Ahern heralds Paisley's visit to Boyne site

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today hailed his meeting with the Reverend Ian Paisley at the site of the Battle of the Boyne as an historic move away from "our troubled past".

Welcoming Dr Paisley and his wife, Eileen, to the site of 1690 battle in Co Meath, Mr Ahern paid homage to the Catholics and Protestants who fought on both sides.

The Fianna Fáil leader said we owed it to past and future generations to acknowledge history in all its complexity.

Ian Paisley presents a three hundred-year-old musket to Bertie Ahern today at the site of the Battle of the Boyne. Image: Reuters/ Niall Carson.

He greeted the North's new First Minister outside the 17th-century estate home of Oldbridge House, where both leaders signed the visitors book.

The house is the centre of a €15 million restoration project by the Government.

Ministers from both Dublin and Belfast were then shown around the site where the Protestant King William III defeated his Catholic father-in-law King James II in one of the defining moments of Irish and European history.

Dr Paisley said: "Instead of reverberating to the roar of cannon fire, the charge of men, the shot of musket or the clash of sword steel, today we have tranquility of still water where we can contemplate the past and look forward to the future."

The DUP leader recalled the people who had fought on the "green glassy slopes of the Boyne" to cement "the glorious revolution and parliamentary democracy".

But he insisted he was also there to acknowledge the shared heritage of people throughout the island of Ireland and a common will to move forward. "The days we are talking about are over, and we must now look to the future," he declared.

Mr Ahern said it would take time and hard work to heal all the wounds of those times and of our more recent tragic history. "But we have made a fantastic start in recent times," he said.

Mr Ahern said this week's compromise between unionism and nationalism in the newly-restored Stormont executive was an "historic step towards shaping a better future."

Members of the Schomberg society from Kilkeel, Co Down, march across the site of the Battle of the Boyne today. Image: Niall Carson/PA.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the visit "typified the incredible thawing of relations" between Dr Paisley and the Republic.

"You wouldn't believe the sigh of relief people have that this has finally happened. People really still don't understand it - that it has happened so easily," he said.

The Minister spoke of how the remarkable pace of developments in recent times has taken the Government by surprise, but he also lamented why it had taken so long.

"Why did it take 3,700 people killed? We can go back over history, but if there had been a bit more goodwill on both sides we might have got to a day like today much quicker and with an awful lot less pain for all of the people on the island," he said.

Additional reporting by PA