8 May 2007
Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley spoke at the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast on the day devoltuion was restored.
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Prime Minister:
First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Taoiseach, Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s a very great honour to be with you today and can I first of all thank Skys the Limit for a wonderful performance, you really inspired us, thank you so much.
Just had a conversation upstairs in the First Minister’s Office which the First Minister began by saying, I’ll explain this he said, “there’s you a young man at 54 just going out of office and here’s me a man of 80 coming in”….must tell you something. Today the elected representatives of the people of Northern Ireland have taken responsibility for the future of Northern Ireland. It’s what people voted for and is what’s happened. But that simple statement does not do justice true to significance of what is happening today. Because today marks not just the completion of the transition from conflict to peace, but also gives the most visible expression to the fundamental principle on which the peace process has been based.
The acceptance that the future of Northern Ireland can only be governed successfully by both communities working together, equal before the law, equal in the mutual respect shown by all and equally committed both to sharing power and to securing peace. That is the only basis upon which true democracy can function and by which normal politics can at last after decades of violence and suffering come to this beautiful but troubled land. You know a normal life and normal politics can seem a small ambition to anyone who has not lived through the abnormality of a society living daily on the edge. And for years Northern Ireland was such a society, a society disfigured not just by the news of the latest atrocity but also by the ancient hatreds and deep suspicions that had shaped its image and political character. Look back and we see centuries pock marked by conflict, hardship even hatred among the people of these islands.
Look forward today and we see the chance at last to escape those holy chains of history, to make history a new, not as a struggle between warring traditions but as a search for the future shared, held in common and bound by goodwill and peace. That is in truth what this process has achieved.
I would like to pay tribute to the work of my predecessor John Major during whose time we saw the first steps towards peace. I pay tribute also to the work of previous Irish Prime Ministers and to Peter Hain the Northern Ireland Secretary and to all the previous Northern Ireland Secretaries and to Dermot and his Irish counterparts. I would like to pay special tribute today to the contribution of the present Taoiseach. During the past decade relations between Britain and Ireland have been transformed. Today we are partners and we are friends. Recently at Croke Park, Ireland and England played each other in an atmosphere unthinkable even a few years back, wrong result mind you but magnificent sentiment. That in no small part has in my judgement been due to Bertie Ahern. No other Prime Minister I suspect has shared as many cups of tea with me as we have toiled through the long hours in negotiation but Bertie has always been there willing to surmount yet another obstacle. By his actions he’s shown the willingness to engage to understand and to reconcile. Bertie thank you.
However as he and I both know it is the leadership here in Northern Ireland that has been the indispensable pre-requisite of success. John Hume showed such leadership when he first talked to Gerry Adams. David Trimble did in a remarkable way when he supported the Good Friday Agreement and led his party through the frustrating process of trying to implement it with Seamus Mallon. So too did the representatives of the centre, Alliance and the smaller parties who added their voices at crucial moments and so too have the many friends of Northern Ireland around the world, not least in the United States. And so too have of course the First and the Deputy First Minister who stand beside me today. It is no secret that Ian and I have not always agreed and that probably has been as of much relief to him as it’s been to me through the years. But I lost count of how many times I was told he would never accept sharing power but he told me in the right circumstances that he would. He said that he wanted to see Northern Ireland at peace and would not flinch from doing what was necessary to get that peace on the only terms he thought would endure. I believed him and he has been true to his word. On behalf of all the people of our country I thank him today.
Likewise of course I recognise the leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. History has cast republicans and British Prime Ministers in very different camps for very obvious reasons. But again you know long ago I lost count of the times I was told they would not or could not commit to peace but from the first meeting I had with them I believed that they were genuine. They had not forfeited one jot of their belief in their political cause but had the foresight to see that only through politics could it be constructively pursued. However rocky the road they held to it. Today would not have happened without their leadership and I thank them for it.
And my final words are for the people of Northern Ireland. You have lived through the pain and the suffering of the past. Many of you each day will pause to remember someone very close and very special who you lost. And for many the pain of that memory will be as real today as it was the hour in the day they were told of that loss. You will never forget, for some it is impossible to forgive. For the rest of us we too need to remember what it was like in order to marvel at how it has changed. Northern Ireland was synomous with conflict, it was felt to be intractable. The Troubles, not so much a dispute as a fact of life. Irreconcilable differences, people felt that it could not be done, indeed sometimes even that it shouldn’t be done, that the compromises involved were too ugly.
Yet in the end it was done and this holds a lesson for conflict everywhere to define the right political framework since only through politics can come peace that lasts. To get the external forces especially the Governments working in alignment with those internal forces striving for peace. But above all to persevere, never to give up, never to accept that the true will of the people is conflict when they are given the chance to live in peace. The leaders played their part but ultimately it was the people that showed the leadership. They set the terms, they held us all to them and they gave the final imprimatur. And in doing so they did a power of good for optimists everywhere. So on this historic day my final thanks is to them, the people of Northern Ireland.
Bertie Ahern:
First and Deputy First Ministers, Prime Minister, Mister Speaker, members of the legislative Assembly, friends from the United States and across the world, distinguished guests. At the outset I’d like to join with others, as you did in the Assembly this morning, in expressing from the Irish Government our sympathies on the untimely passing of George Dawson last evening. To his many friends across the island, our thoughts are with his wife and family and his party colleagues and to you First Minister and everybody in the Democratic Unionist Party we send our sympathies.
Here in Belfast, ladies and gentlemen, on this day we mark the historic beginning of a new era for Northern Ireland, an era founded on peace and on partnership, an era of new politics and new realities and between British and Irish, between nationalists and unionists we’re now agreed on a vital consensus on our future together and the events that we’ve had the privilege of witnessing are a powerful statement that peace is not impossible and conflict is not inevitable. We cannot undo our sad and turbulent past and none of us can forget the many victims of the Troubles, but we can in shaping our future in a new and better way. And in doing so we can put the divisions of the past behind us forever. Northern Ireland is now a place of peace and promise.
