Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
28 YEARS AGO, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, Bertie Ahern and Gerry Adams could hardly have predicted that one day they would be side-by-side in an Oireachtas committee room in Leinster House giving advice on how to accomplish peace.
The former Sinn Féin president and the former Taoiseach have their histories wedded together, due to their involvement in bringing about peace on the island, something many of the committee members thanked them for today.
Today, they were in front of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee to speak about their learnings and what advice they might have about bringing an end to violence between Palestine and Israel.
The two men, who were once on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, were friendly with one another, jovial, nostalgic even for their past accomplishments.
Throughout the afternoon, they recalled late night debates, even arguments over the peace process, with other ‘behind the scenes’ moments brought up such as how Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had become a friend of Ahern.
Adams recounted to the committee how Ahern had told him Arafat would ring him “in the middle of the night”.
Arafat called because “Israeli troops were in his compound. They were in the garden,” said Adams.
While Ahern nodded along, Adams said:
“Imagine President Connolly and troops being in the Áras and messing about.
“I’m just giving an example of the highest position in the land for the Palestinian people, how he was treated so disrespectfully by the Israeli forces.”
Aside from those interesting anecdotes, what was also notable today was how the two men agreed on a lot.
Both agreed that the hard work started after the Good Friday Agreement was signed and both believed that there is a solution to all conflicts.
“I agree with Gerry, I don’t think any conflict is impossible to solve,” said Ahern, adding:
But it has to start somewhere.
The two men’s opening statements were somewhat different, with Ahern reflecting on his work to bring peace to Northern Ireland, while Adams was more forward looking, speaking about the role Ireland might play in peace in the Middle East.
Both men agreed that if action wasn’t taken now by the international community, the conflict in Gaza will only continue, or get worse.
Ahern argued for an international peace conference to be established, stating that if no action is taken, more horrendous atrocities will be repeated.
Young children living through these times will become “freedom fighters or terrorists, whichever side you’re on,” he said.
Adams agreed, stating that Ahern made the point eloquently: “These children will grow up.”
Asked questions about how two totally opposite sides can find compromise, Adams said you don’t need to the majority to agree to get around a table, but you need a bare minimum of the right people to decide to talk.
The former Sinn Féin leader said the Good Friday Agreement was “years in the making” and at the “heart of that process” was the UN Charter.
“If we want to look at what we need to do in the Middle East, it has to be based on those broad fundamentals.
“Inclusive dialogue is the only way a genuine peace process can be achieved in the Middle East and that has to be based on the right to self-determination of the people of Palestine.”
Adams said the Palestinians and the Israelis have a right to self determination, with Ahern stating that parity of esteem needs to be central if there is to be movement.
A number of times, Adams was asked about how he got the IRA and republicans around the table to talk peace. He told the committee that like Hamas, there is a need to “show an alternative”.
Adams said the Palestinian factions need to unite under their common demands, stating that they must see that “united we stand, divided we fall”.
It is easier for Israel to carry on with the same actions when the Palestinians are not united, said Adams.
He added that Hamas is a fundamentalist organisation, but ultimately the Palestinian people want a peace process.
Both spoke of the criticisms at the time of the peace process in the Irish and British governments engaging with the IRA, with Ahern stating that similarly, when he is speaking to international counterparts today, many do not want Hamas to be engaged with.
The former Taoiseach reflected on his time in Papua New Guinea when he was appointed chairman of the Bougainville Referendum Commission during the country’s peace process. He said he was advised he could speak to everyone except one man. Ahern said that was then the one person he needed to engage with and now that man is president of the country.
When it comes to peace in the Middle East, Ahern said an international mediator, probably from the Gulf States, should be the mediator of any future international peace conference on Palestine, stating that he didn’t think it could be a country.
Definitely not America, and unfortunately not Ireland, he said, noting both countries perceived biases for one side.
Ahern and Adams both questioned Israeli Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu’s bonafides, with the former Fianna Fáil leader asking: “Is he really interested in peace? If I met him, I would ask him that. I’m not convinced.”
The illegal settlements in the West Bank are being done to “wreck” the possibility of a two-state solution, he said.
Adams, with his suit jacket with his Palestinian pin on the seat next to him, spoke of US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as being an “exercise in colonisation”, stating that Trump’s view of Gaza was made clear when he spoke of it as prime real estate.
The fact that Palestinians have not been invited to partake, he can’t see it making much progress, said Ahern.
The organisation that should be driving this peace process is the United Nations, however, they are under severe pressure, and are not in a position to do so, said the former Fianna Fáil leader.
“We can’t ignore the UN… the worry is that Trump in his new guise might do that, but he hasn’t said that. That’s the worry,” said Ahern.
“Someone has to pull this together,” said Ahern, stating otherwise the next atrocity will take place.
It is all fine for the international community to make “pious statements” but it has to “do something about it,” Ahern added.
Adams said Trump has shown what he is capable of, with his talk of tariffs and his threats against Greenland and Canada. “The international community are only now starting to realise what they are dealing with,” he said.
Now and again there is a window for peace, said Ahern. “I think 2026 is a window,” he concluded.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say