Hate-filled sectarianism should be rooted out of society in Ireland, Irish president Michael D Higgins said tonight.
The solution lies in courageous individuals being willing to forgive and listen to others, he claimed.
He delivered the British Council’s annual lecture at Queen’s University Belfast on the subject of migrants and memory and addressed divisions between nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland.
Mr Higgins said: “Part of that challenge is to root out hatred from our midst. We have become accustomed to talking of sectarianism but is it not hatred by another name?
“It is bred by intolerance and indeed by a lack of the capacity or opportunity to change. It is not unique to any one group or place, it operates in two directions, one act of disregard feeding off another.”
This is the first time the annual lecture has moved outside London and is doing so as part of the Belfast Festival.
Northern Ireland has seen increased number of peace walls separating Protestant and Catholic in flashpoint areas than during the armed conflict, with housing and public services in some areas segregated by religion and annual riots over loyal order parades and republican protests. There were 816 sectarian offences recorded in the 12 months to June this year, police records revealed.
The president said it was important to re-examine stereotypes to help address sectarian hatred.
“The solution lies not just with Government - though Government bears a heavy responsibility - but with countless individuals who take a journey into the unknown animated by the courage of departure and a generosity of spirit and who are willing to review the narratives they have found, are willing to listen to the narrative of the other and to pause, review, forgive, allow or pardon,” he added.
Part of mending relations is to improve the lot of victims who lost loved ones during the armed conflict.
The president saluted those living every day with loss and said no group had done more to bring about the benefits of peace.
The challenge of reconciling with those who caused that loss is a momentous one,” he observed.
Many victims - some Bloody Sunday families of those shot dead by paratroopers in Londonderry in 1972 or Protestant workmen killed because of their religion by the IRA in south Armagh in 1976 - have called for prosecutions and justice for the perpetrators.
Others, and Sinn Fein, have lobbied for an inclusive truth and reconciliation process. The DUP has accused republicans of synthetic posing.
Mr Higgins reminded the invitation-only audience of wider improvements in Anglo-Irish relations, symbolised by the Queen’s visit to Ireland in 2011.
He recalled Irish sportswoman Katie Taylor’s Olympic triumph at women’s boxing when Irish and British fans cheered as one, first for British competitor Nicola Adams and then for Ms Taylor. He referenced the vibrant young Irish community in London and the growing number of British citizens working in Ireland and said invented destructive stereotypes about identity should be let go.
The president added: “In a decade of centenaries we are thoughtfully able to include in memories and honour all those Irish who died for the ideal they chose as important, those who helped create the Irish state, those who shaped the United Kingdom, and all the lives lost, including those from among the 200,000 Irish who fought in the Great War with its awful human carnage.”