[caption id="attachment_68243" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Peter Robinson. "]
Peter Robinson has said it's time for the people of Northern Ireland to put their sectarian divisions behind them.
The North's first minister was speaking at the annual Democratic Unionist Party conference last weekend.
"The conflict of this last 40 years has created terrible divisions," he said.
"It became a case of 'them and us' and that attitude deepened divisions even further.
"If we want a better society it can't be them and us, it can only be all of us."
Mr. Robinson has spoken in recent weeks about the need to convince more Catholics that their future is best served within the union, and he revisited the theme on Saturday.
He also said power-sharing at Stormont had delivered progress on agreeing moves towards creating a shared society
"I tell you, now is the moment," he said.
"Miss it and we may miss it forever. Miss it and we may drift and stray.
"We have the prospect of making a difference that previous generations never had, or never took, a chance that future generations may never get or never grab."
Robinson raised eyebrows from political observers
when he told delegates at the conference outside Belfast
that there was a need for a shared education system by evoking the words of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands who famously said, "our revenge will be the laughter of our children."
Mr. Robinson said:
"The DUP's ambition will be the laughter of all our children, playing and living together, with a future that doesn't see them having to leave our shores, but wanting to live here, in Northern Ireland, within the United Kingdom."
