ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのKeynote Address by Taoiseach Micheál Martin: Building Common Ground

Thank you, Sean.

It is a great pleasure to join you all this evening, here at The Playhouse in Derry.

A place which for thirty years has been an inclusive civic space in the heart of this city.

With a mission and a vibrant record of supporting ‘purposeful inquiry through the arts’, centred on helping to forge a sustainable peace in the community.

So, this is most a fitting place to come together as we remember John and Pat Hume, who together devoted their lives to the achievement of enduring peace in Ireland.

And at this time - as we witness and respond with solidarity to the horror of Russia’s immoral war on Ukraine - we are jolted to see again how priceless is the gift of peace on these shores.

And we remember too just how critical - in the darkest days of the violence of Troubles - was John Hume’s political leadership in keeping hope alive.

To never give up on peace.

To always insist on respect of fundamental rights for all.

And, to work with unswerving determination, to find agreed resolutions to intractable problems. Working through practical, positive actions to build common ground.

The Good Friday Agreement was the product of many people’s work. Of political and civic leaders across all traditions and communities in Northern Ireland - unionist, nationalist, loyalist, republican and others.

Including David Trimble who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with John, in recognition of their leadership and risk-taking in walking together a pathway to peace.

The Irish and British Governments worked in closest partnership; and the United States and European Union each played indispensable roles, in forging a context for a resolution.

But, the Good Friday Agreement simply wouldn’t have happened without John Hume; the vision, tenacity and sheer will he brought, over decades, to achieve a political resolution that would definitively end the destructive cycles of violence.

John built up a coalition for peace in Derry, Belfast, London, Dublin, Washington, Brussels and Strasbourg.

I was proud to unveil a sculpture of John Hume at Ireland’s Ambassador’s residence in Washington D.C. last month, which is a fitting reminder of the extraordinary political relationships that John built up in that city, across America and around the world in his limitless bid to secure peace.

At home and abroad, John brilliantly and ceaselessly affirmed an irrefutable moral and intellectual case for non-violence.

As he said so often, so simply and so profoundly:

“the only consequence of violence is a more deeply divided people”;

“the essence of unity in every society, is to accept diversity”; and,

We need on this island to “work the common ground... spilling our sweat and not our blood, to grow together…at our own speed”.

These precepts would come to be accepted by all sides; and they represent the DNA of the Good Friday Agreement.

And, as John always acknowledged, he couldn’t have done what he did without the outstanding contribution of Pat.

His partner in family and political life; his most trusted advisor and his most courageous and unstinting supporter.

John, with characteristic wit and warmth, often said, “I’m a parcel and Pat delivers me.”

Theirs was an inspirational partnership for family and community; for peace and progress.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.

‘D’fhág John, agus é ag obair in éineacht le Pat, oidhreacht chumhachtach síochána agus ardeiseamláir ab ea é do dhuine a bhí ag iarraidh athmhuintearas a bhaint amach i gcónaí.

Creidim go mbeidh saothar shaol na beirte ina threoir againn ar an Oileán seo, sa bhealach céanna is a mbeidh siad ina bhfoinse dhóchais agus inspioráide dóibh siúd a chuireann an tsíocháin chun cinn ar fud an domhain.

[John - working side by side with Pat - left us a powerful legacy of peace and a shining example of striving always for reconciliation.

I believe that their life’s work will continue to guide us on this island, just as they will remain a source of hope and inspiration for those who champion the cause of peace around the world.

I also want to recognise the valued contribution and commitment of everyone involved with the John and Pat Hume Foundation in helping to support their legacy.

In a short period, the Foundation has already built up an impressive programme of work.

Fostering civic engagement founded on the principles of inclusivity, respect for difference, and of working for peaceful, positive change - which were so central in John and Pat’s lives.

I and my government colleagues look forward to continuing to supporting the Foundation, as you develop this important mission in the years ahead.

The threat of violence last Friday targeting an innocent man, disrupting a family funeral in Belfast and the Foundation’s cross-community event with Minister Coveney, underscores how much we still need John Hume’s message and means of peace-building today.

I welcome that last week’s incident, and the attack on Doug Beattie’s office this week, have been condemned by political leaders from all communities, making clear that no purpose is served and nobody is represented by violence or a threat of violence.

My government listens carefully to the concerns of all communities in Northern Ireland. As Taoiseach, I have engaged actively and constructively with Unionist, Nationalist and other political leaders across the spectrum here.

The Irish Government will never dismiss genuinely held concerns around the Protocol, and we are working very actively with our EU partners to listen and engage on them. But any opposition must always be peaceful. That is simply fundamental.

