Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that “partition was a disaster," this during a speech at Fianna Fáil’s annual Wolfe Tone commemoration on Sunday.
Speaking at the revolutionary’s graveside in Bodenstown, County Kildare, Martin said: “Partition was a disaster. It made both part of our island less diverse and less successful.
“And crucially, it has led to over a century of divergence in social, economic, educational, health, legal and other areas.
“We make a lot of assumptions about each other, but the levels of engagement north and south have been very limited.
“True republicans aren’t focused on winning a fight; they are focused on the society and state which can be built.”
Speaking about the controversy over the re-emergence of the Drumcree parade dispute 28 years on, the taoiseach said: “As I said clearly at the time, there was no logic behind reopening an issue which everyone felt had been dealt with. It is absolutely right to say that there can be no going back to the days of escalating conflict around parades.
“The problem for everyone is that there are those who genuinely don’t seem to understand that how they behave means that as well as no going back, there is no going forward either.
“When confronted with a situation like this, people who are interested in uniting communities don’t call for a reckoning, they call for a dialogue. When you look back as how the Good Friday Agreement was reached and eventually implemented, nothing could have been achieved if this approach had been followed.
“There would be no agreement if the approach of angry denunciations and constant public comments had been followed by those who led the negotiations.”
