Sarah
Ruth Dudley Edwards, like yourself, is worried about what an inquiry into Omagh may find out.
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Welcome back mate. Like I said, I simply refuse to believe that the gardai knowingly allowed the Omagh bombing and carnage that followed. I would greatly welcome an effective and accurate investigation however. Good to see you didn’t lose your talent for strawmanning whilst on annual leave all the same.
You might refuse to believe but that only serves to make you more ignorant than is evident.
What’s your summation of how Gardai handled the Dublin-Monaghan bombing?
There’s a number of people worried about what an independent inquiry into Omagh may find out. Everyone knows it was Republicans that carried it out, the reason both govts are so reluctant to investigate is what was known by security forces or police/military intelligence on both sides of the border, either through incompetence or by design.
But anyway you share the same worries as RDE.
What a day !!!
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
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Another strawman. You’re getting mighty sweaty about RDE. Do you dream about her?
sensible word’s
Having been a republican n and s
It’s not beyond reasonable doubt that the security services would have charged anyone quickly ref Lyra.
He may have been on the peripheral of Saoradh but that’s about it.
Dogs on the street in Creggan know who actually pulled the trigger,
Not this chap.
Some Gardai based around and in Dundalk were sympathetic towards republicans before Omagh,
And indeed during warrenpoint-; fact
So who knows.
What’s definitely true is they didn’t turn a blind eye ref Omagh bomb delivery.
Brit’s on the other hand didn’t act on legit intelligence ref same.
This new poster is suspended already
Ah ffs !!!
Some state of affairs when you get mugged off by sammy wilson
Sammy is the right lad to adjudicate on bigots and bigotry. Glasshouses, stones etc.
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He’s too stupid to realise insulting the POTUS ain’t a good move
This wasn’t part of the curriculum when he taught
But jimmy wasn’t afraid to look outside the box when teaching his kids history,
And not all from a commie slant
Decent guy
A great great man
And one of the best speeches you’ll ever encounter.
George Mitchell: Former US Senator and GFA negotiator Queen’s speech in full
Senator George J Mitchell at Queen’s University on Monday. Photo by Press Eye. — © Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye
Senator George J Mitchell’s speech in full marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Mitchell was speaking at Queen’s University on Monday.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here to witness this historic anniversary.
May it be the first of many. Thank you for your warm reception.
It’s an honour and a pleasure to be with you today. I am especially grateful to the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor and his staff here at Queen’s University Belfast. They have worked long and hard to organise this week’s events.
They have welcomed all of us – citizens of Northern Ireland, teachers, schoolchildren, media, politicians – all of us with extraordinary warmth and hospitality.
Thank you, Hillary and Ian, for what you have done in organising this conference.
Twenty-five years ago, the people of Northern Ireland and their leaders changed the course of history. It was a day when history opened itself to hope.
The people of Northern Ireland supported, worked for, and established a democratic, peaceful process as their preferred form of governance.
They overwhelmingly rejected political violence as a way to resolve their differences. If history teaches us anything, it is that history itself is never finished.
On the evening the Agreement was reached I commended the men and women who wrote and signed it.
But I also said that it would take other leaders in the future to safeguard and extend their work. And so it has. I am here, with many others, to sound that bell one more time.
Life is change: For every human being, for every family, for every government, for every society.
Former US senator George Mitchell urges NI’s political leaders to act with the “courage and vision” of their predecessors
All human beings, every single one of us, is fallible, as are all human organisations and institutions.
In human affairs the answer to every problem contains within it the seeds of a new problem.
Today, a quarter century after the agreement, the people of Northern Ireland continue to wrestle with their doubts, their differences, their disagreements.
This of course is only natural. They will continue to do so, no matter how successful their political leaders are.
The answer is not perfection, or permanence. It is now, as it was then, for the current and future leaders of Northern Ireland to act with courage and vision, as their predecessors did 25 years ago.
