'Making peace is a shared responsibility'
[The following is an abridged version of the speech by keynote speaker Martin McGuinness to the Wolfe Tone Commemoration on June 22.]
[Sinn Féin has] faced disappointment, but we have also made very significant gains in our struggle for justice and a real democracy throughout this island. We are in good heart, we are in good shape and in our 15 years of fighting elections, we have our biggest mandate ever.
Our mandate is an all-Ireland one which has stunned our political opponents, north and south. Our success is all the sweeter because, for the first time, Sinn Féin have made mould-shattering electoral breakthroughs all over our island. We are the only political party with an all-Ireland mandate and an all-Ireland agenda.
Sinn Féin is committed to a single strategy of seeking a negotiated democratic settlement of the conflict on this island. We believe that a durable peace can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiation based on the democratic principles of equality and inclusion.
If we are to move this process forward the British government, the Dublin government and the Unionist parties should stop lecturing people on democracy and start practising democracy instead.
Some of the media and some political leaders have launched a specific attack on the integrity of Sinn Féin, particularly this leadership, seeking to demonise and marginalise us again. They have short memories. While they were busy using the same rhetoric in the late '80s, Sinn Féin was taking real risks for peace and laying the foundation for the peace process.
Sinn Féin wants to create a dynamic and credible talks process. To do this, absolute clarity is required, especially in regard to the decommissioning issue. Decommissioning has not yet been removed as an obstacle in the negotiations. This remains the biggest stumbling block.
What is the demand for decommissioning? It is the demand that the IRA surrender its weapons before talks begin or before they can make progress. Those who make this demand have no interest in making peace.
Decommissioning is an important issue to be addressed as part of a negotiating process. But it needs to be removed as an obstacle so that it can no longer be employed to block negotiations. Sinn Féin wants to see a total demilitarisation of the situation.
Making peace on this island is a shared responsibility. The matters which we are seeking to have removed are not Sinn Féin preconditions. They were put in the path of the peace process by the British government. They can only be removed by a British government.