Religious extremists in Northern Ireland must face up to the reality that the preconceived notions they have of others are long past their sell-by date, a leading cleric said today.
Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Robin Eames told a service at Trinity College Chapel in Dublin that during the Troubles, secularism had emerged "behind the smokescreen of pain and suffering".
"That fact now confronts northern society in stark terms," the Anglican Primate said. "On the one hand religious fundamentalism so often collated with self-accepted political dogmatism co-exists with spasmodic attempts at cultural liberalism.
"On the other the mores of fundamentalism finds it impossible to accept that community change means that outdated attitudes or preconceived perceptions of others have got to accept they may be well past their sell-by date."
Archbishop Eames said the process of secularisation also posed questions for Northern Ireland society about the development of human rights, ethics and notions of justice "in new and untried ways".
During the peace process, he noted, the power of memory had often dictated what it was possible to change, what it was acceptable to change and what people wished to remain unaltered.
PA