To find workable answers to the daily problems of the present. To preserve peace.
To leave to the next generation peace, freedom, opportunity, and the hope of a better future for their children.
One of the strengths of democracy is the right of all citizens to publicly disagree with and to criticize their government officials and their policies.
But all values, when carried to extremes, can become vices.
So, if there’s one bit of unsolicited advice I’d give to the people of Northern Ireland, it’s this, “Don’t always be so hard on yourselves”.
At the same time, never ever give up on the belief that we all can do better and be better.
The future becomes the present in a heartbeat.
Six years ago, I made one of my many visits to Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom was wrestling with Brexit and the US we had just elected President Trump.
While I was here, I was asked several times essentially the same question: “Can you comment on how terrible and upsetting the politics are here in Northern Ireland, so much anger, so much distrust?”
In reply I said: “Well, I can’t speak for the UK, but I’ve just come from the US, and I don’t think any American is in a position to lecture others on their disagreements.”
I spoke those words six years ago and they are even more relevant today.
I do acknowledge, with a nod to the great sense of humour that often accompanies it, that people in Northern Ireland are quick to take offense.
I was made aware of this, quite dramatically, in June of 1996, on the very first day of the all-party talks.
In a large conference room, filled with delegations from the two governments and ten political parties, David Ervine, in a loud voice, shouted across the room to me: “Senator, if you are to be of any use to us there is one thing you must understand.”
“What is it?” I asked.
With a smile on his face, he replied: “We in Northern Ireland will drive one hundred miles out of our way to receive an insult.”
Like you I laughed, thinking it a joke. But as I looked around the room they weren’t laughing. They were nodding in agreement.
Over the next few years, I witnessed first-hand the unique skill of Northern Ireland politicians in the art of insulting their opponents.
But a wise person can always be superior to the insults he or she receives.
Wisdom and courage and grace, and even stubborn desire, can help to sow peace and root it down deep in the soil where it can, once again, grow.
So, I say now, to the current and future leaders of Northern Ireland - There is much in your history and in your politics that divides you.
But there also is much that can bring you together, that can inspire you to continue what your predecessors began a quarter century ago.
It is not a sign of weakness to resolve your differences by democratic and peaceful means.
To the contrary, it is a sign of strength, and of wisdom. And it clearly reflects the will of the overwhelming majority of the people of Northern Ireland.
Yes, they often disagree, sometimes very strongly. Yes, they may take offense quickly. But it is unmistakably clear that they do not want to return to violence. Not now. Not ever.
I know that each of your parties, like all political parties in the world, have some of what I call the one hundred percenters.
They want everything their way, all the time. To them, any compromise is a sign of weakness.
But I say to you that reasoned, principled compromise is essential in divided societies, and reflects a belief in democratic values.
That we are all in this together. There is great depth in recognising that the only way to help us emerge from the rubble of conflict is that we must learn to understand one another.
We don’t need to love one another. We don’t even need to like one another, although we hope we could.
But we must learn to understand one another, and to be able to say “yes” to one another, especially when the quicker and easier answer is answer “no”.
Because, like it or not, we are all in this together. Facing the reality of the future, rather than clinging to the myths of the past, takes strength and courage and vision.
Those we honour today showed those qualities a quarter of a century ago.
They will be forever remembered. Others will be remembered as well. One grim but tangible memory is in these statistics.
According to the Northern Ireland Police Service and the Northern Ireland Statistics Agency, from the start of The Troubles until 1998, over three thousand and five hundred people were killed, and an estimated fifty thousand were injured in sectarian violence.
In the twenty-five years since the agreement was reached there have been about one hundred sixty-four security-related deaths.
But don’t think of them just as numbers, because they are not.
Think of them as mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, whose lives were cut short, or were permanently impaired.
Still, to this day their lives echo down the years.
And so I ask each and every person in this hall to stand and to honour all these lives with a moment of silence.
