President Mary McAleese has stressed the need "to finally eliminate the embedded culture of sectarianism" in a speech celebrating this year's creation of the new Northern Ireland Executive.
Delivering the 2007 Longford Lecture, "Changing History", at Church House, Westminster, London last night, Mrs McAleese said last May's "watershed" development marked "a vital step forward in our journey of reconciliation".
And she anticipated "the most exciting chapter ever in the history of the island of Ireland", saying: "as the old, historic vanities are dispensed with, and partisan imagery is jettisoned, a new iconography, a new imagery, is needed to depict the promise of our island's bright future".
She told her audience that despite three baronies and an earldom, the late Frank Pakenham, Earl of Longford, had "earned the enduring affection of the plain people of Ireland" because they recognised in him "a greatness of heart for Ireland and a greatness of heart for humanity".
She said "the sheer unlikelihood of today's reality in Northern Ireland, where men who were once bitter opponents sit side by side in government as First Minister and Deputy First Minister" was "a living tribute to Lord Longford's enduring belief in a person's capacity for change, and to the inherent power of the Christian capacity for forgiveness even in the face of horrendous suffering".
People had made compromises and taken risks in order to set a new course for the future, said Mrs McAleese, while observing that "never having been so far down the path of peace before, we have few compass points to guide us".
Yet, she said: "we recognise the phenomenal potential, the strange alchemy of this moment and we look forward to seeing the results that will come from the combined genius of Protestant, Catholic, Irish, British, Gael and Ulster-Scots, planter and native, new migrant and old-timer as they focus on what they can achieve together for the first time in our history".
The President said the DUP/Sinn Féin agreement forged last May marked a vital step forward in the journey of reconciliation. "No one underestimates the huge task ahead of the Executive in forging consensus and maintaining collective responsibility across issues that normally divide political parties," she said.
"Nor do we overlook the work that needs to be done to finally eliminate the embedded culture of sectarianism," she added.
However, she said: "we also acknowledge that this is a beginning and in the Irish language we have a saying - Tús maith, leath na hoibre - a good start is half the work and, by any test, the Northern Ireland Executive has made a good start."
Mrs McAleese declared: "we are in fact right at the very start of the most exciting chapter ever in the history of the island of Ireland. It is a work in progress but it is a work making visible progress as hope and optimism cut their way painstakingly through division and rancour."
The benefits of this "sea-change" could not be overstated, said Mrs McAleese. "It has released into Irish society a new mood of dispensation to talk with fresh openness and without fear about things that were once, in some quarters, taboo and especially the politics of partnership.
"For those of us who have grown up through the Troubles, the reduction in negativity and the growing generosity of spirit has been little short of miraculous." The President also stressed the seminal role played by improved Anglo-Irish relations at governmental level, and the expression of commonality "in the extraordinary depth and breadth of the interpersonal links between our two peoples".