Speech
The Shared Island Initiative: 25 lessons from the peace process
From Department of Foreign Affairs
By: Minister for Foreign Affairs; Micheál Martin
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Foreign Affairs
By: Minister for Foreign Affairs; Micheál Martin
Published on
Last updated on
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A cháirde,
I am here today as a parliamentarian. The word ‘parliament’ means a place of talk. It comes of course from the French word ‘parler’, which also gives us the word ‘parlay’ meaning a discussion intended to reduce or end hostilities. At the heart of good politics, of being a good parliamentarian, is the act of listening, of compromise, the mediation between differing courses, the management of potential conflicts into places of resolution. To get there, effective talking and active listening are required. Speaking in Queen’s in Belfast this April, Senator George Mitchell – the Chief Negotiator for the two years that lead to the Good Friday Agreement and who is one of the most effective mediators I have ever met – emphasised that “reasoned, principled compromise is essential in divided societies, and reflects a belief in democratic values.” In a phrase that I imagine will ring especially true to all of you in your roles as mediators, he said “no acceptable agreement could be imposed from above or from outside.”
The ethos of pragmatic and principled cooperation is at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement. This year, we celebrate 25 years of the peace that the Agreement enabled.
Even in the final weeks before the Agreement was reached, many thought that a successful conclusion would not be possible. They feared that, at the last moment, the courage required to make the necessary compromises, the courage required to commit to a new politics of hope, would falter.
We are all indebted to those whose courage held, when it was most needed.
We need that sort of courage and leadership again today. We are nearly 18 months on from an election, with Northern Ireland’s Assembly and Executive being blocked from functioning.
Every day, people in Northern Ireland are facing acute problems caused by the current crises in cost-of-living, in health care, and in public finances. It is past time that democratically elected representatives should be allowed to take up their responsibilities to address these issues.
I want to see the Good Friday Agreement institutions restored urgently – the Assembly, Executive, and the North South bodies all have a role to play in finding better ways forward on the range of issues affecting people’s daily lives.
Speaking here today at the Mediator’s Institute, I want to make sure that I do not fall into the easy trap of solely focusing on the steps others can take. I want to focus now on the ways in which the government is putting some of the principles underlying successful mediation into practice in how we approach peace and reconciliation on this island.
How we carry out this work today has been thoroughly shaped by the lessons we drew from the Good Friday Agreement – in particular, by its emphasis on peaceful cooperation, inclusivity, on mutual understanding and respect, and on a collective, partnership, approach to solving shared challenges.
We are committed to this, even in difficult times. Recent weeks have seen the British parliament passing its much-criticised legislation on legacy issues. The government’s principled concerns on this Act are well known. We would like to see an end to such unilateral moves and a return to the partnership approach between the two governments that has underpinned every successful moment of the peace process for the last several decades.
The lessons of the Good Friday Agreement allowed us to transform relationships across these islands – across all three strands of the Agreement. We have made great strides, particularly when you compare today’s challenges to those facing negotiators in 1998, but I firmly believe that there is much more that we can do together to realise the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement.
That belief underpins the work of the Shared Island initiative, which I established as Taoiseach two years ago. We developed this initiative because we as Government are committed to embracing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to build a shared, reconciled future on this island, working with all communities. Central to this approach is an unprecedented political and resource commitment that this government has made to all-island investment in new initiatives like the Shared Island Civic Society fund.
The government continues to prioritise the Shared Island initiative, to deliver benefits for the whole island and work with all communities for a shared future, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. We are bringing more ambition and resourcing than ever before to invest in all-island and cross-border projects, that benefit people across the island.
This involves:
This is taken forward by Ministers and departments on a whole of government basis, driven and coordinated through the Shared Island unit in Department of the Taoiseach.
Over the last two and a half years, Government has allocated €247 million from the Shared Island Fund:
Moving ahead with long-standing commitments, like the Ulster Canal and Narrow Water Bridge;
Major investment at Ulster University’s campus in Derry to expand higher education on both sides of the border; and,
Delivering new all-island investments on common concerns for people across the island: climate action and biodiversity conservation; regional development; innovation; and deepening our societal connections North and South.
So far in 2023, Government has commenced new Shared Island programmes for civic society, electric vehicle charging and community climate action, on an all-island basis. We’re seeing a really strong response to all of these new all-island programmes.
The government will seek to undertake significantly more all-island investment cooperation with a new Northern Ireland Executive and with the British Government. We want to do more for instance on education, higher education, healthcare, innovation and climate action.
Dialogue with all communities is also continuing. Over the last two and half years, the Shared Island dialogue series has heard from more than 3,000 citizens. On sectoral areas like health and education and societal concerns such as tackling gender-based violence.
Earlier this month, a new Youth Forum as part of the Shared Island initiative was launched. The Forum convenes 80 young people aged 18 to 25 from North and South across all communities meeting in a deliberative process over the next year to set out their visions and values for a shared future on the island.
The Youth Forum is a really important new endeavour, looking to the future on the island of Ireland and giving voice and agency to youth representatives to articulate how, and with what focus, they want to work together for a shared, reconciled future. The Forum is a new and significant step in allowing the voices of a younger generation set out their collective values and vision for a shared future on this island.
The Shared Island research programme is continuing to provide high-quality evidence and analysis on the opportunities, and the challenges, around deepening cooperation, and connections on the island. We are supporting a research series produced by the ESRI which, to date, have looked at critical areas including services, FDI, education, healthcare, productivity, renewable energy, migrant integration and early years.
These are practical, tangible steps, putting into action the lessons we have drawn from the peace process around how we can cooperate and understand one another better.
Of course, a key lesson of any peace process is that we must always be ready to react to the new developments, and to learn from the occasions where we fall short.
The architects of peace in 1998 could not have foreseen the turbulence caused by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. This new reality has been something that we have all had to adjust to and make serious compromises around. Many – from all political traditions – feel that Brexit unsettled issues that they thought long resolved. We – the Irish Government, the British Government, and the EU – have invested enormous time and effort into reaching an agreed way forward.
The Windsor Agreement offers the chance to turn over a page, for a positive reset that returns our focus to investing in relationships across these islands to our collective benefit. The people of Northern Ireland can and should have a say in how we do so – by having their voices heard in the democratic institutions guaranteed to them by the Good Friday Agreement.
It is a great regret that the North’s political institutions have been put on hold for extended periods at different points since 1998. As a democrat, I believe that it can never be the right choice to refuse to take up the mantle of leadership given to us by voters, or to prevent others from doing so. We all have a duty to challenge the voices who see compromise as weakness, and cooperation as capitulation. This venue is the most appropriate one possible to make the point that we do not secure our preferred outcomes by walking away from the table.
The final point I will make about the lessons we must draw from the Good Friday Agreement is that of listening. Listening to as many viewpoints as possible, so that even where we don’t agree, we at least understand. And where we disagree, to disagree well.
I am looking forward to hearing directly from you in the audience today about what lessons you draw from our process of peace and reconciliation, and to hear your views on where you think we can and must do better.
I am ready to listen, and discuss, to be challenged, and to challenge. And, I hope, we will all come out of today’s exchanges with a greater mutual understanding than we started with. In this home of mediation, what greater measure for success can there be?
Thank you.