There have been many architects in the house of peace. It is impossible to name them all.
They, of course, include President and Secretary Clinton. I am very grateful to President Clinton for appointing me to serve as his representative in Northern Ireland and for his unswerving support for me and the people of Northern Ireland for the long years of failure that followed until we got an agreement.
Prime Minister Blair and Ahern, were absolutely indispensable to the process as were other leaders of the UK and Irish Governments.
Many of their predecessors helped to lay the foundations for peace.
They include Albert Reynolds and John Bruton in Ireland and John Major in the UK.
Major and Bruton made the crucial decisions to establish the all party talks, and to invite the Independent Chairmen to head the process.
I shared that role with two extraordinary men: the late Harry Holkeri, the former prime minister of Finland, and General John de Chastelain, the former head of the Canadian Defence Forces, who is here today.
Each of us was well served by small but very able staffs. For me they included Martha Pope, David Pozorski, and Kelly Currie.
Both governments were represented by a succession of very able ministers and officials.
They included, from the UK, Lord Patrick Mayhew, Sir Michael Ancram, Mo Mowlam, Lord Paul Murphy, Jonathan Powell and Bill Jeffries.
From Ireland, Dick Spring, David Andrews, Sean O’Huiginn, Liz O’Donnell, David Cooney, Tim O’Connor and David Donohue.
Special recognition must of course go to the leaders of the major Northern Ireland parties.
John Hume led the Social Democratic and Labour Party and David Trimble led the Ulster Unionist Party.
Without John Hume there would not have been a peace process.
Without David Trimble there would not have been a peace agreement.
They were justly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lord Trimble later served as the First Minister of the Northern Ireland government.
In the UUP he was greatly aided by several key officials, among them Lord Reg Empey, Lord John Taylor, Lord Ken Maginnis and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
In the SDLP, John Hume received strong support from several talented leaders, including Seamus Mallon, a brilliant orator and negotiator who later became Deputy First Minister, Mark Durkan, Brid Rogers and Sean Farren.
Gerry Adams and the late Martin McGuinness led Sinn Fein into and through the entire process.
They were assisted by Gerry Kelly, Bairbre de Brun and by Alex Maskey, who is now the speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
They were all and always strong and effective advocates for their cause.
Later, McGuinness served for several years as Deputy First Minister.
Dr Ian Paisley was a long-time and strong leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
The DUP withdrew from the talks and opposed the agreement, but they later re-entered the process at crucial talks in Saint Andrew’s, and thereafter participated actively in governance.
Dr Paisley served for several years as First Minister, where he and Martin McGuiness achieved some celebrity as the "Chuckles Brothers”.
Paisley was succeeded as DUP leader and First Minister by Peter Robinson, who had been a very effective negotiator while the DUP was in the talks.
They, Paisley and Robinson, were ably assisted in the talks by Nigel Dodds and Ian Paisley Jr.
The Alliance Party was led by Dr John Alderdice. He and his colleagues were very effective in the talks, and he later served with distinction as the first Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and his colleague, Eileen Bell, who also later served in the same role.
The Northern Ireland Women’s Party, led by Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sager, played a vital role, as indeed did all the women in all the coalitions that stitched the threads of peace together.
The loyalist parties were small in number but they played a large role in the negotiations.
Their leaders were David Ervine and Gary McMichael. Both were outspoken and powerful advocates for peace.
They were assisted by other articulate leaders like Billy Hutchinson and Dawn Purvis.
The Labour Party was effectively led by Malachi Curran. With the perspective of a quarter century, the strength of these leaders, and of the people they represented, has become clear.
Their places in history have been assured. I now know them all as friends.
The only thing that gives me pause in this list of honourees is that, in the dust of memory, I likely have inadvertently left out some who should have been included. If so, I sincerely apologise.
So now I ask you to stand once again, to applaud these courageous women and men with a sound that will ring out for years to come.
