The unionists were as much victims of history in the North as nationalists and republicans, the Northern Ireland Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, told the Humbert International Summer School.
Although it would have been difficult for him to acknowledge in the past, he said: "I did come to understand that the unionists were as much victims of all of this as we were and that in order to resolve the issues we were going to have to work together to sort it all out."
Addressing an audience which included an official from the British Embassy in Dublin, he continued: "That is why the inclusive negotiating process was so important in the run-up to Good Friday, with every strand of political thinking represented."
On the continuing sectarian violence, he said: "What is absolutely vital in order to tackle the plague of sectarianism that affects us in the North of Ireland is the continuation of a successful peace process . . . political leaders on all sides coming together, leading by example, showing that they are comfortable with one another, whilst at the same time protecting the integrity of their own political positions."
He added: "David Trimble is never going to become a republican and I am never going to become a unionist," but despite that and the difficulties over the Belfast Agreement, that document was "the route-map to the future and I think it's a good map".
Commenting on Mr Trimble's warning this week about taking some unspecified form of political action in response to alleged IRA involvement in violence, Mr McGuinness said: "There needs to be more honesty on behalf of unionist leaders about what is happening on our streets and about the fact that there have been over 600 pipe-bomb attacks on the Catholic community.
"We have to collaborate together, we have to co-operate together and we have to recognise that we need an honest approach. What this process needs, absolutely critically, is David Trimble's willingness to get to know Gerry Adams and myself," Mr McGuinness said. "We want to get to know him and of course we want to help him."