Glencree Statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee On the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

 

24/5/2023: The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation was pleased to be invited to present to The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement on Thursday May 25th. The meeting took place in Committee Room 1 of Leinster House between 13:30-16:30.

The following Glencree representatives appeared:

    • Naoimh McNamee, Chief Executive Officer
    • Pat Hynes, Programme Manager, Community & Political Dialogue Programme
    • Terri O'Brien, Programme Coordinator, Community & Political Dialogue Programme
    • Helen Irish, Corporate Services Executive
    • Katherine Martin, Assistant Programme Manager, Community & Political Dialogue Programme

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Fergus O’Dowd said: “We welcome the opportunity to hear from representatives from Glencree – an organisation that is devoted to peace building, dialogue and reconciliation since 1974."

"The absence of functioning Northern Ireland institutions and the recent legacy proposals from the UK Government shows the relevance of the Glencree Centre’s work in continuing to promote peace and reconciliation dialogue on our island."

Because of what history has handed us and where geography has placed us, and more importantly how the interplay of these two realities have shaped us, we are required to live with what I might call fuzzy edges at the extremity of our aspirations around ‘Unity’ or ‘Union’.

Read full statement by Glencree's Pat Hynes here >

At the Joint Committee meeting, Pat Hynes of Glencree said: “Because of what history has handed us and where geography has placed us, and more importantly how the interplay of these two realities have shaped us, we are required to live with what I might call fuzzy edges at the extremity of our aspirations around ‘Unity’ or ‘Union’.

“It’s often said,” added Pat Hynes, “by victims and their families towards those who were lost in the Troubles that to be forgotten is to die twice over. Many see this legislation as the means to force society to forget and deny that there ever was a conflict, a war, a campaign or military operation and yet some 3,800 people lost their lives, with countless more by trauma-related suicide in the years since the signing of the Agreement.”

The Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Fergus O’Dowd warmly thanked the Glencree Team for their great work over the last 50 years including their present role in current challenges post-Brexit and the insightful presentation, along with the Q&A session that followed it, saying: "We look forward to continuing our reflections and dialogue on the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.” During the course of exchanges with Committee members, reference was also made for the need for greater focus on the emerging generation of political leaders both north and south.

Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Committee who attended and engaged in a Q&A session, following Pat Hynes’ statement, with the Glencree team included Deputies Rose Conway-Walsh TD, Pauline Tully TD, and Frank Feighan TD, Senators Niall Blaney, Erin McGreehan, and Frances Black, and Stephen Farry MP and Claire Hanna MP.

Watch the recording here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/video-archive/committees/7868

#glencree4peace

For Republicans, the 1998 agreement was the culmination of an almost decade long process of internal discussion around finding an alternative to violence; that alternative was the democratic persuasion of a majority that a new constitutional order would better serve the people of Northern Ireland and the island as a whole. For Unionists the principle of consent was both an assurance that no immediate changes would be made without the agreement of a majority in Northern Ireland, but it was also a challenge; that if they want the Union with the UK to continue into the longer term then they would have to also persuade people from across society in Northern Ireland that the Union was a more viable proposition than the alternative.

Glencree's Pat Hynes. Read full statement >

Oireachtas 1

Members of the Glencree team with Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Fergus O’Dowd and Senators Niall Blaney and Frances Black at Leinster House

Ends.

For further information:

Houses of the Oireachtas: Áine McMahon | +353 (0) 1 618 3437 | +353 (0) 85 800 7312 | aine.mcmahon@oireachtas.ie | pressoffice@oireachtas.ie | Twitter: @OireachtasNews

Glencree Media Contact: Valerie Ringrose Fitzsimons | 086 3771020 | Valerie.fitzsimons@glencree.ie