Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice.

The Irish Republican Army has kept every commitment made by its leadership.

One man’s transparency is another’s humiliation.

We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence.

We have to make sure the Good Friday Agreement works.

Your determination, selflessness and courage have brought the freedom struggle towards its fulfilment.

For over 30 years, the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms.

Your ability as republican volunteers, to rise to this challenge will mean that the two governments and others cannot easily hide from their obligations and their responsibility to resolve these problems.

In this context the British and Irish governments will have to promote a new, imaginative and dynamic alternative in which both governments will share power in the north.

Such decisions will be far reaching and difficult. But you never lacked courage in the past. Your courage is now needed for the future.

The unionists also for their part, want to minimise the potential for change, not only on the equality agenda but on the issues of sovereignty and ending the union.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

The Good Friday Agreement and the basic rights and entitlements of citizens that are enshrined within it must be defended and actively promoted by London and Dublin.

Republican patience with how unionism deals with the political institutions, and with key issues like equality and human rights, will be tested because, obviously, there will be a battle a day on these matters. So lets face up to all of this with our eyes wide open.

The catalyst for much of this change is the growing support for republicanism.

At that time, the army leadership said the implementation of this agreement would allow everyone, including the IRA, to take its political objectives forward by peaceful and democratic means.

Hugging trees has a calming effect on me. I’m talking about enormous trees that will be there when we are all dead and gone. I’ve hugged trees in every part of this little island.

But I also hold the very strong view that republicans need to lead by example.

The days of humiliation, of second-class citizens and of inequality are over and gone forever.

Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

But if republicans are to prevail, if the peace process is to be successfully concluded and Irish sovereignty and re-unification secured, then we have to set the agenda – no-one else is going to do that.

Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.

When others stood idly by, you and your families gave your all, in defence of a risen people and in pursuit of Irish freedom and unity.

The last months, weeks and days have seen accelerating discussions, involving the DUP for the first time, about a comprehensive agreement which would see all outstanding matters dealt with and the Good Friday Agreement implemented in full.

The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

Sinn Fein has productively taken the example of South Africa and, as we develop the peace process, we continue to use examples from South Africa.

Sinn Fein has the potential and capacity to become the vehicle for the attainment of republican objectives.