Religious journal seeks Reconciliation Day

Each year, May 22nd should be designated as "Reconciliation Day" in both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, suggests an editorial in the Dominican publication, Doctrine and Life. Editor of the publication, Father Bernard Treacy OP, writes in the current issue: "If 22 May, the day on which both parts of Ireland voted by referendum for the Belfast Agreement, were to be designated Reconciliation Day and to be a public holiday in both jurisdictions, with appropriate, sensitively arranged ceremonial, people would have opportunities to express, year by year, their acceptance that reconciliation, understanding and tolerance are the only way forward."

He refers to the many ceremonies which followed the Omagh massacre and notes "such commemorations show us the power and the value of ritual".