Letters

Leaders must reach out to other minds

Sir — For a long number of years, I travelled North, even during the height of the Troubles, and got to know, as general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, many workers who were unionists.

All had a strong attachment to the union and a strong commitment to their trade union. But most also had the depth, the capacity and the willingness to work for better relations on this island.

That is why, I welcome DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson’s important article on Brexit (Sunday Independent, February 10). I fully agree with him that engagement and leadership from Dublin and Belfast is now urgently needed to help find constructive solutions and a sensible way forward.

The Good Friday Agreement, once you accept it as the current settlement for the foreseeable future and not as an open future, does provide, as Jeffrey Donaldson points out, a pragmatic framework for reconciliation not only between the two communities in Northern Ireland but also for better relations north–south and east–west. But based on my experience, a key step on the road to reconciliation and restoring better relations, postBrexit, will be getting to know and respect our unionist and loyalist neighbours.

After all, peace, reconciliation and better relations is not just about politics. It is also about attitudes, a sense of empathy, taking risks to reach out and trying to enter the minds and feelings of others. Peter Cassells, Edward M Kennedy Institute for Conflict Resolution, Maynooth University