Billboard campaign urges Executive to ‘Finish the Job’ of Peace

The Peace Summit Partners have issued a renewed call for the Executive to prioritise the realisation of a peaceful and reconciled society.

A billboard campaign launching today will highlight the urgent need to move beyond the divisions of the past and ensure that everyone benefits from the promises of the peace process.

The Peace Summit is an initiative led by the John and Pat Hume Foundation and Community Dialogue in partnership with the Glencree Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, Holywell Trust, Integrated Education Fund, International Fund for Ireland, Northern Ireland Youth Forum, Ulster University and Youth Action.

Themed #FinishTheJob, the campaign will feature outdoor advertising in Belfast and Derry and asks the question: "Are we there yet?" The message underscores the Peace Partners' belief that while significant progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement the journey towards lasting peace remains unfinished.

The billboards will be running across the city for the next two weeks at the Buncrana Road Roundabout, Spencer Road and a digital ivision in Foyleside. 

The campaign follows the Executive recently committing to peace in the Programme for Government and coincides with the public consultation period.

Next month, the Peace Summit Partners will host an event at Stormont on the Programme for Government, bringing together leaders from across various sectors to discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in building a truly reconciled society.

Speaking ahead of the campaign launch, Tim Attwood from the John and Pat Hume Foundation said: "We have come a long way since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Yet, 26 years later we are still striving for a truly peaceful society in Northern Ireland and the dividends that should have come with it.

“Despite progress, division remains, whether in our education system, housing, or communities.

“We welcome the inclusion of peace in the recently published Programme for Government and its commitment to ‘ensure that everyone feels the benefit of a growing economy, improved environment, and a fairer society.’

“However, this commitment must be more than just words on a page. We need the Executive to step up, take action, and turn this aspiration into reality and publish an inclusive Peace Plan."

Dympna McGlade from Community Dialogue said: “By the end of this Assembly mandate, we will have been 30 years of supposed peace after a 30 year conflict. But the promise of 1998 has not delivered the prosperous and reconciled society that we imagined, and so many people have been left behind across society.

“Passive peace has failed to convert to the active peace we need, the sort of peace that seeks to deliver for today’s society, one which has much more texture than orange and green, and one which should prioritise bringing people together rather than keeping them apart which so many government policies do.

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“Standing still isn’t an option, and if we are to want more for future generations we must act now and be deliberate about peace – an absence of violence is an achievement, but it isn’t the end destination and so we are calling on the Executive to step up to the challenge of delivering the final phase of the peace process because it is clear that we aren’t there yet.”