'We should not and must not forget our history. But as we gather on this famous battlefield, it is not history that concerns us now.' Bertie Ahern's words yesterday underscore a significant shift in our relationship with our history, writes BRIAN MERCER WALKER.
BERTIE AHERN and Ian Paisley met yesterday on, in the words of the well-known Orange song, "the green grassy slopes of the Boyne". Their meeting was a powerful symbol of the belief that, as Bertie Ahern put it in his recent speech in Washington, three centuries after the Battle of the Boyne "both sides, proud of their history and confident of their identity, can come together in peace and part in harmony".
This historical dimension is an important part of the peace process. While much attention has focused recently on new institutions and political relations between the different groups, it is worth recalling the great efforts which have been made to tackle many of the historical perceptions which were an important part of our difficulties.
The challenges which we faced were very modern ones. They included efforts to stop violence, to reconcile different national aspirations, to construct structures of government and society which could command wide support and guarantee rights and equality, and to acknowledge diverse traditions and beliefs. Obviously this situation had historical roots, but these challenges were essentially contemporary ones.
At the same time, the historical dimension was important because people often saw these problems in an historical light. Views of history influenced the way our situation was understood and the way we acted. Frequently, historical myths or certain selective readings of history made a resolution of the problems more difficult.
Outside observers commented often on the way in which history was seen and used. In October 1996, for example, Michael Cassidy, the South African church leader, remarked that: "One notices how people are gripped by the past, remembering the past, feeding on the past . . . " He concluded: "these realities feed into the present in Ireland more than anywhere I have been." In his 1993 study of the paramilitaries, J Bowyer Bell noted how in other countries people were emboldened to act "by Lenin's or Mao's example", but in Ireland the enemy was killed to "history's tune and the blare of those unseen trumpets, audible always to the faithful".
These historical perceptions encouraged fatalism and mistrust. Senator George Mitchell has recorded how when he arrived in Northern Ireland in 1995 to take up a mediating role, people welcomed him, but then said: "You are wasting your time. This conflict cannot be ended. We have been killing each other for centuries and we are doomed to go on killing each other forever." His 1996 report on decommissioning noted that "common to many of our meetings were arguments, steeped in history, as to why the other side cannot be trusted". As a consequence, "even well-intentioned acts are often viewed with suspicion and hostility".
At the same time, the 1990s witnessed important changes in the ways that many people viewed and expressed their history. In the schools in Northern Ireland, there was a new curriculum, with an added emphasis on Irish history, while in the Republic, Irish history was taught in a broader perspective than hitherto. In Northern Ireland, different historical traditions were explored though the programmes and projects of the Cultural Traditions Group, established under the Community Relations Council. Following the important revision of Irish history in the previous decade, historians continued to explore historical myths held by the different sections.
The change in attitudes to history was reflected in the way in which commemorations were now marked. Historian Jane Leonard has written how "in Ireland politicians and local communities have endeavoured to replace the partisan character of existing war commemorations with more inclusive, generous forms of acknowledging the Irish past". From the early 1990s, both unionist and nationalist politicians were involved together in Remembrance Day services in many places in Northern Ireland: previously this event had largely been dominated by unionists and ignored by nationalists.
In the 1990s, in the Republic, there was a new effort to acknowledge the role of Irish servicemen in the two world wars. In 1990 president Mary Robinson was the first Irish president to attend the Remembrance Day service in St Patrick's Cathedral. In 1994 the Irish National War Memorial at Islandbridge was finally formally opened by Fianna Fáil minister, Bertie Ahern. The following year, a ceremony at Islandbridge, led by president Robinson, to mark the end of the second World War, was attended by representatives of nearly all Irish parties, including Tom Hartley of Sinn Féin. In 1998, a peace park at Messines in Belgium, in memory of the Irish who had died in the first World War, built by groups from North and South, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and President Mary McAleese.
In the course of commemorations for the Famine, Tony Blair apologised on behalf of the British government for not having done more to help during this tragedy. The bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland was commemorated widely, North and South, as a shared historical experience.
From the early 1990s we can see evidence of change in regard to the importance of the past in political speech and approach. These developments occurred at government, party and popular level. They were apparent in Belfast, Dublin and London. Sometimes this meant an outright rejection of any role for history. After a particularly gruesome murder by the IRA in south Armagh in 1992, Father John Duffy declared: "If this is how you read Irish history then it is not worth giving to anyone". More commonly, it has involved an effort to deal with the past or to draw either a different or a more inclusive lesson from history.
In December 1992, Sir Peter Brooke, the Northern Ireland secretary of state, declared that "there is much in the long and often tragic history of Ireland for deep regret, and the British government for its part shares in that regret to the full". At the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis in 1993, taoiseach Albert Reynolds stated that: "We must not be prisoners of history" and that "new patterns must transcend the antagonisms of a century between the two political cultures". On a number of occasions in 1993, Dr John Dunlop, Presbyterian moderator, warned of the danger of an historically based siege mentality for the unionist community, while John Hume, SDLP leader, urged nationalists and republicans to challenge many of their historical assumptions.
