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The Rice Thresher
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by Elizabeth Decker thresher staff
President Malcolm Gillis began by welcoming McAleese and the audience to Rice and introducing former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who talked about how Americans have known both the postcard image of Ireland and another, bleaker image. "It is of a poor country, an economic backwater where physical privation compelled huge numbers of its inhabitants to seek lives elsewhere in one of the most extraordinary migrations in history," Baker said. "And it is of an Ireland entangled in an intractable and seemingly endless sectarian conflict. My friends, that darker image is no longer true. There is indeed a new Ireland." Baker pointed to Ireland's strong economic growth, membership in the European Union, immigration rates and progress towards peace with Northern Ireland as indications of the country's new strength. McAleese began her speech by examining Ireland's experience with violence. "It is an understatement to say that Ireland has known its share of conflict in the past," McAleese said. "Our experience has taught us all too much about humankind's capacity for perpetuating hatred, for destruction, for bigotry, for vengeance, generation after generation, in a seemingly endless cycle of tit-for-tat." However, McAleese said, Ireland's recent history has taught them that no problem is unsolvable. "We, more than most people, know that there is no conflict so intractable, no hatred so ingrained, that it cannot be ultimately transformed if men and women of goodwill and when men and women of goodwill are determined to pursue the path of peace," she said. McAleese said both Ireland and Northern Ireland now look forward to a more peaceful future as a result of the April 1998 signing of the Good Friday agreement, which signaled a new commitment to peace from all the factions of Ireland. "For the first time in over 30 years - and some people might say for the first time in several hundred years - [the agreement] said that the people of Northern Ireland were committed to working together to build a lasting peace," McAleese said. The agreement, McAleese said, provides hope for both the Irish and others caught in conflict around the world. "That offers tremendous hope not just for the people of Ireland, but for people inhabiting every troubled part of the world," she said. McAleese cautioned that Ireland's agreement could not be applied to all conflicts around the world. "No two conflicts are the same - there is no one-size-fits-all template," she said.
"It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance of the long-standing support of the United States," McAleese said. The peace process with Northern Ireland, McAleese said, sprang from a desire to end the violence. "It was born out of the vision of those who looked at the grinding, ongoing demoralization and destruction caused by an apparently endless, endless, senseless cycle of violence," McAleese said. "Many people knew that it simply could not go on." British and Irish representatives started meeting in the 1980s and began making progress toward peace. An important breakthrough in the negotiations was the Downing Street Declaration, which was signed in 1969, guaranteeing all parties a voice in negotiations, McAleese said. "In effect, it meant bringing in from the cold those who, through their pursuit of violence, had excluded themselves from the processes of dialogue," McAleese said. McAleese said another factor in the negotiations' success was the dedication of all parties to addressing challenging issues such as human rights, law enforcement, criminal justice, the demilitarization of society and the reduction of illegally-owned weapons. The final agreement reflects the many realities and identities of modern Ireland, McAleese said. "At the core of the Good Friday agreement is the recognition of the multi-faceted nature of identity, of the vital importance of the complex sets of relationships in which Northern Ireland sits," McAleese said. The peace agreement has fundamentally changed Ireland and Northern Ireland, McAleese said. "The Good Friday agreement, we believe, is changing - has changed - the political landscape of Northern Ireland, and indeed of Ireland, for better and forever," she said. "We don't take it for granted, however. We can't afford to take it for granted." McAleese said the work for peace in Northern Ireland remains difficult. "There are, needless to remark, differences in interpretation," she said. "There are different points of emphasis. ... But the implementation is taking place," McAleese said. McAleese said Ireland must create a culture that will prevent the hatred that led to the violence in Northern Ireland. "We need to promote and encourage a culture of reconciliation from the cradle, from the home, right the way through the workplace, right the way through every community," McAleese said. "We need a world where people challenge and stop the acid of hatred before it even starts." The audience submitted questions to Baker Institute Associate Director Richard Stoll, who read them to McAleese. Questions addressed her background and experiences as president as well as the many challenges facing Ireland today. In response to a question on whether the improvement of the economy has affected Irish Catholicism, McAleese explained that Catholicism remains a large part of Ireland's identity despite fewer citizens attending Catholic Mass services. "On the whole, I would say we are still a people who turn to God very, very quickly in our lives, and who are a prayerful people," McAleese said. When asked whether Ireland's cultural uniqueness is in danger of being lost through cultural integration with Europe, McAleese responded that it was an often-predicted problem that never materialized. This fear, she said, began when Ireland joined the EU in 1973, but instead the opposite has occurred. "We have never been more culturally cocky, more culturally self-assured and more culturally energetic than we are today, and I think part of the reason for that [is] the European Union provided us with a creative space in which we could punch way above our weight," McAleese said. Another question addressed how the Irish peace agreement could be applied to situations elsewhere, such as the Middle East. McAleese said specificity is the key to a successful peace agreement. "The one thing that I think we've learned from the process is that you do have to utterly customize it around every single nook and perverse cranny of your own complex conflict," she said. Students attending the speech were interested in McAleese's comments. Baker College sophomore Katie Hubicki was impressed by McAleese's ability to understand the many aspects of the violence in Northern Ireland. "I felt she took a very realistic view towards it," Hubicki said. "Having lived through it, she understood what had been going on. I thought she was very realistic in understanding the complexities that needed to be understood in what was essentially a civil war." Jones College sophomore Dan O'Malley said McAleese's work in toward solving issues of violence gave him hope that similarly divisive issues in the United States also had solutions. "It was encouraging to hear her role in the Northern Irish peace process because I think there has been a similar history in America," O'Malley said. "If they can work together to solve their issues, it gives me hope that we can work together to solve ours." The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy sponsored McAleese's speech, given to an overflow crowd in Baker Hall. The speech was entitled "Conflict Resolution and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland." Before becoming president in 1997, McAleese worked as a lawyer, journalist, university administrator and civic leader. She has worked in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, and has taken on issues such as homelessness, legal reform and the violence in the north.
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