Sir, - When divisions are deep, when lives have been lost and people disabled where there has been intimidation, destruction, beating and eviction, when All of these have been combounded in recurring cycles for almost four centuries, there is indeed a "mountain of memories" to keep us separated. Little wonder that some people find dialogue difficult.
When emotions are high and tension is great, the easiest path for the leader is to satisfy the gut reaction of the crowd. To be too proud, too arrogant or too fearful to risk loss of face, even for the greater good, is certainly one way to be sufficiently concerned for the well-being of all not to let pride, arrogance or fear stand in the way is another. Loss of face in the immediate, maybe gain in stature, in the long run, almost certainly.
Courageous leadership aims to achieve self-respect for the people, recognising that opponents as well as followers have the same need. Courageous leadership aims to curtail tribal excess, for it acknowledges that others are better as friends than as enemies.
It steadies the followers and channels their feelings for the greater good courageous leadership looks at implications for the future of her/his own people in terms of the good of all the people. We had a glimmer of such leadership, all too briefly, in Derry on August 10th and this gave hope that the siege of history could yet be raised so that we may at last be released from its prison.
Where is the bigness of heart, the stature to command that we "bury our pride", so that we may yet enter into meaningful dialogue with those whom we consider as enemies meaningful because it is all-inclusive and because it has been established without pre-conditions? Since April 24th 1914, there can be few Irish people who have not felt the need for, or had association with legal or oppressive weaponry of one sort or another. It is nonsense to think that the IRA is going to band over its weapons, and loyalists are unlikely to do so either. Leadership, however, can go a long way in "decommissioning minds" so that weapons may follow.
Do we ask ourselves sufficiently about what we, as individuals, are doing to bridge the great gulf that now exists between two polarised perceptions of whom we are and how we should share the sovereignty of the small piece of earth on which we live? We Irish people have been hurt by our history proposals, which may dissolve feelings of resentments on one side, can all too easily cause humiliation on the other. The object should surely be to avoid resentment or humiliation on either side.
Even so, it is a difficult, slow and at times dangerous process "for it requires trust which we haven't got; it also requires leadership. Let us therefore pay Unequivocal tribute to the leadership given to Ireland in general and Northern Ireland in particular by the PUP and UDP since the ceasefires of 1994 and let us hope that some day, in spite of the bitter legacy of history and regardless of the inabilities and prejudices of the British Government, Sinn Fein will respond in kind. With a permanent ceasefire, we could have a truly new and thoroughly re-politicised New Ireland within ten years. Without it, Ireland's partitionist mindset will continue to grow on the back of violence as we are drawn inexorably into a depressing era of further depravity. Yours, etc.,
On behalf of the Executive Panel of the New Ireland Group, 8 Charlotte Street, Ballymoney, Co Antrim.