Sir, – Wouldn’t it be appropriate if 2016 were the year when people on this island acknowledged the way our relationships failed in the past and took responsibility for ensuring that our own futures, and the futures of our children, are rather different? They can be futures where we work constructively, to ensure peace and prosperity, for the benefit of us all.
There is a risk that the anniversaries which we’ll mark, the Easter Rising and the Somme, might allow those who hate the most to justify their flawed ideologies or promote the idea that their violent campaigns were justified. It’s imperative that there is a challenge to their attempts to distort history, particularly where there is a chance young people could be misled.
That can be achieved by emphasising that violence can never again be used to determine relationships between people in Ireland or across these islands. We can shape our ideas around identity in an inclusive way, using national symbols to include rather than exclude others. We can promote our constitutional aspirations by building the economy and society, rather than destroying them.
We can keep emphasising the fact that the people of this island determined that the Border will only be maintained or changed through persuasion and democratic means. We can constantly challenge the sectarianism and racism that heaped tragedy on our people through a conversation on how far our attitudes have come and how far they still have to go.
Finally, we can challenge our politicians to take responsibility as well as power, and to act for the benefit of everyone, rather than pursuing narrow, self-interested agendas which maintain divisions. With this approach, in 2016 we can celebrate progress and reconciliation, rather the violence and failures of the past. – Yours, etc,
TREVOR RINGLAND,
Holywood,
Co Down.