Expressing the Hope for Justice for the Victims of Bloody Sunday

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, both friends of ours, for their words.

On this very important day, St. Patrick's Day, we are acknowledging a very important anniversary. Anybody who knows much about Irish history knows that anniversaries are very important. The acknowledgment of certain events that occurred throughout the sometimes perilous history of this small country of 6 million people, north and south, are reminded of just how grim Bloody Sunday was.

I knew those families. I recall when the former Prime Minister of the U.K., David Cameron, acknowledged years after in a public statement, in a speech that he made on the floor of the House of Commons, the then- Prime Minister acknowledged that Bloody Sunday had victimized innocent bystanders.

For a long time, the argument had been made that these were paramilitaries on both sides. It was only the test of history that fully acknowledged the truth of what happened on that day.

Their civil rights movement in the north was modeled, in some measure, upon the civil rights movement here in America. I knew John Hume very well. He was a great man at a great moment. I have known Gerry Adams and others who participated in these very difficult events. But out of this tumultuous time came something else, and that was the Good Friday Agreement.

We are now coming upon the 25th anniversary of that agreement. America is a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. Successive Presidents of the United States, Democrat and Republican, have all embraced the Good Friday Agreement as the way forward, the path, understanding as well that the success of the Good Friday Agreement came about because everybody had to give up something.

The Republic of Ireland gave up Articles 2 and 3 of its Constitution, which laid claim to the six counties of the north, and the United Kingdom gave up the border, which was a huge issue. Strand 2 of the Good Friday Agreement reinforced the idea of a growing relationship between Dublin and Belfast.

Let me lay this out in perspective, in the time I have remaining.

Thirty years ago, in the north of Ireland, there were 30,000 British soldiers in an area geographically the size of the State of Connecticut. You couldn't go anyplace. It was a militarized zone. The Friends of Ireland, which is 40 years old--always Democrat and Republican, we made sure of it--the success of the Good Friday Agreement came about because of the goodwill of the men and women who live on that island.

We should be celebrating the outcome of the Good Friday Agreement. But part of it is also acknowledging these perilous moments in Irish history. I suspect that we will be discussing for years to come Americans' dimension to bringing about the Good Friday Agreement.

Just think of it: Two generations of children have now grown up in this small, six-county area not knowing anything about the violence.

It was the reach and the role of the United States, an honest broker, that helped bring about that agreement, which, even with bumps, people have fully acknowledged it has worked. So the template is there.

As we celebrate the ancient culture of St. Patrick's Day, there is something else for people of subjugation, occupation, An Gorta Mor, as the Great Famine is known, or civil wars, risings, and revolutions, that indomitable spirit on that tiny island, which we just celebrated, Republican and Democrat, with the President of the United States, last evening with the Taoiseach, the Prime Minister of Ireland, talking about the lasting bond between the two countries.

I hope that people will use the example of what the gentleman from Massachusetts and the gentleman from Pennsylvania have done today, because they have acknowledged this very important moment.

What happened on Bloody Sunday, the world had a chance to witness, and it helped shape world opinion. Thank you both for doing this today. There is not a better way to honor St. Patrick than what you two have laid out today.

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