When it hurts to be proven right
The recent dissident activity in Northern Ireland proves there is a still a long way to go before peace is secured, writes Angela Sammon - 25/11/09
Co-Operation Ireland celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and has marked the occasion with a series of high-profile events.
We attended the annual London Ball at the Dorchester Hotel recently, a glamorous night attended by senior ministers and business leaders from the London-Irish community.
But behind all the glitz was also a serious message, the gravity of which has been brought home to us once again with the attempted dissident attacks in Northern Ireland at the weekend.
There is still work to be done in Northern Ireland and anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves and is doing an injustice to those who live there.
During an interview with this newspaper at the beginning of the year, the new Chief Executive of Co-Operation Ireland Peter Sheridan pointed out that the number of “Peace Walls” in Belfast had actually increased in the years since the Peace Process.
There are 88 so-called peace walls in Belfast today, while in the early 1990’s, there were 18 such walls. In the words of Peter Sheridan, “that’s not a society that’s at peace with itself”.
Co-Operation Ireland is an organisation that works on the ground on Northern Ireland and is carrying on the work that was made possible by political agreements.
It is this work that will underpin the political agreements and heal relationships.
Politics on its own won’t magically solve all the differences and that’s why there have been setbacks in terms of devolution and policing.
If a sustainable peace is going to be built, then it will be built at grassroots level. Divisions will not heal themselves – they need to be worked at.
The charity is one, which almost had to justify its existence in the years following the Peace Process but 2009 – ironically the year of its 30th anniversary – has unfortunately shown that its work is as essential now as it has ever been.
Politicians walk off stage when agreements have been signed but work continues to go on in schools, in communities, in groups all around Northern Ireland where people want a peaceful future.
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