The Cathaoirleach failed to say that if that ancestor had stayed in Tyrone, the Lord Speaker might be in his seat. Nevertheless, it is good to have him in the particular seat he is occupying this afternoon. I will move to more serious matters. What resonated with me was Lord McFall's institutional memory and experience of negotiating and bedding in the Good Friday Agreement. I respectfully say that is something that has been sorely lacking in the British Government in recent years. Much like the Good Friday Agreement itself was a compromise, as Lord McFall knows, the protocol that is so prominent in political life at the moment is also a compromise. The threat posed to the Good Friday Agreement to peace and progress in Ireland, to our economy and society has been Brexit. The protocol is helping to attract investment and create jobs throughout Ireland. Lord McFall knows that international agreements and international law must be upheld. The protocol must be built upon, not undermined.

The Cathaoirleach mentioned Lord McFall's attendance at the scene of the Omagh bombing and Lord McFall reflected that he will be heading to Glencree later this afternoon. As other colleagues have rightly said - this Seanad unanimously rejected the British Government's legacy proposals in a motion brought by Senator Currie - the amnesty Bill is an affront to democracy and justice and it is rejected by every party on this island and by many parties on Lord McFall's island.

A key component throughout Lord McFall's address was the importance of dialogue and engagement. I agree with him on that wholeheartedly. In a week where some have engaged in some very reckless, regressive and dangerous sabre rattling about the funeral and burial of the Good Friday Agreement, the onus is on all of us, no matter our position – non-political, civic, academic, community, voluntary, cultural and arts – not least the co-guarantors of the agreement in the form of the British and Irish Governments, to ensure it is defended, upheld and above all else, fully implemented.

In the centenary year of the Seanad, it is great to have Lord McFall here. As one of the Vice Chairs of the Irish delegation to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, I thank him for hosting us at Westminster and giving us his contribution and hospitality that day. As I have already said, and as other colleagues have rightly reflected, the great strength and lesson of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements is the ability to come together to talk, understand each other, hear each other and to cut through a lot of the noise. I am lucky to have someone who was involved with some of the tentative and early days of the peace process working with me in my office and he always encourages me to light a candle rather than curse the dark.