President Mrs Mary McAleese said today the transition from a culture of conflict to that of peace and prosperity was closer than ever before in the shared history of Ireland, north and south.
The current generation was being offered "a mosaic of quite amazing opportunities" she said in an address to the Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants in Belfast.
She said there was "an evolving peace process, the prospect of long-term comfortable inter-communal relationships, collegial and genial cross-border relationships, mature, consensus-orientated inter-island relationships".
Mrs McAleese said there was a chance to put the shared island on the map for inward investors and tourists, "to create synergies between our respective indigent business sectors, to send fleets of consumer goods both ways across the border, to spread the benign embrace of jobs and prosperity widely as never before".
The President added: "The transition from a culture of conflict with all its wastefulness and woundedness to a culture of peace, prosperity and consensus is unfolding little by little".
As the destination was so worthwhile, the journey was long, often difficult and undoubtedly testing, she said.