Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has paid tribute to a general who “helped forge” Northern Ireland’s peace process.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney was speaking at the inaugural De Chastelain Public Lecture at Trinity College Dublin as part of his two-day visit to Ireland.<\/p>\n
The lecture is named after Canadian General John de Chastelain, who was head of the international body charged with decommissioning paramilitary arms in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
He was present in the university\u2019s examination Hall as Mr Carney said it was an “honour” to be speaking under the banner of his name.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney said: “After a lifetime of service, General John de Chastelain\u2019s seminal work helped forge and implement the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
“Peace is never guaranteed. It cannot simply be signed into reality.<\/p>\n
“It is brokered, and built, and embodied by brave and compassionate individuals like General De Chastelain.”<\/p>\n
Mr Carney said Gen De Chastelain “imagined better possibilities that others did not see”.<\/p>\n
He added: “He was ambitious. He understood the power of connection, obligation, and trust.<\/p>\n
“For us, gathered here to honour his legacy, this is our charge: We must imagine better possibilities, we must recognise the importance of our shared world view and weave webs of connection, obligation, and trust \u2013 across borders and generations.”<\/p>\n
Build together<\/p>\n
Referencing the words of Trinity alumnus Edmund Burke, Mr Carney added: “If we can do this, if we build together and with his ambition, we can arrive at a future worthy of ‘those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born\u2019.”<\/p>\n
Mr De Chastelain said it was “always a pleasure to hear the prime minister speak”.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Press Association after the lecture, he said it was a “pleasure” to be at the event.<\/p>\n
Asked about the tribute to him, Mr De Chastelain said: “A lot of people were involved, you know \u2013 people keep saying what a wonderful job I did, but I wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n
“There were a number of people \u2013 and the most important people were the people of Ireland, North and South \u2013 who wanted more than anything else to an end to violence.”<\/p>\n
He added: “So, we received a lot of help, it wasn\u2019t as though we were struggling on our own. We were getting a lot of help.<\/p>\n
“We were getting a lot of hindrance by some people who didn\u2019t believe in what we were doing \u2013 but it didn\u2019t amount to much.”<\/p>\n
Asked for his assessment of how things have developed since his work, Mr De Chastelain said: “I hope fine. I have very little to do with Ireland now but, as far as I know: politically, economically, internationally; I think both countries are thriving.<\/p>\n
“Ireland \u2013 as a whole \u2013 was a wonderful place and they\u2019re playing a very important part in the world, so, yeah, it\u2019s great to go back.”<\/p>\n
At a later event at Dublin Castle, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin described Mr De Chastelain as “truly great Canadian”.<\/p>\n
He said: “General, your dedication to peace and reconciliation helped to change the course of this island\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
“Your determination, your skill for negotiation, patience, and unwavering moral leadership were invaluable, and our debt to you \u2013 a debt owed by everyone who calls this island home \u2013 is as great today as it was on those historic days.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has paid tribute to a general who “helped forge” Northern Ireland’s peace process.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-498587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}