Sir, – I congratulate the Ceann Comhairle for hosting the event last Wednesday commemorating the all-Ireland referendum of 1998.
I would, however, take issue with the misleading claim by one of the participants that over a decade before talks leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA), Sinn Féin were the first party to offer a peace strategy. This belies the fact that Sinn Féin were supporting the IRA strategy of violence and continued to do so for several years during the peace process itself. That account also denigrates the principled work of all those who consistently pursued a peaceful strategy to overturn injustice, uphold rights, repudiate violence in all forms from all forces, overcome division and build new relationships.
The SDLP policy document “Towards a New Ireland”, written by John Hume and published in 1972, was in effect the beginning of the peace process. It is well worth a revisit. Analysing the problem, it begins: “Any proposals which are put forward as a solution to the present serious difficulties of the North of Ireland must be proposals which will provide permanent peace and stability so that the people of Ireland of all traditions can come together on a basis of harmony and justice, ending for all time the unjust domination of any one tradition by another.”
It goes on to state: “It is both fair and reasonable to assume that until a new system of government is created in Ireland, democratically agreed to by all sections of the people of Ireland, North and South, that neither section of the population of the North will abandon immediately their present basic loyalties. Any interim system of government for Northern Ireland which is devised must take those basic loyalties into account, and must give fair expression to them. It must also provide an acceptable police and security system. The recognition of these two factors is essential to providing a peaceful interim settlement and to removing the possibility of political violence.”
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That it took almost three decades to gain universal recognition of this reality is unfortunate, not to say tragic. The eventual acceptance of Hume’s proposal of referendums in both the North and the South on the same day – but originally rejected on the one hand by the unionist parties, on the basis that it gave an implicit veto to the South, and on the other hand by Sinn Féin, on the basis that it gave an implicit veto to the North – finally copper-fastened the GFA.
The referendum allowed for the democratic expression of the will of all the people of Ireland, lending credibility and legitimacy to the GFA.
At a time when we celebrate the GFA, it is important that future generations understand that there always was a peaceful and democratic alternative to the deadly, destructive and divisive violence, which has left a huge legacy challenge. A challenge which our peace process still must properly address in the spirit of reconciliation and with integrity. That will not be done by rewriting history. – Yours, etc,
BRÍD RODGERS,
Bunbeg,
Co Donegal.