Speech of An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar T.D., at the Launch of Féile an Phobail 2018 St Marys University College, Falls Road, West Belfast

A cháirde, a dhaoine uaisle, tá áthas an domhain orm a bheith anseo i mBéal Feirste inniu, a bheith libh inniu, ag an ócáid an-spesialta is an-tabhachtach seo.

Comghairdeas and a very happy 30th birthday! The world has changed a lot in the past thirty years and you have played your part in helping to change it.

At the heart of your success are the hundreds of staff, volunteers, supporters, and audience members who have worked to make Féile one of Belfast’s landmark events. This is a genuine Festival of the People.

It is my honour to congratulate you on behalf of the Irish Government and the Irish people on your success and to thank you for your dedication.

This is my sixth visit to Northern Ireland since becoming Taoiseach almost a year ago. Today I am visiting Belfast and am off to Newry later this evening. Earlier today I visited the Museum of Orange Heritage at Schomberg House. It reminded me that there are many different strands that make up the tapestry of Irish history. I believe, our future depends on valuing and respecting all of them.

On each of my visits here, I have been struck by the appetite of people on the ground to engage with and discuss with respect differing viewpoints. I have always felt welcome.

This is a reflection of how far we have come in the twenty years of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, which has allowed peace and reconciliation on this island to develop and grow, and has changed the way that we relate to each other.

It has been truly transformative and has benefitted all communities here and across these islands.

The Agreement provided us with the architecture to build on and manage the hard-won peace and put in place the institutions for devolved government here.

It has been the basis for the productive management of relationships and co-operation on critical North/South matters.

I fully recognise the deep concern in the nationalist community around the impact of Brexit on that hard-won peace and on North/ South co-operation.

Clearly, the majority of people here are against Brexit and are dismayed by the prospect and implications of it becoming a reality.

The UK is now negotiating to leave the EU, which has been such an important backdrop to a sustained peace on this island. The European Union brought Britain and Ireland closer together, eliminated many differences and that, in turn, made peace possible.

It has also brought the issue of the nature of the border on this island into sharp focus.

I can assure you that the Irish Government shares your concerns. So, from the beginning, we made protecting the Good Friday Agreement central to our approach on Brexit.

Ensuring that Irish issues are dealt with in the withdrawal negotiations has been our policy.

Last December we secured a political agreement between the EU and UK saying that there can be no return to a hard border on this island and that the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts will be protected no matter what happens in the negotiations.

As part of this, everyone born here will continue to have the right to Irish, and therefore EU citizenship. The Common Travel Area will continue, allowing us to travel freely between Britain and Ireland.

British and Irish Citizens will continue to have the freedom to live, work, study, accessing housing, healthcare, pensions and welfare in each other’s countries as though we are citizens of both.

While our preference is for this to be achieved through a very close future relationship between the EU and the UK, as a whole we recognise that this may not be possible.

And so we have put a legal backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement to ensure no hard border and to allow North/South co-operation to continue much as it does now.

We want all parts of the Good Friday Agreement operating, and I also want the great strides that we have made on North/South Cooperation continue and grow in the years ahead.

We have seen the practical benefits grow across the island:

• co-operation on school bus services;
• the A5/N2 progress in order to connect Derry and North Donegal to Dublin;
• providing critical cross-border health services in Altnagelvin and Crumlin Children’s Hospital,
• the promotion of tourism and sport jointly, and;
• Co-operation on agriculture and road safety

Practical, sensible and effective cooperation that delivers better lives and services for people on all parts of our island and from all traditions. There should be more of it.

I am very conscious that I am here at a time when you have been without an Executive or an Assembly for almost a year and a half. I have no doubt that Brexit is a major factor in that political impasse.

In addition, the absence of the institutions, makes it very difficult for your voices to be heard in the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

For these reasons the Irish Government will continue to work with the British Government, with the political parties and with the unionist and nationalist communities to chart a way ahead.

We will also continue to work closely with our EU partners to ensure that your concerns are to the fore and that the peace process, in which we are all invested, stays intact throughout and beyond Brexit.

You deserve to have your interests safeguarded and protected. That includes having your elected politicians working on your behalf to make progress on rights and freedoms and important social and economic issues. I believe you should have access to the same rights as everyone else on these islands.

I believe we can learn a lot from looking at the history of Féile itself.

I think that your success is testament to the strength and resilience of your community here in West Belfast.

A group of determined people with a vision for a different future set out to change the way their community was being perceived and being treated, and how it was being reported.

Some might think it remarkable that a celebration of community and of culture was able to emerge from the background of the Troubles, thirty years ago. I don’t. It’s exactly what was needed.

This year’s programme promises to be an enriching experience reflecting Féile’s consistent ability to draw an audience from across this city, from all over this island and from beyond these shores.

It provides the perfect opportunity to build understanding and to explore what it means to be Irish or British or both, in a rapidly changing world.

The Irish Government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Reconciliation Fund, is proud to be one of your funders and supporters.

Speaking here, I am reminded of the words of the great poet, Louise MacNeice:

Our generation has the opportunity to wake the future; it’s time to open all doors.

To finish, I’d like to wish you all the best for this year’s Festival and to look forward to a Féile an Phobail that continues to flourish for the next 30 years.

Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh go léir.