Advances in technology and transport have made the world a smaller place but there are still borders in the minds and hearts of people which are preventing society from progressing, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, told the Humbert school yesterday.
Continuing integration of the European Union showed that differences between peoples could be overcome, he said. "We have far greater differences with many of these countries but we have been able to work them out - so why can we not do the same with our own country?"
He said the "fundamental basis for peace and democracy is agreement on how you are governed. The new policing service being set up in the North is now providing us with an agreed system of government, in which members will be drawn from every sector of society and will have support from all sides. I hope this will go into action sooner rather than later."
Capt James Kelly, retired member of the Armed Forces who was acquitted during the Arms Trial, denounced his detractors. In his address he stated: "As far as I am concerned, in 1970, everything I did, I did with the full authority of my superior officer, the Cabinet and the then Minister for Defence."
On Saturday the chairman of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), Mr Roger Cole, predicted a victory of 60 per cent to 40 per cent for the No campaign in a future referendum on the Nice Treaty. He said the Irish "political elite" wanted to subvert the decision of the people in the referendum on June 7th. There was an "irreversible tide towards national independence" and "it's not going away".
However, Paul Gillespie, foreign editor of The Irish Times, said there was an "irreversible tide towards globalisation". He rejected the notion of empire and said the EU "is a post-imperial entity" and is in fact "saving Europe from empires". The two speakers were taking part in a debate on "Post-Nice options".
Mr Cole said there was a need for a protocol to exclude the Defence Forces from involvement in the European Rapid Reaction Force. "We seek an EU with no military dimension, an association of democratic sovereign states."
But Mr Gillespie said he did not believe the Rapid Reaction Force was part of a European army. He added that the smaller states "have had a civilising effect" and a growing influence on the larger EU members by "pooling their sovereignty".