A RTÉ report notes some of the comments by out-going Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, on the 10th anniversary of the 1998 Agreement, in an interview on RTÉ Radio’s This Week. Other points to note in the interview include Fianna Fáil “grave reservations” at amending articles 2 and 3 of De Valera’s constitution [approx 9min 20s in.]
Ahern’s thanking Sinn Féin for not using posters campaigning against that constitutional change – despite having them printed [approx 11min 30s in]. And on the prospects of a united Ireland under a single administration of government – after a process that seems to echo Michael Longley’s “opposite of war”. From the clip from This Week [RealPlayer file, approx 12min 30 sec in]
“That can only happen in the long term future. How long that will be I don’t know. If it is done by any means of coercion, or divisiveness, or threats, it will never happen. We’ll stay at a very peaceful Ireland and I think time will be the healer providing people, in a dedicated way, work for the better good of everyone on the island.
If it doesn’t prove possible, then it stays the way it is under the Good Friday Agreement, and people will just have to be tolerant of that if it’s not possible to bring it any further.”
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