The course of every true idea ends up, eventually, in the obvious. Peace is a true idea.
It must belong to us all. It can be, in some ways, more difficult than war. But it must be pursued. It is our task, and the task of our children, and of their children, to ensure this peace, so that history continues to open itself to hope.
Speaking of children, in October of 1997 my wife Heather gave birth to our son Andrew. By then I had been involved in Northern Ireland for nearly three years.
The all party talks had been going on for a year and a half. There had been no meaningful progress. Actually no progress of any kind.
In many respects the talks were about reciting and repeating history, rather than changing it.
The ceasefires were routinely violated. Some parties entered late, some left early.
The anger, the hostility, the obstacles, all seemed endless. Over and over again I was asked: “Since you have failed to get an agreement, when are you leaving Northern Ireland to go home?”
Earlier that year after an especially difficult period, Heather and I briefly discussed that question. I told her I wanted to stay, and she agreed.
So, I returned and, as I had always done, answered that same questions day after day by saying while it was true we hadn’t gotten an agreement, I still felt it worthwhile to try to end the violence.
But then our son Andrew was born. And, as every parent knows, my life and my responsibilities would change, irreversibly.
I flew home for his birth, and I also made plans to travel to Washington to meet with President Clinton’s national security advisor.
My intention was to tell him that I was for the first time seriously considering leaving Northern Ireland, to ask for his reaction and advice, and to request a meeting with the President to discuss the matter.
I had continued my close relationship with President Clinton, as he and Mrs Clinton maintained a deep concern and an intense personal interest in Northern Ireland.
My wife Heather had to remain in the hospital with Andrew for a few days. So, it was there that we had a long and sombre talk about the future.
I had asked and was told that on the day of Andrew’s birth, sixty-one children were born in Northern Ireland.
We talked about what his life might be like, and about the lives of the sixty-one children from Northern Ireland.
Then I told her that I was going to Washington, and why. Her reaction was immediate and strong.
She said: “You have to go back until it ends, one way or the other. If you leave now and the fighting resumes, and lots of people are die, you’ll never be able to forgive yourself.
“Go back, give it one last try. I’ll take good care of Andrew. You think about those sixty-one children.”
So, I cancelled the trip to Washington and returned to Northern Ireland. When I got back to Belfast I felt as though I was coming home.
But coming home doesn’t always mean returning to safety.
Unfortunately, the situation continued to deteriorate.
Just before Christmas of 1997 I met with the party leaders, to try to get them to agree on a statement of the major issues to be resolved.
Mind you, this was not trying to get agreement on answers to the questions.
It was, after a year and a half of discussion, just to get them to agree on the wording of the issues that were later to be resolved.
At first the meeting was amicable and positive. Then, suddenly, the mood turned intensely negative.
The old resentments returned, the insults resumed, and the meeting broke up in anger and acrimony. For the first time I felt a sense of defeat.
Then, it quickly got even worse.
A few days later, just after Christmas, a prominent loyalist paramilitary leader, was killed while in prison.
That touched off a round of retaliatory violence that threatened to end the talks and to plunge Northern Ireland back into The Troubles.
The next series of meetings, some in London in January and in Dublin in February, were not in any sense negotiations.
To the contrary, they became outlets for anger, hostility, and the desire for revenge, as each side blamed the other for the escalating violence.
Two parties were suspended from the talks.
As we left Dublin, the mood was negative and the outlook bleak. So much effort seemed to be going down the drain of history.
On the flight back to the US, my sense of defeat and despair deepened.
Then I recalled Heather’s words: “One last try.”
I took out a pad of paper and wrote down the draft of a plan for a final intensive effort, with an early, unbreakable deadline.
I talked with my two colleagues Prime Minister Holkeri and General de Chastelain.
They were in full agreement.
When we returned to Belfast in March, we entered into discussions with the two governments and the eight political parties still in the talks, to get an agreement on an early, unbreakable deadline for an end to the talks, one way or the other.
