The Greysteel ‘Trick or Treat’ killings 1993 and the Haass Talks today – Martin McGuinness

A commitment to and a combination of engagement, political will and determination can resolve most difficulties. This is as true today as it was in 1993

By deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA

I WROTE HERE last week as the people of the Shankill gathered to mark the 20th anniversary of the IRA bomb attack on Frizzell’s fish shop.

Today the people of Greysteel gather to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrible massacre carried out by the UDA/UFF on the Rising Sun Bar.

My thoughts, solidarity and sympathy go to them today.

Throughout the past week I have been reflecting back on that traumatic week 20 years ago.

At that time, a group of us in the leadership of Sinn Féin had been engaged for sometime in trying to pull together the strands which would ultimately become the Irish Peace Process.

Gerry Adams and John Hume had been the public face of these efforts.

Myself and others were also involved in a back channel to the British Government.

And there was opposition to all of this.

The objective we had set ourselves was enormous and, for many, it seemed an impossibility.  

The terrible events of October 1993 could have resulted in our efforts collapsing. 

Those involved in attempting to build a viable Peace Process could so easily have walked away. Thankfully, they didn’t. The terrible cycle of violence had to be broken.

Regrettably, the Peace Process came too late for those who lost their lives at Greysteel and before.  Unfortunately, that cannot be changed and we are forever left to wonder what might have been had we all have done things differently in the past.

The families of the victims and survivors of Greysteel will be grieving again today. And our thoughts should be with them.

And those of us in political leadership should remember also that within a year of these terrible events in October 1993 we had ceasefires, we had the beginnings of the end of conflict.  

Conflict and political difficulties are there to be resolved and so they must be.  

A commitment to and a combination of engagement, political will and determination can resolve most difficulties. This is as true today as it was in 1993.

It is my hope that as Richard Haass brings his talks on parades, flags and dealing with the past to a conclusion over the next few months that the opportunity to inject a new momentum into the political process and the conflict resolution process will not be lost.