Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Michael Gould (right) praises American-Irish relations during a panel discussion Thursday.

A panel of Northern Ireland political party members, diplomats and government officials involved in the Northern Ireland peace process spoke yesterday in Copley Formal Lounge to about 40 students. Scheduled exactly five years and four days since the passage of the historic peace accord known as the Good Friday Agreements, the event discussed the challenges and proposed solutions to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Members of two different centrist parties, Anne Smith of the Ulster Unionist Party and Martin Morgan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party were among those on the panel. Moderated by Fr. Dan Sweeney, S.J., the panel also included Political Director for the Irish Embassy Tom Russell, United States Department of State Country Officer for Northern Ireland Mary Ellen Koenig and First Secretary of the Northern Ireland Bureau Michael Gould.

Koenig praised the Good Friday Agreements and the progress since 1998. “We must remember how far we’ve come. There has been considerably less violence than five years ago,” Koenig said. She also mentioned United States investment in businesses in Northern Ireland and the involvement of Irish-American groups as indicative of progress.

However, the panelists discussed many obstacles in implementing the accords, including the rise of paramilitary groups, the influence of sectarianism and the lack of trust. To confront these challenges, panelists argued for stronger policing, fairness in the rule of law and an inclusive education system.

Both party representatives lamented the continued existence of violence. “One hundred-plus families have died in my constituency. Bigotry has been all too present,” Morgan remarked. Smith added, “Terrorists have still to honor the total and absolute commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means” as outlined in the Declaration of Support at the beginning of the Good Friday Agreements.

In addition, both Smith and Morgan spoke of the unfortunate way paramilitary groups have been linked with racketeering, drug dealing and intimidation.

Koenig argued for “the need for good effective policing whether of the loyalist or republican side.” Both Koenig and Gould emphasized that having Catholic and Protestant representatives equally sharing oversight, citizen involvement and chief constables will prevent one side from being oppressive or unfair to the other.

A few of the panelists spoke of integrated education as a way to deal with the tensions between Protestants and Catholics as well as between unionists and nationalists, which usually do not interact in schools until after the age of 18. The system of integrated education is presently only for five percent of the population, and Gould hopes this figure will move to 10 percent. Koenig mentioned a study which showed how children started to display sectarian tendencies at a young age, as evidence of the need for an integrated education system once resources are available. “When children are sitting next to each other, they will be learning that they are the same,” she said.

According to Smith, loyalists are distrustful of the commitment of nationalists and frustrated because “the loyalists don’t have guns or representation” as nationalists do.

“Northern Ireland is a problem of two communities living together. Umpteenth ways have been tried,” Russell said. “The people have to get used to working together in a joint government.”

The panelists praised the support and interest of Irish-Americans in progressing the peace process in the Northern Ireland peace process. Russell said, “There is no doubt U.S. involvement has been crucial. International involvement forces parties to be open to international scrutiny.”

Koenig praised investment in Northern Ireland businesses and mentioned that Ambassador Richard N. Haass was then in Northern Ireland on his ninth visit in the past two years. She added that the United States’ personal experience with terrorism has “given us a greater appreciation for suffering and the commitment that terrorism has no place in our world.”

When an audience member asked why the Bush administration seemed to place concern over terrorism in the Middle East over that of Europe, she responded, “What we’ve seen in the last few years is not dimming of interest, but there is less need for us to be involved because governments and local parties are involved.”

Students said that they were impressed with the speakers and supportive of U.S. involvement in the peace process. “Their optimism was important, but I am a bit concerned that the attitude of the United States has been a lot of talk but not resources,” Jennifer Regan (SFS ’03) said.

President of the Irish-American Society Ed Donnelly (COL ’03) said that he was happy with the turnout, the interest of the audience in the issue and the depth of the discussion. “We tried to get a diverse group to speak,” he said. “It is so hard to cover such a large topic in an hour and a half . [but] the things we discussed have been the most important issues.”

The panel, entitled “The Future of the Irish Peace Process: Obstacles and Hopes After the Good Friday Agreement,” was sponsored by the Irish-American Society, the BMW Center for German and European Studies and the Lecture Fund.