That discussion was long and difficult.
Finally, in late March, we got agreement on two weeks of final negotiations and, crucially, an unbreakable deadline.
My sense of despair gave way to a sense of hope, for one important reason.
We, the independent chairmen, had no authority to impose a deadline. We could propose it, as we had, but it required the approval of both governments and of each party.
The fact that every party still in the talks agreed to the deadline meant, to me, that they were sincere in wanting an end to the conflict, despite their deep differences and the nearly two years of unproductive haggling they’d just been through.
They still faced very difficult issues, on which they had strongly conflicting views.
But they did not want to return to the violence of the past. And the only way to do that was to reach agreement.
There was another reason for my hopes, personal to me and much less serious. I’d been involved in Northern Ireland for more than three years, but I still had a hard time understanding some of what was being said in the negotiations.
I’d spent fifteen years in the United States Senate, the last six as the Senate’s leader.
The debates were vigorous but orderly: One speaker at a time.
Here, especially in the early years, there was disorder.
Delegates from ten political parties hurled insults back and forth, shouted at and insulted each other, and some regularly and loudly stormed out in protest.
I learned that the dramatic walk out is a major feature of political life in Northern Ireland.
The only thing that reminded me of the Senate was that some people spoke often and at great length.
It took a long time to establish an orderly process.
Along the way, I made many mistakes. One of them was at the beginning of the talks, was in a naïve and misguided effort on my part to be helpful.
As a politician myself I knew that all of them politicians liked to talk, and none liked to listen.
So, I foolishly said to them, “If no one else will listen to you, I will be here. You will be heard.”
How I regretted that, over the next few years, it wasn’t weeks, it wasn’t months, it was years that I listened to the same people saying the same things, over and over and over again.
Many of them talked very fast, some in accents I wasn’t familiar with.
To improve my understanding, I held many, many informal meetings, in my office and theirs, where I said little and listened as much as possible.
Listening, really listening to someone else is hard, especially when it goes on for years. But it’s also a sign of respect.
And I respected them for what they were trying to do.
By a fortunate coincidence, this effort began to pay off in the lengthy discussions to establish a deadline.
So, as we began the last two intensive weeks, I was encouraged by the fact that, finally I could understand everything that was being said.
More importantly, the long period of listening greatly helped me in the search for common ground.
We set a deadline of midnight, Thursday, April 9.
We didn’t meet that deadline, and we also failed to meet the targets we had set for each of the fourteen days of the final effort.
My memory of those two weeks is a blur of constant activity, as two governments, eight political parties, and the independent chairmen sought a written agreement on which all could agree on three complex and related relationships: within Northern Ireland; between Northern Ireland and Ireland; and between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
My admiration grew for the men and women who struggled to find common ground, against a history of distrust, disagreement, and violence, to the limits of their physical capacity, and under enormous political pressure.
On the last week, Prime Ministers Blair and Ahern came to Belfast and assumed active and highly effective leadership in the talks.
On the last night President Clinton stayed up all night in the White House, talking to the Prime Ministers, to the party leaders.
By the morning of Friday, April 10, we had assembled the product of all these efforts into a single document.
Two years earlier, at the beginning of the talks, I had told the delegates that if there was ever to be an agreement it had to be theirs.
No acceptable agreement could be imposed from above or from outside.
As we distributed the final document to them that morning, I reminded them of that statement, orally and in writing.
I said: “Virtually every word in this document has been spoken or written by someone from Northern Ireland.
“This is your agreement. It is of necessity a compromise. It does not resolve every issue.
“There is much in it you will not like. There is much in it you will like.
“This is the end. Now you must decide. Please say yes.”
Each of the parties went into caucus. Through the day they debated the future of their homeland, of their constituents, of their families.
Their questions and concerns were many and varied.
The prime ministers tried to answer their questions, to reassure them, to encourage their approval.
