The deep divisions within Northern Ireland have begun to heal as both sides work together for the benefit of all the people in the North, President Mary McAleese said today.
Speaking to mark the Twelfth of July during her 10th annual garden party at Áras an Uachtaráin, Mrs McAleese noted the "changed relationships enjoyed throughout the island of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain."
"We now have a climate of peace, partnership, parity of esteem and prosperity as never before on this island.
"The old relationships which had become so mixed up and difficult over many generations have been straightened out so that today the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain has never been better, the relationship between North and South has been transformed and the deep divisions within Northern Ireland have begun to heal as both sides work in tandem for the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland."
President Mary McAleese
Mrs McAleese also recalled those who have suffered as a consequence of the violence and conflict in the North over the past decades.
"The route by which we have arrived at this juncture involved dreadful pain, loss and hardship for many people and in our joy at these happier times it is important we remember and support those whose lives have been robbed of joy by those years of failure," she said.
"We are all of us on a journey of recovery, trying to find the friendship that eluded us, the trust that could have shortened the journey to peace, the shared memories that knit strangers into good neighbours. Today in our own way, as we gather here, we are taking part in that journey.
The President said she hoped the experience of conflict resolution on this island would provide a model of hope for areas of conflict around the world.
"They say that two shortens the journey and I hope that in the memories we create today and the friendships we make, we will help shorten the journey to a story of a cruel history overcome so comprehensively that, wherever people still live in conflict in the world, the name of Ireland will raise their hearts in hope and encourage them to give their hands to one another."