Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at ‘Experiences of Border Minority Communities - historical perspectives’, Monaghan County Museum

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Deputies,

Senators,

Cathaoirleach,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m delighted to be here today for this really significant conference. I would like to thank Monaghan County Council and Monaghan County Museum for organising, and hosting, this event. In particular, Liam Bradley and Deirdriu McQuaid have been pivotal in bringing everyone together. It is great to see such a range of speakers – curators, local experts and eminent historians from both sides of the border.

There is a well-known quote: ‘Study the past if you would define the future.’ I very much welcome the focus of our commemorations programme on an inclusive and reflective approach to remembering and exploring our past. We do not, and must never, demand a fixed or homogenous narrative.

That is why events like today’s are so important. Thinking purely in terms of broad national narratives obscures the sense of place and the distinctive experiences which are intrinsic to where we are born and to our life experiences.

Counties, towns and villages have been shaped over time by events of the past, by politics, economics and social change. And nowhere more so than here in Monaghan and neighbouring border counties.

This seminar is a welcome opportunity to explore a plurality of perspectives and of border communities. It gives us space to remember and recognise the suffering caused by past injustice and trauma but also to look to a future of promise and healing, for reconciliation and hope.

We see that future promise epitomised in the new Monaghan Peace Campus which is being funded by the EU’s PEACE Programme. It incorporates a County Museum and is expected to be completed next year. I know the team here at the Museum are working with local stakeholders and the Ulster Scots Agency to develop the displays for the new Museum with a focus on the very themes we are exploring today.

The Peace Campus project has the over-arching goal of providing a safe space for people across this community to come and share their stories. In providing such a forum, Monaghan County Council will be actively fostering real connection at a local level.

This is but one example of how our County Museums, Archives and Libraries have played a central role throughout the Decade of Centenaries. They have led the way within their communities in delving into, interpreting and presenting the stories of 100 years ago.

I would like at this point to also acknowledge the role played by the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations, several of whose members, Chair, Dr Maurice Manning, Deputy Chair, Dr Martin Mansergh, Professor Mary Daly and Dr. Éamon Phoenix are with us this morning. They have played a key role in shaping not only this seminar, but the entire programme of nationwide remembrance.

In their guidance for this second phase of the Decade, they captured what the aim of commemoration should be: ‘to broaden sympathies without having to abandon loyalties.’ I warmly welcome the significant role played by local authorities and local cultural organisations in commemorations programme. I thank you for the inclusivity and sensitivity of your approach and for your commitment to reflecting local stories and experiences.

The online lecture series organised by Queen’s University supported by the Irish and British Governments, the Royal Irish Academy and the British Academy about the Causes and Consequences of Partition has made a significant contribution to the debate. These talks, by major experts in the field, including Dr O’Callaghan and Professor Daly, also participants today, were recorded and produced by the BBC and offer a multifaceted examination of the complex and diverse impacts of partition.

As that series of talks makes clear, partition was a process taking place over several years during the early to mid-1920s, not a single event.

There will be different views on the significance and meaning of these events. To again quote the guidance of the Expert Advisory Group: ‘…on this island we have a common history, but not a common memory, of these shaping events.’

I would argue that what is most important now is that we are honest about the repercussions of these events for both parts of our island and for the localities and communities along the border. We must acknowledge and understand the hurt and trauma among minority communities on both sides of the border.

The Nationalist minority in Northern Ireland experienced serious alienation and discrimination. While for Southern Unionists – a small and decreasing minority in a new Irish State – their political identity, culture and religious affiliations were also profoundly impacted. Border communities experienced conflict and disruption, upheaval and displacement.

In his poem, ‘The Boundary Commission’, Paul Muldoon, originally from just across the border in the Moy in County Tyrone, writes:

‘You remember that village where the border ran

Down the middle of the street,

With the butcher and baker in different states?’

It is the case that in many instances the border cut towns and communities off from their geographical, social and economic hinterland with profound and long-term impacts we are still grappling with today. Returning again to Muldoon’s poem, the implications are felt by the unidentified man in the poem, who wonders:

‘…which side, if any, he should be on.’

In a literal sense, one could not be on both sides. Many felt marooned on the ‘wrong’ side of the border – choosing, or feeling compelled, to move south or north depending on affiliation, or to leave Ireland altogether. And in terms of a community identity also, it could often seem to people, especially in the North, that they were forced into taking sides.

The political and economic effects of border infrastructure changed the lives of all border communities. Some towns and villages have never fully recovered. That is why, in the context of Brexit, we have had to be so clear and so consistent in maintaining that a hard border cannot return.

The various forms of alienation, of discrimination and even of violence that border minority communities suffered, particularly in the 1920s, the 1950s and during the Troubles, are being increasingly documented in academic studies, in books and in oral histories. This is valuable and welcome work.