By the afternoon the final calls started coming in, at first a trickle, then in a rush.
Then there was a lull as I waited for the last call.
Shortly before five, David Trimble called me. I will never forget his words: “We’re ready to do the business.”
The party leaders and the government officials gathered in the large conference room, already crowded with reporters, television crews, staff, and many others.
I had suggested an immediate vote, to be followed by a discussion.
Nobody objected or disagreed, but in the excitement of the moment they just started talking, and they went on until everyone had their say.
I realised that my suggestion was wishful thinking, and the discussion continued until they were ready to vote.
That was fitting because it was their agreement. It still is. And always will be. Theirs, and yours. So that history continues to open itself to hope.
In the future, the politicians will tell it one way, the poets will tell it another, and the history books yet another.
But it’s likely that none of us will say it in precisely the way our grandchildren and their children will eventually understand it.
What has led us here has not been perfect. What surrounds us now is not guaranteed. And what will lead us on is the ability to recognise the faults of the past and the dreams of the future.
The Agreement reached in 1998 did not resolve all of the outstanding issues. It was a political compromise, the best that could be achieved at that time.
In the years since the Agreement there have been many chronicles describing those momentous events.
Many individuals have been lauded for their efforts. I believe it clear that the greatest heroes were the people of Northern Ireland and their political leaders.
In the most difficult and dangerous of circumstances those leaders acted with courage, vision and determination. At one time or another all were criticised or rebuked. Some lost their public offices. Some of their political parties suffered huge declines.
But most remarkable feats often suffer setbacks. I believe the verdict of history will be favourable to the people of Ireland, north and south, and their leaders.
Peace may come dropping slowly, but when it settles it confirms the humanity in all of us.
Triggered by this anniversary, there has been much discussion recently about the agreement.
Of course, everyone is entitled and indeed encouraged to express their views. Some, in and out of Northern Ireland, have criticised the agreement because it did not solve every problem and because there continues to be in Northern Ireland some failure, disappointment, dispute, disagreement.
I respectfully disagree with these critics. I believe the statistics on deaths and injuries I cited earlier are by themselves a powerful response to such comments.
Those who advocate such views are in effect holding Northern Ireland to an impossibly high standard that no society could meet or does meet.
What society doesn’t have some violence? What society doesn’t have some criminals, including some masquerading as patriots? What society doesn’t have disagreement, dispute, some disarray?
I say, as a visitor and a friend, that Northern Ireland is a good place and its people are good people: energetic, hard-working, hospitable, they are trying to do what’s right even as they disagree on its definition.
They want peace. Going forward let’s accentuate the positive in Northern Ireland.
We need not eliminate the negative. Let’s just keep it in perspective.
My final words today are intensely personal. As many of you know, three years ago I was hospitalised with acute leukaemia.
To this day I continue to receive treatment.
As a result, my ability to function has been severely diminished.
This is the first time in three years that I have attended and talked at a major public event.
Heather and I came here today because we want to say, personally and directly, to you and to all of the people of Northern Ireland: From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your warmth, your hospitality, your generosity.
We love Northern Ireland, the people and the place. A very large part of our hearts and of our emotions will forever be with you.
In approving the Agreement, by overwhelming majorities in a free and democratic election, the people of Northern Ireland and of Ireland showed others the possibility of hope.
Within the word impossible is embedded the positive word “possible”.
When you approved the agreement, you also were talking to Israelis and Palestinians, to Colombians, to Africans, to Asians, to Americans.
In fact, you were talking to the world. This is an agreement for peace and for the future, not just here, but everywhere.
We are living in fractured times. We need you. We need your ongoing patience, stamina, and perseverance.
We need people who believe, who know, that the possible exists within the impossible. Don’t let it slip away.
May God grant you opportunity, prosperity, and everlasting peace you deserve.
Thank you, Northern Ireland, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, Northern Ireland.
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bullet points?
An audio recording of bullet points would be ideal
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