ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN:PRESIDENT MARY McAleese yesterday praised the solidarity demonstrated in the wake of recent violence in Northern Ireland.
The President told guests at a reception to mark St Patrick’s Day that such a concerted approach will enable us to “face down the remaining men and women of violence” and also help in alleviating the current economic crisis.
Mrs McAleese condemned the “brutal” events that had “visited such pain on so many families” in recent weeks, and observed that the killings had provoked an “overwhelming level of systemic solidarity within Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between Ireland and Great Britain”.
Representatives of organisations from both sides of the Border, including the Irish Farmers’ Association, the Ulster Farmers’ Union, Business in the Community, and the North Belfast Interface Network, gathered at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday afternoon for the reception.
“Let those who perpetrated those evil crimes take note – the peacemakers are legion and we are not for turning,” Mrs McAleese told attendees.
“Politicians and people of different perspectives . . . speak with one voice. The future is now shared. That solidarity which will help us face down the remaining men and women of violence will also help us face down the economic problems which beset us.
“The human values of decency, generosity and trust which underpin that solidarity will preserve our hard-won peace and help retrieve a prosperity that is sustainable.”
Referring to the current economic situation, Mrs McAleese said people were being “sorely tested by the colossal failure of a global and local culture of short-term gain and quick profiteering” that had brought back “ghostly realities we hoped we had left behind” such as financial uncertainty, rising unemployment, and emigration.
“This is our time and this is our test,” she continued. “We will find a way through for, while some were seduced by the quick euro, the vast majority of people in this country were sharing what was in their pockets . . . Those people did not get us into this mess, but they will get us out of it. Because that is the kind of people they are, dependable, courageous and determined.
“They are also rightly proud of Ireland and the remarkable progress and massive human investment it has made in building both peace and prosperity.
“They are not about to let either be rendered useless by either wilful violence or wilful greed.”