Senator George Mitchell has said people in Northern Ireland are “way too self-critical” and should instead focus on the society’s positives rather than division.
The US diplomat who brokered 1998′s Good Friday Agreement said the north was a place with “energy, determination, great skill and opportunity” but that its people were inclined to compare the region to an “abstract notion of a perfect society”.
The 91-year-old former Queen’s University vice-chancellor was speaking to The Irish News during his latest return trip to Belfast, some 26 years after he chaired the talks that led to the historic peace accord.
Senator Mitchell said his role in the peace process had left him with a “profound sense of gratitude”, as he was able to spend time in the land where his father was born.
The grandson of Irish immigrants who settled in Boston, he said changes in post-conflict Northern Ireland society were evident in the number of people coming from overseas, which he said, could have an “interesting and unpredictable” impact.
“There are examples of intolerance in every society but there is also a growing sense of tolerance among many people in these societies, a recognition and acknowledgement of differences which are not innately bad, which in fact, can be inspirational and educational in many ways,” he said.
“And so I think a lot of dedication and a lot of patience is necessary but it’s so different to come here and not have to think about roadblocks, bombings and security and police.”
Citing his experience in the Balkans, Senator Mitchell said repairing the physical damage of conflict was comparatively easy but the challenge was changing “what human beings think and feel in their hearts, their minds and their souls”.
“Neither I nor anyone else has the capacity to predict the future with any degree of certainty here in Northern Ireland or anywhere else in the world but I think the absence of violence, which is so striking and so notable to those of us who lived during parts of the violence, is truly remarkable and has itself altered the society, and that ultimately, changes in society, in the human heart and soul and mind will come,” he said.
He described the Troubles as an “unusual conflict”.
“When people think of war they think of armies and defined areas where the armies are fighting the front lines but this was a conflict that was dominated by random violence, uncertain, unexpected – nobody knew if or when something might occur,” he said.
“And so there was a great deal of fear and anxiety that is unique to conflicts at that time, and that appears to have dissipated, thankfully. And I think people can lead more normal lives now.”
Asked how far the north had come since he first visited the north as 29 years ago as chair of the International Body on Arms Decommissioning, he said there were no societies in the world that were “free of disagreement or crime”.
“There are bad actors, people who do things that violate the law – that’s why we have legal systems throughout the world,” he said.
“I love Northern Ireland, and I really like the people here, but I think that they’re way too self critical. I think the comparisons people make here are not between Northern Ireland and some other society, but between Northern Ireland and some abstract notion of a perfect society that doesn’t exist.”
He said a “more realistic assessment” of the region is a “place of people with great energy, determination, great skill and an opportunity to meet the needs that people here have and people everywhere have.
“The same basic desires: a decent job, a decent home, and, most importantly, a chance to get your children off to a good start in life, good education, good health care, good learning; and I believe this is, and will increasingly be, a society of that kind.”
The former Democratic Party Senate majority leader’s latest visit coincides with the sod-cutting ceremony and fundraising campaign for new premises for the Senator George J Mitchell institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s.