I warmly congratulate the First and Deputy First Ministers and our colleagues in the Executive as they take on the duties and responsibilities of office, we look forward to working with the new Executive and for our part we promise that we will do so in a true spirit of partnership and friendship. Working together we can make life better for everybody. Challenges yes, but challenges in a climate of real hope. And today relationships on this island and between Ireland and Britain stand transformed. There are many people who have played a part in the vital process and I congratulate every one of them today. As Prime Minister Blair has said the many predecessors that we both have had and John Major and John Bruton and Dick Spring, and particularly Albert Reynolds, John Hume and David Trimble and Gerry Adams and all of the people we’ve negotiated with, the Kennedy’s and Ted, whose been always a great friend through a long, long period and I thank them, and I thank all of the politicians that have been involved, those who were involved in the early talks back a decade ago, my colleagues David Andrews, Liz O’Donnell and my colleagues now, all the Secretaries of State that are here. The Tanniste and Dermot Ahern, our Foreign Minister, and all of the cabinet who have worked with us.
And I thank all of the other politicians here, particularly all the politicians in Northern Ireland who worked so hard and so long and all those I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last ten years. But the people of Ireland know that this would not have come about without the commitment and dedication of one person in particular, Prime Minister Tony Blair. This was not a process that promised quick or easy rewards but he has been a true friend of peace, and a true friend of Ireland and for that we express our heartfelt thanks. I thank him, not so much for the tea, not so much for the castles that I had the pleasure of spending so many times in, but for the true determination that he had for just sticking with it, for ten tough years he has spent more times dealing with the issues of the island of Ireland than any person ever could have asked any other person to do. Tony, thank you for that. As we step ladies and gentlemen from this place of history we must be resolved that this should be the last generation on these islands to feel the anger and pain of old quarrels. We’ve had it for hundreds and hundreds of years.
We know the unique and delicate balance that binds this process together. Our task is to protect and nurture what has now been achieved. 86-years ago, on the 22nd day of June 1921, when he opened Stormont King George V said, and I quote, “I appeal to Irish men to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget and to join in making, for the land which they love, a new era of peace, contentment and good will”. This is the spirit in which we assemble today, to stretch out the hand of conciliation and to renew the call for a new era of mutual respect and peace. I wish you all well and thank you.
Martin McGuinness:
Coming soon
Ian Paisley:
Prime Ministers, distinguished guests and all who are here, there are some words from Holy Scripture and it says, we know not what a day may bring forth. If you had have told me some time ago that I’d be standing here to take this office, I would have been totally unbelieving. I’m here by the vote of the majority of the electorate of our beloved province. During the past few days I have listened to many very well placed people from outside Northern Ireland, seeking to emphasise the great contribution they claim to have made in bringing this all about. However, the real proof of the matter is rather different. If those same people had only allowed the Ulster people to settle the matter without their interference and insistence upon their way and their way alone, we would all have come to this day a lot earlier.
I well remember the night when the Belfast Agreement was signed I was wrongly arrested and locked up on the orders of the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Amazing to see some Secretaries of State and some ex-Secretary of State here today, it is a pleasant thing to see that they’re not going to lock me up, that I have my freedom. It was only after the assistant chief of police intervened that I was released. On my release I was kicked and cursed by certain loyalists who supported the Belfast Agreement. But let me say today, very strongly, that was yesterday, this is today and tomorrow will be tomorrow. Today at long last we are starting upon the road, I emphasise starting, which I believe will take us to lasting peace in our province. I have not changed my unionism, the union of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom which I believe is today stronger than ever, but we are making together a declaration, we’re all aiming to build a Northern Ireland in which all can live together in peace, being equal under the law and equally subject to the law. I welcome the pledge we have all taken to that effect today, that is a rock foundation upon which we must build and we intend to build.
Today we salute Ulster’s honoured and unaging dead, the innocent victims, the gallant band, members of both religions, Protestant and Roman Catholic strong in their allegiance to their differing political beliefs, unionist and nationalist, male and female, children and adult, all innocent victims of a terrible conflict. In the shadows of the evenings and in the sunrises of the mornings we hail their gallantry and heroism. It cannot and will not be erased from our memories, nor can we forget today those who continue to bear the scars of suffering and whose bodies have been robbed of sight, robbed of hearing, robbed of limbs, yes and we must all shed the silent and bitter tear for those whose loved ones have not yet been returned.
Let me read to you the words of Deirdre Spear, who lost her police officer father in the struggle. “Remember me, remember me, my sculptured glens where crystal rivers run, my purple mountains misty in the sun, my coastlines little changed since time begun, I gave you birth. Remember me, remember me, though battle scarred and weary I abide, when you speak of history say my name with pride, I am Ulster”. In politics as in life it is a truism that no-one can ever have 100% of what they desire. They must make a verdict when they believe they have achieved enough to move things forward, unlike at any other time I believe we can now move things forward. Winning support for all the institutions of policing has been a critical test that today has been met in pledged word and deed.
Recognising the significance of that change from a community that for decades demonstrated hostility for policing has been critical in Ulster turning the corner. I have sensed a great sigh of relief amongst all our people who want the hostility to be replaced with neighbourliness. The great King Solomon said, “to every thing there is a season, a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace”. From the depths of my heart I can say to you today that I believe Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace. A time when hate will no longer rule. How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in this province. Today we have began, we have begun the work of plenty and we will all look for the great and blessed harvest.
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