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David Cameron addresses Northern Ireland Assembly; David Cameron MP (Prime Minister) speech SOT Mr Speaker, thank you for your kind invitation to address the Assembly today and for the very warm welcome you have given me. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you on your re-election as Speaker, a role that you exercised with such distinction over the last four years. The fact you will hand over the Speakership to a representative from a different tradition stands as an example of co-operation between parties that will be widely welcomed. I know the calendar can have its own sensibilities in this part of the world, but it is an honour to address you on such an auspicious day, the ninth of June. This is the feast day of St. Columba, who very specially symbolises the historic linkages and deep bonds between Britain and Ireland. Born a Prince in Donegal, exiled in Iona, and honoured today in the Central Lobby of the Palace of Westminster, his monks provided not just an Irish national treasure, the Book of Kells, but also a British national treasure, the Lindisfarne Gospels. And can I also say what an honour it is to stand here and speak in this historic chamber. Of course I recognise that this is not a place without controversy. In the past it was for some a guarantee of their place within the Union; for others a symbol of a state and a system from which they felt excluded. I don’t intend to ignite that debate, but I am reminded of the words of King George V when he opened the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1921 and his appeal to all Irish men and women: to stretch the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.’ Nobody suggests that we have finally reached that point yet and that there aren’t significant challenges still to overcome, but few can argue that we have not moved a long way towards it over the past tw...