UUP Conference: Mr Trevor Ringland, the former Irish rugby international, called on the conference to support his One Small Step campaign which seeks to foster progress in society after more than 30 years conflict. Dan Keenan reports.
The campaign involving Mr Ringland and others was begun last year to encourage people on an individual level to come to terms with the past and to plan for the future.
He said: "We ask those at many different levels in our society to show the leadership necessary to deal with the sectarianism and racism that permeates through our society and help build the shared future that we surely all want."
Mr Ringland cited the example of Mr Alan McBride whose wife was killed in the Shankill bombing of 1993 and who sought to criticise the societal attitudes that shaped the minds of the bombers.
He also referred to Ms Donna Marie McGillion who, with her husband, were injured in the Omagh bombing of 1998. She now insists she is not a victim of the Troubles, but a survivor and is working to ensure a positive future for her new-born daughter.
Mr Ringland referred to a minister from Malawi at his own church.
"He quoted Gandhi when he said that when Gandhi read the scriptures he saw Christ but when he met Christians he did not see Christ. I wonder if Gandhi were to come to Belfast in the future would he say that when he read about unionism he saw unionism. Yet when he met unionists he did not see unionism."