Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators for their contributions this evening. There is a collective agreement that we are all very grateful for the sacrifices many men and women have made. They pushed for better and they dreamt of what could be. For me, as a new Senator and having been given an opportunity to be in this House, probably one of the greatest privileges I have had is to meet people who were part of that. Genuinely, they were my superstars when I was growing up. I was not too interested in music or whatever: I was interested in politics. This was my thing. I was interested in my community. I lived on the Border and we were living the historical mistakes of the past. That was my reality. Senator Currie lived that as well. We lived it, so it was not just something to be interested in, it was something to be captivated by and to be part of.

When I got to meet people like Monica McWilliams and George Mitchell and have conversations with them it was, to say the least, a fan girl moment. People like them make me want to be in politics. I recall Mo Mowlam, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern. This is why we are all here. It is because politics works. It is the best gig in town if we want to make proper changes. We must all remember this when we despair at little about politics.

We are taking this opportunity of the anniversary to reflect as well as renew our ambitions for the future over the next 25 years. As the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said, it is a time "to resolve or redouble efforts", and to look at what we are. We are the sum of all our parts, the orange and green, and we must embrace that. We must remember the selfless courage of so many political leaders back then. There was the compromise for the good of all the people. People sacrificed their careers doing that. We must look at those sacrifices. We must also look at the Good Friday Agreement and see those legitimate goals and that ambition.

When we talk about this abstract thing of a border poll, it is often forgotten that there are so many people in the North who want to be part of this place. There are so many people longing to be part of these Houses, and to have a voice in a 32-county island. That is legitimate. They are impatient and we must understand that impatience. I sort of get where Senator Ned O'Sullivan is going. I understand that we take into consideration other people but there is a want, a desperation and a will among so many people of the North to be part of this place, to be part of the Ireland we created down here. Over the past 100 years, we have created a damn good place to live in.

I congratulate the Tánaiste on his role. He is aware that I am an absolute advocate of the shared island unit. It is the legitimate place to look at how we move forward over the next few years. It is putting money where our mouth is, creating projects that matter to people, and bringing people together. That is what matters. I wish the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs well in his negotiations with the UK Government. He has the support of all parties in this House in opposing the legacy Bill in the UK. We will support him and urge him to take it as far as possible if the UK authorities do not drop this Bill.

There were no outright winners in the context of the Good Friday Agreement. The winners are people like Senator Currie’s children and my children, who have no clue what it is like to wake up in the morning and hear about bombs going off or people being terrorised. That idea belongs to a time that has passed. That is a victory. We will continue in that vein of victory because it is the only game in town. It is how our children do have to put up with this or our communities being in turmoil or the potential that daddy or mammy might not come home because of something. That has been our greatest victory over the past 25 years. Thank goodness for political courage and the will to change.