Irish Examiner view: Use past to renew hope not hatred

Canon Chancellor Christopher Collingwood helps light six hundred candles in the shape of the Star of David, in memory of more than 6 million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis in the Second World War, at York Minster in York.

The late Seamus Mallon’s withering analysis — “Sunningdale for slow learners” — about how difficult it was to make progress in a divided society may have lost some of its cutting edge, ironically, because time proved the accuracy of his judgement. However, the frustration behind that conclusion, the unpicking of events and policies, is more and more important. 

This week has offered valuable opportunities to reflect on how we address historical issues, what kind of outcomes are possible and how those influences might best shape our future. The first, and the most significant, was Wednesday’s Holocaust Memorial Day. January 27 marks the anniversary of the 1945 Soviet liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland where 1.1m men, women, and children were murdered, most of them Jewish.