Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 26 Apr 2023

This month, 20... I was about to read your speech back to you. That would have been quite a turn, wouldn't it? I said new coalition. I was about to read it. No, it was Leo's speech. New coalition. Well, it wasn't your speech, Michal, actually. 25 years ago, the signing of the Good Friday Agreement transcended the past and changed the future for us all. After more than three decades of a terrible conflict, the agreement delivered a peace that had looked impossible. It ushered in a new era of hope, of opportunity and progress for an entire generation and utterly transformed Ireland for the better. The Good Friday Agreement is a gift from a generation of courageous peacemakers to this generation. It is one that we must protect and advance. In the spring of 1998, political and community leaders from all sides overcame bitter division. They met the test of leadership to make things better for our children. From 25 years on, we are again challenged with this very test. To again reach out the hands of friendship, of trust and partnership. The challenge that has now crystallised for all of us today is how to recreate the spirit of 1998. We need a renewed commitment from all political leaders that we will work together, that we will share power together and that we will have a government that will work in the interests of everyone. We need to restore the agreement's political institutions in the North. Almost a year on from the Assembly election, we need a functioning government. We need the North-South bodies up and running, and we need the East-West relationship back on a sustainable footing. Critical to this goal is a consistent and deeper interest from both the Irish and British Government, something which has slipped in recent years, and we need to reset all of that. But above all, we need a decision from the DUP. The DUP is now at a crossroads and a moment of decision. And I hope the decision they make is the right one, because it is unconscionable that we stay in this limbo and that things continue to drift. So my message to the DUP is clear. Join with Sinn Féin and other parties to restore the political institutions, and together we can make politics work for everyone. As we look to the future, this has never been more important. I believe Cahirlik Ireland will be changed, and changed utterly 25 years hence. We can have, we should have, and we need to work for an Ireland that is prosperous and leads the way in so many different aspects of life. Today's findings from the Ombudsman's inquiry into the murder of Councillor Patsy Kelly 50 years ago recall for us the pain of conflict, and show how truth and reconciliation must be cornerstones of the better future we build together. And can I record my support for the family's call for an inquest to uncover exactly what happened, Patsy? I'm going to say, my friends will stop to the country and I'm a scholar who writes a lot of comments on how to say that we are feeling true. What is the vaithstream of the country? It's my strong view that we need a conversation now about what orderly, peaceful, democratic constitutional change looks like. That is why Government must establish a Citizens' Assembly on Irish Reunification. We need to give our people the chance to engage, to come and say their peace. I include in that our citizens who are Unionists, for those who are British in a partitioned Ireland and who will be British in a united Ireland, to have an equal stake in the most incredible opportunity for our Ireland. This is a time for respect and reconciliation, and it is in that spirit and staying true to her pledge to be a First Minister for All that my colleague Michelle O'Neill will attend the coronation of the British King Charles next month. I do not think that we should ever or could ever overstate what can be achieved in the next 25 years, if we are united, if we have a common purpose, if we have patience, if we have respect for each other, if we honour still the fundamental pillars of the Good Friday Agreement, but say also that there is no limit to where we can go and no boundary to our ambitions. In the spring of 1998, a generation reached for hope and a new way forward. Through the Good Friday Agreement, they wrote a groundbreaking chapter in Ireland's story. Today it falls to our generation to write ours. Here in our time, we can build a united nation home. We can realise the promise of a better tomorrow, and it is an opportunity that we must seize with both hands.