By ARIELLA MONTI
Ahern's address was followed by a panel discussion about ongoing peace efforts in Ireland.
According to Molloy's president, Dr. Drew Bogner, the institute's role is to recognize the significance of Irish Americans in the history of New York and the U.S. It will host classes, lectures and workshops that will be open to the public as well as students and faculty - for instance, an upcoming program on the Celtic language for students young and old called Irish for Beginners.
There was no shortage of Irish pride on display at the forum, with a bagpiper greeting a crowd dotted with green as the event began. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi told the audience about rediscovering his Irish roots during a recent trip to Ireland. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer spoke next, describing his Irish neighbors and recalling his early political supporters in Brooklyn.
Then Bogner introduced Ahern, who summed up 900 years of Irish history and reflected on his tenure as Ireland's leader and his efforts to bring peace to war-torn Northern Ireland in an hour-long address. "Those 25 years or so between the '60s and the mid-'90s were a nightmare of awful proportions for Ireland," said Ahern of the sectarian strife in Northern Ireland that resulted in the loss of more than 3,000 lives.
He spoke of the first meeting of the leaders of Ireland and Northern Ireland with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the summer of 1997, and the series of intense and often hostile talks in the year that followed it, which led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998.
Ahern said that the series of negotiations that led to the agreement is now studied widely, and used as a model for the potential resolution of other conflicts around the world. "There has to be a broad acceptance by parties involved in the conflict that the status quo is untenable," Ahern said of what other nations can learn from Ireland's recent history. "And that some form of agreement is better in terms of everybody's interests."
Discussions attempting to resolve intractable conflicts, he said, should be inclusive and comprehensive, and opponents should put themselves in the shoes of their foes. "It is important that participants in negotiations treat each other as human beings," Ahern said. "And that may sound simplistic, but it is profoundly important."
He ended the speech to enthusiastic applause. It was followed by a panel discussion that included U.S. Reps. Peter King and Joseph Crowley; Dawn Purvis of Ireland's Progressive Unionist Party; Rita O'Hare, general secretary of Sinn Fein; and Molloy professor Dr. Brian Cogan. The panelists answered questions posed by Paddy McCarthy, publisher of the Irish Examiner, and Ray O'Hanlon, senior editor of the Irish Echo.
McCarthy asked the panelists if the world would see a united Ireland in their lifetime, and most expressed optimism, saying that with a great deal of work, what was once unimaginable was now possible.
Audience member Mike McKenna, Valley Stream's village attorney and the secretary of Irish Americans in Government, said of Molloy's Irish Institute, "I think it's nice to have that - I think people of Irish decent should learn the history and the culture."
McKenna added that he enjoyed Ahern's speech. "My dad was born in Northern Ireland, in Belfast," he said, "so I'm particularly keen on the peace process in Northern Ireland."
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