NORTH-SOUTH LINKS:DIFFICULT ECONOMIC times reinforced the argument for co- operation between both parts of the island, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday at the publication of latest issue of the Journal of Cross-Border Studies in Ireland, he said: "In a time of global turbulence, there are genuine opportunities for business to exploit new markets here on the island, just as there are potential efficiencies to be achieved by government departments working together, North and South."
Mr Martin said the history of the Centre for Cross-Border Studies in Armagh paralleled that of the North-South Ministerial Council in the same location,
He said the council had provided “frequent and welcome respite for politicians from all creeds on the island” to exercise in private what the late John McGahern called, “the principle of good manners”.
The Leitrim writer’s phrase was quoted in the journal by novelist Colm Tóibín, and the Minister commented: “Recently, during the Hillsborough talks, when we took time out, people who had been there at the time recalled the contribution that George Mitchell made at the Good Friday talks.
“A lot of the more seasoned observers said to me that the single distinctive contribution that George Mitchell brought was that ‘he brought manners to the table’ in how talks were conducted.
“It had too frequently been the recourse of some political representatives on the island to resort to bad manners in public, in an attempt to score cheap points with their own base: the effect on opportunities for mutually beneficial co-operation in that context is all too predictable. In private, of course, the mood has long been much more amiable and constructive.”