There are democratic and lawful means for all concerns to be raised and resolutions worked through. That is where our focus must remain.

I want to also acknowledge Sara Canning this evening, a member of the Hume Foundation Board, civic activist and more, whose partner, the brave and brilliant journalist Lyra McKee was cruelly taken away almost 3 years ago, in a senseless act of violence on the streets of Derry.

We all stand with Sara and Lyra’s wider family as they seek and await justice, and bear such devastating loss.

Lyra McKee’s talented and passionate writing and reporting, with such strong sense of empathy, of justice, and a demand for better for her generation, stands as an enduring inspiration and call to action:

That we live up to and deliver on the promise of the Good Friday Agreement, for all in the community.

Common ground

In the context of what this requires of us all, I’m very glad to have the opportunity to contribute this evening to the Foundation’s dialogue series on ‘Building Common Ground’.

This was central to John Hume’s political thought and mission throughout his life; it goes to the core of the Peace Process; and it demands our attention and commitment at this time.

I am conscious of the election for the Northern Ireland Assembly next month, so I won’t dwell on specific current political issues this evening.

Instead, I’d like to focus on the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement; its central goal of reconciliation; and how in real terms we achieve it, by building common ground.

As John Hume readily identified and so often counselled, there are 3 connected sets of relationships that are essential to the cohesion of society.

Across the community in Northern Ireland; within the island of Ireland; and between Ireland and Britain.

It was the eventual accommodation of these relationships in the Good Friday Agreement that was fundamental to its political force and success - securing the resounding and enduring support of the people of this island, North and South.

Through the Agreement, we established new, interdependent political institutions - for Northern Ireland, North/South and East/West - and affirmed principles, rights and equal protections for all, and addressed issues of citizenship, identity and constitutional futures.

We created the political space and societal confidence to work the common ground.

Without in any way compromising our different, equally legitimate identities, beliefs and aspirations for the future of this island - nationalist, unionist or neither.

I respect and affirm everyone’s right on this island to work democratically for the constitutional future they wish to see under the Good Friday Agreement.

The Agreement empowers us to create, together, a brighter and reconciled future for all.

And there is no doubt that through the Peace Process, common ground has been sought out, tended and grown, and helped to make life better.

In countless personal, community, and political interactions over the last 24 years that embraced conciliation, compromise and cooperation.

Look, for example, at how issues around parades have been worked through here in Derry, on a basis of respect for all traditions and a desire to find better ways to share the city. And Derry inspired similar efforts and resolutions on parading across Northern Ireland.

More widely, there have been important gestures of accommodation and reconciliation by political leaders from all traditions. And the State Visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in 2011 and that by President Higgins to the United Kingdom in 2014 have an enduring significance.

In politics, we have been able to work in our very substantial common interests through the power-sharing, North/South and East/West institutions of the Agreement.

And, a near quarter century of peace has allowed a developing of political, economic, cultural and societal relationships right across these islands. Deepening and normalising our understanding of each other.

In short, we have begun to reconcile.

But we also see that the 3 sets of relationships accommodated in the Good Friday Agreement are strained, and they have been for some time now.

The outworkings of Brexit, including the Protocol, continue to bedevil politics in Northern Ireland and complicate both North/South and East/West relationships.

The power-sharing Executive and North South Ministerial Council are, once again, not fully functioning, which is a source of deep concern.

As it the fact that the legacy of the Troubles has still not been equitably dealt with. Leaving unmet the needs and legitimate expectations of victims and unresolved trauma in society.

Important, agreed legislation on Irish and on Ulster Scots language and culture in the New Decade, New Approach agreement has still to be passed.

Residual paramilitarism and related criminality continues to stalk some communities, taking and scarring lives.

And, constitutional and identity politics still structures much of political interaction in Northern Ireland.

This hinders political discussion of policy priorities and choices; impacts governance; and far too often sees a reductive and patently false narrative of ‘us and them’.

As Lyra McKee once wrote, “bigger issues than tribalism are being ignored and no one seems to care” - suicide rates and mental health; good jobs for young people; equality.

We have to be honest and admit that these challenges work against the dynamic of building common ground and understanding that is at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement.

We have won an enduring peace, but we risk losing the accompanying promise of societal progress and reconciliation.

This is a challenge of utmost significance. It is about the kind of society we will pass on to our children and grandchildren.

Whatever constitutional future you want to see for this island, a truer reconciliation should be central to that vision.

And that demands greater political attention and will today, to strive to build more common ground across the 3 core relationships of our Agreement.