We need to learn lessons of Irish history and avoid ‘group think’

YESTERDAY marked the centenary of the introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons at Westminster. We are beginning a decade of commemoration lasting until the centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 2022.

The high point will be Easter Monday 2016. The proclamation of the Republic, the Rising and the subsequent executions transformed this island forever. Divisions which were restrained in constitutional struggle exploded into revolutionary violence.

We have lived to see the Good Friday Agreement, a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland and an historic visit by Queen Elizabeth. It has taken almost a century to repair and renew the fabric of our society.