Member's statement: Remembrance Sunday
Member's statement by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 11 November 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Remembrance Sunday
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4667056
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Sinn Féin leaders have consistently sought to heal divisions through efforts to build trust and foster reconciliation, and that has often meant stepping beyond traditional comfort zones. The participation in yesterday's Remembrance Sunday ceremony by Michelle O'Neill as a First Minister for all, who is also an Irish republican, represents a gesture of respect for those dead from Ireland — and their loved ones — who served in British forces during Britain's wars.
That is notwithstanding my and my party's republican and anti-imperialist opposition to those same colonial wars and global conflicts, both historically and in more recent times. By attending, she was acknowledging the pain and suffering of all those who have lost their lives, on all sides, in the horror of World War I and during subsequent conflicts. War can never be romanticised or glorified. All wars are terrible. The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a graphic reality of how terrible war is. International humanitarian law, diplomacy and multilateralism must always be paramount. Serving as a First Minister means being a First Minister for unionists, for republicans and for those from neither background. The dead from all traditions, including republican patriot dead, should be afforded the right of respectful commemoration. There is also a broader point: political leaders must lead by example. All our actions today must be about laying the foundations for the transition to a new constitutional settlement in Ireland that is based on respect, inclusion, pluralism and equality.
243 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.