Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to call the Senate's attention to a significant agreement that was signed late last Friday night to preserve the current government in Belfast and continue the long road toward permanent peace in Northern Ireland. The 12 years since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Accords have not been easy ones for the people of Northern Ireland. The power- sharing government was suspended in 2002, the British resumed direct control, and violence has flared at times. However, all sides have been committed to working towards the blueprint for peace worked out in 1998--the Irish Republican Army formally ended its armed campaign in 2005, the St. Andrews Agreement returned control of the government to Northern Ireland, and all sides have resisted a resurgence of the brutality of the past. In recent months, disagreements over a variety of issues have threatened to bring down the fragile government again--tensions over British control of prosecutors, the judiciary and the police, and the rights of the Protestant Orange Order to parade through heavily Catholic neighborhoods have prevented both sides from moving forward. I commend the Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein who met at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast with Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, and Taoiseach Cowen of the Republic of Ireland, whose leadership has been vital.…”