Key inter-governmental documents now carried significance references to dealing with the past, in contrast to earlier documents, such as the Sunningdale Agreement, which contained no mention of history. The Downing Street declaration of December 1993 stated that the most important issue was to "remove the causes of conflict, to overcome the legacy of history and to heal the divisions which have resulted". The Frameworks for the Futuredocument of 1995, from the two governments, stated that there was "deep regret on all sides in the long and often tragic history of Anglo-Irish relations, and of all relations in Ireland. They believe it is now time to lay aside, with dignity and forbearance, the mistakes of the past".
Politicians continued to challenge existing historical perceptions. In March 1995 David Ervine, Progressive Unionist Party leader, urged unionists to "break the myths and lay the ghosts". In September 1996, taoiseach John Bruton attacked the use of history to justify violence and then went on to say: "We cannot relive our great-grandparents' lives . . . we are not obliged to take offence on their behalf, any more than we are obliged to atone for their sins". In February 1998, John Hume urged that: "In learning the lessons of the past we must not become prisoners of the past".
The Belfast Agreement made only a brief reference to the past. A number of participants and observers, however, did see the agreement as part of an historical process. British prime minister Tony Blair spoke of how he felt the "hand of history upon our shoulders". Of course what had happened was that the participants had been able to tackle very grave political difficulties without being dragged down by historical perceptions and mistrust. As Senator George Mitchell later put it, people came to realise that "knowledge of their history is a good thing, but being chained to the past is not". The success of these negotiations was seen as proof, in the words of US president Bill Clinton, that "the past is history not destiny".
There has continued to be an emphasis on "positive" or "shared" aspects of history. In May 2000 at a conference in Washington, President Mary McAleese observed that we have "so often raided the past for proof of our difference . . . " and urged that we should "look more carefully at our histories and find in shared memories, sources of unity rather than division . . . " Earlier, Mrs McAleese had taken a brave initiative when, in 1998, she began to hold an annual July reception at the Áras an Uachtaráin to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne and to "offer it jointly to both Williamite and Jacobite traditions". Republican history, of course, has not been ignored. Two years ago an official Easter 1916 commemoration parade was organised again in Dublin, but efforts to make it more inclusive included reference to all who had died in Dublin and France.
Within Northern Ireland efforts continued to deal with historical events in a new way. In April 2003 a special service at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast to remember people from Belfast who had died in the first World War included not only British crown and army representatives but also republicans such as the Sinn Féin lord mayor Alex Maskey and ex-IRA man Martin Meehan. Recent years have seen unionist backing for the erection of memorials to supporters of the United Irishmen.
For many groups in Northern Ireland, there is still a strong belief in the importance of their own history, but we can also see some effort to explain this history and to make their commemorations less threatening to others. In recent years the Apprentice Boys of Derry have run a festival alongside their main parades while the Orange Order has sought to remove paramilitary trappings from some of their bands.
At the same time, of course, there are those who have been unaffected by these new approaches to our history and continue to see things in a more "traditional" light. Someone who fell strongly into this category until recently was Dr Ian Paisley. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s he continued to speak of "Ulster's traditional enemies". At the DUP 2002 annual conference he warned that in every generation since the Ulster plantation, unionists "have been forced to defend their heritage". This last year, however, has seen a very significant change in his historical perspective, alongside other changes in his political position.
After their first meeting in Dublin in April 2007, Ian Paisley and Bertie Ahern declared their intention to have a joint visit to the site of the Battle of the Boyne. Paisley said it would show "how far we have come when we can celebrate and learn from the past . . . we both look forward to visiting the battle site at the Boyne, but not to re-fight it". The visit took place a month later. In his speech on this occasion Paisley spoke of the great symbolic importance of the Boyne for many Protestants and unionists, and then went on to say: "I welcome that at last we can embrace this battle site as part of our shared history."
In September 2007 Ian Paisley had his first official meeting with President Mary McAleese. The setting was again symbolic. It was held at the Somme Heritage Centre in Newtownards on the occasion of their joint opening of an exhibition about the soldiers of the 16th Irish Division, which had been recruited very largely from the Catholic community. The significance of these wartime commemorations for engendering respect and reconciliation was underlined again in Paisley's words of praise for Bertie Ahern after the announcement of the latter's resignation. He singled out Ahern's willingness to acknowledge the role of Irish soldiers in the two world wars as an important reason for his respect for him.
Structural and institutional changes have been essential to build the peace process. Important also have been changes in the way we have treated the past. New approaches to events such as 1916, 1690 and the first World War are all examples of what can be achieved, when, in Bertie Ahern's words, "we cast aside the old ways of thinking".
Such developments have helped to generate trust and respect for diversity as we saw yesterday.
In Ireland, North and South, we have finally learnt the "the past is history not destiny".
Brian Mercer Walker is professor of Irish Studies in the politics school at Queens University Belfast.