It contains the dynamic which led to the Irish peace initiative and to the cessation of military operations by the IRA in August 1994. That is why I sought meetings with John Hume. That is why we entered into dialogue with the government in Dublin. That is why we developed our relations with Irish America. The vast majority of people in Ireland want peace.
Peace demands justice.
Nationalists, including those with reservations about the outcome of the talks process, want to exhaust every possibility of achieving peace. They wish to see their representatives concentrating their efforts to bring about a just and lasting settlement. All experience to date shows that a shared understanding and common positions between nationalists on the most advanced positions possible is needed to further the democratic demand. An absence of such common positions is detrimental to the national position. I would like to take this opportunity to speak to the Protestant people in the six counties and say to you that we in Sinn Fein remember with pride that our republicanism grows from the separatist roots of the mainly Presbyterian United Irishmen.