1916 Commemorations – An Opportunity For National Reconciliation

Calling for the coming decade to be dedicated to ‘national reconciliation’ SDLP MLA Seán Farren said:

“As the 90^th anniversary of the 1916 Rising approaches and as we look ahead to the its centenary celebrations in 2016 there is a compelling need to focus not simply on commemorating that seminal event but also on developing opportunities that will promote national reconciliation throughout Ireland.

“It has to be recognised that significant as the 1916 Rising was to winning the independence obtained in 1921, unfortunately that independence also reinforced and deepened the partition of Ireland already foreshadowed in the 1914 Home Rule legislation.

“Partition and the divisions underlying it have scarred and fractured our relationships in ways that will cast a shadow over commemorative events if proper steps are not taken to promote reconciliation between our still deeply divided people.

“The spirit in which to approach reconciliation is that which the Good Friday agreement has attempted to engender. Not until 1998, seventy-seven years after partition, when that agreement was signed did the people of Ireland as a whole have an opportunity of expressing together support for a healing process that could begin to address our divisions.

“Beginning with a declaration that rejects violence as the means to resolve political problems and that also respects the different allegiances and traditions on the island, it makes clear that constitutional change can only happen if a majority of people so wish.

“That spirit calls for society in both parts of Ireland to have equal regard for the human and civil rights of all our citizens, a challenge that must now also embrace the thousands who have come from overseas to work and reside here over the past decade.

“If cherishing all of the nation’s children equally is to have real meaning we cannot ignore our different allegiances and the aspirations that inform them. Nor can we simply indulge superficial aspects of those differences with public displays of apparent recognition without examining and challenging the implications for the kind of Ireland that really does cherish all equally.

“And so, as preparations are made to celebrate the 1916 Rising, this year and over the next decade, we should ensure that we celebrate in ways that don’t threaten any group but rather promote true understanding, respect and reconciliation. If these objectives are to be achieved a reflective and indeed critical rather than an exclusively commemorative approach is essential.”