Reconciliation requires partnership, Declan Kearney tells Sinn Féin Ard Fheis

THE Peace Process has transformed people’s lives and politics on this island, Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney told the opening night of the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin on Friday. Reconciliation is the right thing to do “but it is not a one-way street – it requires partnership and a willingness to take risks” by everyone, not just republicans.

Republicans have stretched and challenged themselves to develop the Peace Process, he emphasised. This was exemplified last year in the “deeply historic and symbolic” meeting between the leadership of Sinn Féin and Prince Charles against the backdrop of his own pilgrimage to remember his uncle killed by the IRA.

“That particular meeting powerfully underlined the importance of leadership in taking forward reconciliation,” he said, adding that, just as a few extremists have always been hostile to the Peace Process, some state and political interests did not want that meeting to occur, or the symbolism of its message to be seen or heard.

“They are wrong.

“There is a bigger picture.

“Those of us who share a strategic vision for the Peace Process must reach out to each other and encourage an inclusive national conversation on reconciliation – an authentic public discourse on reconciliation between republicans and unionists, Green and Orange, Irish and British, and those of no tradition or faith.”

Declan Kearney has been pivotal in Sinn Féin’s reconciliation and unionist outreach initiative, Uncomfortable Conversations, over a number of years and he said that the private dialogues which Sinn Féin and others have diligently pursued over many years on the way forward now need to be translated into actions.

“It is time for the silent majority to challenge itself and be heard; for the prophetic voices to start speaking out; for civic leadership to take public responsibility – and it also long past time for all political and governmental leaderships to step up to the mark.”

He said that a broad-based coalition for reconciliation could generate the momentum which would open a new phase of the Peace Process.

“The symbolic words, gestures and actions now have to be built upon.

“Reconciliation needs to be move from being an aspiration to become a concrete reality in people’s lives.”

A major impediment to progress is the impasse on dealing with the past due to the British Government’s veto on maximum information disclosure, he said, and this should be lifted.

“This party is absolutely committed to ensuring our society’s legacy of suffering and pain is addressed, and a process of reconciliation and healing is established.

“There has been much suffering on all sides.

“We must begin to heal those hurts and divisions.

“The politics of hatred, recrimination and resentment will only serve to imprison our society in the past.”