Last Tuesday, 24th October 2023, IBEC Europe offices held the 3rd John Hume European ‘Spirit of Peace’ Lecture which was delivered by EU Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, and chaired by Tony Connelly, RTE Europe Editor.
During her speech the EU Commissioner said:
“The spirit of 1998 is about focusing on compromise and collaboration to resolve conflict. It isn’t easy. It requires political courage. It requires leadership – rather than following their darkest impulses, leading your community to brighter days ahead. And that requires an appeal to hope. I would hope that sort of leadership could be shown to enable a return to the Northern Ireland Executive because the people of Northern Ireland deserve a government. The Good Friday Agreement can also give hope to those in conflict zones today. If we can take lessons from the peace process, it is that peace is not inevitable, it takes monumental effort and it is fragile even when achieved. But fundamentally the Good Friday Agreement shows that it can be done, even when all hope is lost and days are dark.”
You can watch the full lecture here: https://youtu.be/ri1WE-clMQg?si=XPxzR4hxxKpljC_7
