TAOISEACH Ahern chose his historic speech to a joint session of the Westminster Houses of Parliament –- the Lords and the Commons –- to remind British politicians that a united Ireland is still his priority aspiration.
“As an Irish Republican, it is my passionate hope that we will see the island of Ireland united in peace. But I will continue to oppose with equal determination any effort to impose unity through violence or the threat of violence,” Ahern said on Tuesday.
Ahern became the first-ever taoiseach to address the Westminster joint houses. Such an address is acknowledged as a major honor that since 1939 has been bestowed on only 31 world leaders, including Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
Ahern’s delivery on Tuesday from the Royal Gallery, situated in the House of Lords, came at the end of a series of peace process breakthroughs that followed each other at almost breakneck speed in recent weeks.
Just days earlier he welcomed Protestant former firebrand Ian Paisley to the site of the Battle of the Boyne near Drogheda. That event was just days after the formal establishment of the Executive in Northern Ireland where Paisley and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness head a power-sharing administration.
And only weeks before that Ahern had formally welcomed Paisley to Dublin.
Now many astute political observers are predicting a visit to Dublin by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth before the end of the year.
Recalling the words of President John F Kennedy in 1963, Ahern told the Westminster politicians, “Ireland’s hour has come: a time of peace, of prosperity, of old values and new beginnings.”
He said the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland represented “the dawning of a new era” for the island of Ireland and for Anglo-Irish relations. The Belfast Agreement had delivered peace and promise to Ireland by accommodating the rights, the interests and the legitimate aspirations of all.
He said that, after centuries characterized by division, conflict and resistance, “ours must and will be the last generation to feel the pain and anger of old quarrels.” He added, “Let us consign arguments over the past to the annals of the past, as we make history instead of being doomed to repeat it.”
He spoke of the new partnership of common interests between Ireland and Britain — a partnership of people, culture, business, sport and, above all, of peace.
Ahern also paid tribute to his long term ally and friend Tony Blair, saying the British prime minister’s contribution to peace in the North had been exceptional.
“Tony Blair has been a true friend to me and a true friend to Ireland. He has an honored place in Irish hearts and in Irish history,” Ahern said.
Blair, 10 years ago, was the first British premier to address the Dail (Parliament) in Dublin.
Ahern said at the Westminster ceremony, “On that occasion I spoke of my hopes for the peace process and for the building of a new relationship between Britain and Ireland, within a new Europe.
“Ten years on our greatest hopes for both have been exceeded. In a curious way, Bertie and I symbolize the past — him from a staunch Irish Republican background, me whose maternal grandfather was an Orangeman living in Donegal.
“Yet today, we are friends and partners and close neighbors.”