אימייל מפאדי המתאם האירי שעבד מולנו

Hi, Roni and Itamar.

I enjoyed our conversations yesterday on the road from Dublin to Donegal.

These are the ideas about peace processes we learned from the Irish experience where the IRA ("Catholics") were fighting to remove the Border and create an united Ireland free from Britain and the British ("Protestants") were fighting to retain the Border and preserve Northern Ireland within the UK. (Simplistic analysis)

You cannot start from the contentious issues e.g. decommissioning of IRA weapons OR support for the police service (in your case the issues of security and the refugees).

You take a pragmatic approach and spend much time agreeing general principles of what a settlement should contain:

There is both an Irish and British identity in Northern Ireland and political settlement must reflect that.

Neither community can be enticed, persuaded or coerced into abandoning its historic identity or allegiance.

The historic enmity between Britain and Ireland is reducing at government level especially within the EU and the global economy.

The overwhelming majority of people on the island of Ireland reject violence (expressed in rerfendums).

The overwhelming majority of people on the island of Ireland accepts that there cannot be any change in the constitutional position of Northern Ireland within the UK without majority consent within Northern Ireland.

A settlement should also reflect and attempt to deal with current and changing social and economic factors e.g.

· Decline in the influence of religion;

· Break-up of traditional family unit;

· Increase of alcohol and drugs consumption;

· Growth of consumerism and its impact on the community;

· Increased in segregation of the two ("Catholic" and "Protestant") communities and lingering sectarianism;

· Increase in immigration and subsequent increase in racism

When both sides reach agreement on what a settlement should look like if it is to endure, then you begin to deal with the really contentions issues one by one e.g. there is no longer need for IRA weapons...there is no longer need for British Army check-points and militarised Border crossings. In your case, in two states standing side by side connected by an international agreement, the security depends not on military repression but on agreement and accommodation AND the refugee issue must be approached in a pragmatic way so as not to undermine the rights of both communities to exist in peace and prosperity.

I look forward to hearing your reaction to this. Remember there was a time that all this sounded totally unrealistic to us her during our war.

Paddy Logue

Research Coordinator

Irish Peace Centres