Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, want to highlight and talk about the shared island unit and today's 100-year anniversary. The €190 million that has been invested in people on this island is incredible. Projects that have been talked about for decades, particularly the Narrow Water Bridge, which I have spoken about constantly, are genuine, real and concrete proof that we are bringing people closer together. We have to look at the shared island unit because it is the only body working on an all-island basis across the Thirty-two Counties of this glorious island and thinking about how we can work closer together. That is progress on the island. The only way we will get true progress is to think about the one-island concept, which is exactly what the shared island unit does.

I have to talk about the 100 years we commemorate today. It is very important we do so.There is a reason I would have been on the anti-Treaty side. It is because I did not celebrate all of that. We live with the failures of our politics 100 years ago. When I stand on top of the Cooley Mountains and look over to the Mournes and know they are in a different jurisdiction, I remember the pain and heartache that brought us to where we are and that continues. Many people in the North want and long for reunification, but we have to consider and remember what we had 100 years ago. We had a broken country. It was violent, and there was violence perpetrated on behalf of the State. We must remember the people who were executed and murdered. I think of local men such as Thomas McKeown, Thomas Lennon, Joseph Ferguson, James Melia - all Louth people who were executed by the Free State. They were put down, but they have always been remembered. I also think of Private Giles and Captain Boyle of the Free State, who were commemorated recently. They were men who thought they were doing the right thing for their country. Let us not forget that many people look back on what happened 100 years ago without celebrating it. There is great pride but also a sense of great loss regarding what happened 100. It was a failed politics. The Good Friday Agreement represents politics that worked. We have to work together to make sure politics works. That will bring about progress and the reunification of the island.