THE POLITICAL leaders of unionism should embark on initiatives towards reconciliation just as republicans must continue to move forward by being willing to compromise, Sinn Féin chairman Declan Kearney told a summer school at the weekend.
Mr Kearney said that Sinn Féin’s vision for Ireland saw no place for “division, hurt and fear” before he went on to concede that the 1993 Shankill Road bombing by the IRA in which nine people were killed was not justified.
“Continuing to move forward will mean republicans being prepared to step outside our historical and political comfort zone and embrace new thinking,” said Mr Kearney, adding that moving unilaterally was risky but necessary to bring about greater change.
Mr Kearney pointed to the recent decision by Sinn Féin to allow Martin McGuinness to meet Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Belfast as an example of how republicans were willing to compromise to further reconciliation.
It had been a tough decision, and feelings within republicanism ranged from “trenchant opposition to pronounced strategic enthusiasm, but it was a significant statement of intent about stretching out the hand of friendship to our unionist neighbours”.
Quoting republican hero Tom Barry’s address at the unveiling of a monument to his Civil War foe Michael Collins in 1965, Mr Kearney said Barry had called for a recognition that both sides had believed their positions were right.
He added that just as Barry had said there was a need to “end futile recriminations” over the Civil War, similarly there should be an end to such recriminations over events during the Troubles.
Mr Kearney said the decision by the Royal Black Preceptory to apologise for playing music outside Catholic churches was very welcome, but more needed to be done in terms of initiatives from the political leaders of unionism and the British government.
“Where is their big thinking – that is surely an uncomfortable conversation which must take place within the Protestant, unionist and loyalist community and also in Hillsborough Castle.”
Speaking at the Sinn Féin Summer School in Ballyvourney, Co Cork, Mr Kearney reiterated his views articulated in An Phoblacht earlier this year that the Shankill Road bombing of Frizzell’s fish shop on October 23th, 1993, was wrong.
“No right-thinking republican has ever glamorised war. We should not seek to romanticise war or armed struggle, nor the actions of the IRA in this or any previous generation.”
Stressing there was never “a good old IRA”, as some revisionists might suggest, Mr Kearney said neither he nor other present-day republican leaders would hypocritically seek to distance themselves from the consequences of the IRA’s actions.
“Asserting that a political context forced the use of armed struggle as a last resort cannot disguise the massive hurt caused by IRA actions. There is no excuse for the human loss and suffering caused by the Shankill bomb. No reasonable person would try to say otherwise.”
While republicans could not undo or disown the past, their political commitment and dedication today must be “to ensure that such pain and suffering never again become the experience of any republican, unionist and English or Irish citizen”, he said.
Asked whether he could understand unionists being sceptical about Sinn Féin’s moves towards reconciliation, Mr Kearney said no one in the unionist community should see such moves as a stalking horse for a united Ireland.