It is important to acknowledge the suffering and hurt experienced by families and communities, on both sides of the border. We must support those who still bear these scars while building a better and more inclusive future for all.

23 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, we must continue to reflect on our shared, but contested, history. Communities here in Monaghan and the other border counties experience directly the benefits the Agreement brought: of ease of movement, of reconciliation, and of a hard-won peace.

As we look back on 100 years of our history, we must also look forward to our future together on this island.

A year ago, I launched the Shared Island Initiative, to engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future for the island of Ireland, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.

This is built on the recognition that the best way to approach the different, equally legitimate, futures that people may want for the island of Ireland is to work together right now.

In doing so, we move beyond the narrow ground of identity difference to the broader space of a community of interests.

As part of the Initiative we are bringing increased resources and investment to the table. Under the National Development Plan, the government has committed to allocating at least €1 billion for the Shared Island Fund, to support all-island capital investment out to 2030.

In fact, taking all aspects of the NDP into account, including the PEACE PLUS programme delivered with the EU, the UK and the Northern Ireland Executive, there is a total commitment to cross-border resourcing of more than €3.5billion over the next decade.

In the NDP we have committed to investing in the unique elements of built and natural heritage of the border regions to better recognise their diverse community and cultural traditions. We have also committed, working in cooperation with the Northern Ireland Executive, to pay particular attention to the needs of minorities in the border counties.

We are already making real progress on practical initiatives that have a meaningful and positive impact in the border region.

We are moving forward with the Ulster Canal. Through the Shared Island Fund and the Rural Regeneration Fund the government is providing €12m to Phase 2 of the Ulster Canal - here in Co. Monaghan from Clones to Clonfad. At the same time, we are allocating funding of €1m for preliminary work on Phase 3 of the Canal.

These investments will encourage visitors and sustainable travel to the region, preserve the heritage elements of the canal and provide new amenities and recreational facilities. Ultimately, it will connect Clones right across the inland waterway system to the Shannon-Erne waterway.

The construction of the Narrow Water Bridge will be similarly transformational. The bridge will link the Mourne Mountains and Cooley peninsula, providing huge tourism and connectivity boosts in the east border region. It will act as a key enabler for improved cross-border active travel and recreation activities, including the development of greenways, walking trails and park amenities. We are investing €3m from the Shared Island Fund to progress this to tender stage, with further funding to be provided.

Both the Ulster Canal restoration and Narrow Water Bridge are true cross border and all-island projects opening up new and exciting opportunities for the local and wider region and economy.

However, the Initiative is about much more than investing in infrastructure.

We are also building up our knowledge of what our Shared Island is, and what it can be. Just as our reflections here today are informed and enriched by the work of academics and local historians, our thinking and planning for the future needs to be informed by rigorous policy analysis and research. We have commissioned a wide-ranging, independent programme of published papers and reports from the National Economic and Social Council, the ESRI and the Irish Research Council.

Furthermore, as those of you in academia may already know, in July we announced that €40m from the Shared Island Fund will be invested in a North-South Research Programme over 5 years.

This will support the deepening of links between higher education institutions, researchers and research communities across both jurisdictions and will help build up overall research capacity on the island of Ireland. I was in Queen’s University Belfast last month talking to researchers there about it and it was great to hear their enthusiasm for its potential.

And right at the heart of the Shared Island Initiative is dialogue and engagement.

Through the Shared Island Dialogue series, we aim to expand the contours of the debate on our shared future, to include as wide a spectrum of identities and views as possible.

So far, because of Covid restrictions, these Dialogues have been taking place virtually. I am keen, when it is possible to do so, that the Dialogues take place in person and around the country, including, I hope, here in Co. Monaghan.

We want to listen to people’s ideas, questions, concerns, fears and hopes.

Over the years, women, minority communities and young people have not had the voice and influence in the peace process that they should have.

I want to fix that, and through the Shared Island Initiative we are ensuring that they are at the heart of civic dialogue on our shared future – significantly enhancing the range of perspective and experience that is brought to bear.

Recognising that there are 1.3 million young people born on the island since 1998, who have a central role to play in shaping the future, the theme for the very first Dialogue of the series, which I launched in November last year, was “New Generations and New Voices on the Good Friday Agreement”.

That first theme speaks to the idea underpinning this whole Initiative. To encourage an inclusive, open society on this island, building on the Good Friday Agreement and its respect for all identities and communities.

Looking at today’s programme, it similarly provides a valuable platform for dialogue and debate. I expect that those of you present here today and the many others watching online will find it informative, stimulating and perhaps also, on occasion, challenging.

I wish you every success with today’s event.

ENDS