I wish to raise recommendation 1283 of 1996 by the Council of Europe concerning history and the learning of history in Europe. I am sure some will wonder why I am raising this matter on the Adjournment. As a member of the Council of Europe, I was tasked with writing a report on how we teach history in areas of recent conflict. Many member states look to Ireland as an example of how to do it correctly. My report, which is available on the web, indicates that while we are making changes, there is still a long way to go, North and South, in how we teach the subject of conflict. As Mahatma Gandhi said, unless we start with the young, we will have the potential for conflict in the future.
This Council of Europe recommendation, dating back to 1996, underscored the fact that people have a right to access their history whether they then embrace or reject it. Politically, history can help or hinder Europe's future depending on the role it is given. It was felt that students must be given an opportunity to examine critically both what they see and hear around them in the various media available and through school sources. It would help them to understand the complexity of issues, appreciate diversity and recognise the distortions stereotypes can create.
By continually using a variety of sources to develop a critical mind, we can assist in overcoming the temptations some politicians and others — especially in central and eastern Europe, but not necessarily devoid from ourselves — might have to manipulate the single static vision of history or the single truth. Objectivity should be aspired to by all involved, whether in the classroom, written or visual media, lecture halls or elsewhere, to avoid religious and political bias. It was felt at that time, and it still remains the same, although there have been some small changes, that there must be more to history than politics. The role of women and minorities was to be recognised and there was a need for controversial, sensitive and tragic events to be balanced with more positive and inclusive topics that extended beyond national boundaries and spanned cultural, philosophical, economic and political movements.
By opening up to other views of the same event by schools in other countries, it would facilitate important exchanges between students. Approaches to learning must continue to expand on the technologies and forms of educational experience used with the more equal treatment of a varied approach and a recognition of out-of-school facilities and influences. Support for teacher training was a central goal.
I am interested to know where the Council for Cultural Co-operation now stands, given that it was to assist in teacher training and form interactive networks to enable them to maximise the crossover of innovative methods. The same co-operation potential existed for historians and teachers. It is important historians should have some concept of the reality of the classroom and how to reach the target audience.
Much work was done concerning international textbooks, which is supported by the George Urquhart Institute. There was also a focus on trying to get teachers more involved in history teaching associations such as Euriclio. There was to be a European charter that would protect teachers from political manipulation and a similar protection for historians was identified.
Another important recommendation called on governments to provide adequate and ongoing finance for historical research, especially concerning bilateral and multilateral commissions on contemporary history. The work on "Across the Borders" was to assist more tolerant attitudes as historical accounts would gain a breadth of experience.
In that context, I recently spoke in an Adjournment debate about Ballykinlar internment camp in County Down. I must declare a personal interest in this matter in that my grandfather spent 13 months as an internee there between 1920 and 1921. I have called for the camp to be turned into an interpretative centre. Avoiding our past creates the potential for more problems in future. Earlier today, I spoke on Radio Ulster with DUP member, Jim Wells, who was upset that I had the audacity to interfere in the business of the United Kingdom and what was happening in County Down. However, we must embrace and engage with our history. As for the War of Independence, we have had an Irish solution to an Irish problem by avoiding it. We should reach across and begin to investigate our own history. Our primary sources for that era have gone and the secondary sources are beginning to reach the same stage.
To embrace fully the Council of Europe's recommendation 1283 of 1996, we must work bilaterally on historical projects which eventually would begin to mend fences and break down barriers. Until there is a political will to drive this forward, it will not work. We have seen the results of the peace process in the North, but we must attain in the schoolroom an identification of who we are and where we come from as well as dealing with the image of the other in history teaching. Seeing any event from more than one perspective is the only way we can ensure peace will reign in future.
I trust that as well as having an answer to the issues I have raised, the Minister of State will take on board also the history teaching project to which I referred. It would be an uncontroversial historical project undertaken on a cross-Border basis. While I appreciate the difficulties everyone experiences when dealing with such sensitive issues, they must be dealt with. Otherwise we will face the same problems as other countries that avoided dealing with their own histories in the past.
