LAST UPDATE | 17 Apr 2023
POLITICAL PARTIES IN Northern Ireland should reach for compromise to resolve the current Stormont impasse, the man who chaired the Good Friday Agreement negotiations has said.
Former US senator George Mitchell urged leaders to act with the “courage and wisdom” that their predecessors had done 25 years ago.
Mitchell was delivering the keynote speech on the first morning of the Agreement 25 conference at Queen’s University in Belfast, marking the anniversary of the deal which largely ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
“Today, a quarter century after the agreement, the people of Northern Ireland continue to wrestle with their doubts, their differences, their disagreements,” Mitchell said.
“They will continue to do so no matter how successful their political leaders are,” he said.
“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,” he added.
“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.”
The Stormont powersharing institutions, the main element of the 1998 deal, are currently not operating due to disagreements over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Mitchell said: “I know that each of your parties – like all political parties in the world – have some of what I call the 100 percenters, they want everything their way all the time – to them, any compromise is a sign of weakness,” he said.
“I say to you that reasoned, principled compromise is essential, especially in divided societies. It reflects a belief in democratic values that we all are 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 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.”
Mitchell said it was “unmistakably clear” that the people of Northern Ireland did not want violence to return.
During his speech, he asked the audience to observe a moment of silence in tribute to the victims of the Troubles.
He also ask them to applaud for the politicians who struck the agreement 25 years ago.
“I say now to the current and future leaders of Northern Ireland, there is much in your history and in your politics that divide 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,” he said.
“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 offence quickly. But it is unmistakably clear that the people of Northern Ireland do not want to return to violence, not now and not ever.”
Hillary Clinton is hosting the Agreement 25 conference as part of her role as chancellor at Queen’s University.
“While the Good Friday Agreement is an enormous achievement, we know that peace, prosperity and progress that so many have worked tirelessly to achieve remains incomplete,” she told the conference.
“The work of integration and housing and schools is far from finished, neighbourhoods remain divided poverty and unemployment persist, the difficulties of the past continue to threaten the present,” Clinton said.
“You know, we are at a standstill with the Northern Ireland Assembly no longer functioning. But the Windsor Agreement provides a path forward not just for convening but for positioning Northern Ireland as an economic hub for global trade and investment through privileged access to the UK and all of its trading partners, as well as the EU.”
Former US president Bill Clinton, Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and ex-British prime minister Tony Blair are also participating in the three-day event at Queen’s University.
Speaking today, Blair said: “We know the peace isn’t perfect. We know the institutions have often been rocky and unstable as they are today.
“We know there’s still a lot of distrust and mistrust between the communities.
“But we also know that Northern Ireland is a much better place than it was before the Good Friday Agreement.
“And the only thing I would say to today’s leaders is I think when you stand back and you reflect, you know in your heart of hearts, what the right thing to do is, and you should just get on and do it.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are due to attend later in the week.
The world-renowned Good Friday Agreement created powersharing institutions at Stormont that involved nationalists and unionists governing Northern Ireland together in a mandatory coalition arrangement.
While the pact largely ended the Troubles, which had claimed more than 3,600 lives since the late 1960s, it has failed to bring long-term political stability in the region and devolution has collapsed several times in the last two decades.
The anniversary comes amid another period of collapse, as the DUP is blocking powersharing in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements that have created economic barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The barriers were first introduced under the Withdrawal Agreement’s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.
The UK and EU recently agreed the Windsor Framework as a way to cut the red tape created by the protocol.
While the DUP says the framework has gone some way to address its concerns about the protocol, it says significant problems remain.
The party has opposed the framework at Westminster and has made clear its boycott of Stormont will continue until it secures further assurances from the UK government over its concerns around sovereignty and the application of EU law in Northern Ireland.
Bertie Ahern told the conference that Northern Ireland’s parties need to sit down together to work out how to bring back the Stormont institutions.
“I think the single most important thing is people need to sit down and just agree how they are going to do it,” Ahern said.
“We dealt with huge issues, we were trying to deal with the constitutional issues, trying to set up the institutions, reforming the old RUC … demilitarising Northern Ireland, changing all the legislation that was there because of years of the conflict,” he said.
“Now what you need is to find a mechanism where the institutions can set up and then I think there should be discussion, whether you call it review or not, of how to make sure they don’t come down again except when their term of office is fulfilled,” the former taoiseach added.
“That requires parties to sit down, mainly the DUP but I’m sure other parties are all willing to help them to get across that road.
“The sooner the better. The one thing that concerns me is that status quos don’t work.”
He added: “You can’t wait around forever. You can’t have elections to institutions a year ago and then nothing happens.”
Meanwhile, DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr urged those who wish to alter the Good Friday Agreement to be “careful what they wish for”.
Speaking at Queen’s University today, Paisley Jr said: “If people want to change an agreement, which we’re being told is a totem, that’s up to people to seek those changes but I would just say, very clearly, be careful what we wish for in this because when you open up one side of it to satisfy some grievance on one side, you automatically start unravelling on another.
“Do we address issues in regard to the Assembly, to then address issues in reforming the referendum mechanism and the weighted majorities in that, what else do we unravel, what else do we open up?
He added: “Be very careful what we wish for because you might end up into another negotiation process which could last a very, very long period of time, whenever maybe resolving the problems around the protocol and Windsor and those issues should be where the focus is placed and get that fixed first.”
Several events took place over the weekend ahead of the start of the conference.
Yesterday evening, a special dinner was held at Hillsborough Castle to mark the contribution to the peace process by the late Mo Mowlam, who was Northern Ireland Secretary in 1998.
Includes reporting by Press Association
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