In the letter, he offered Mr Higgins “the greetings of the General Assembly and our warmest congratulations on this significant personal anniversary.”
Dr Bruce continued, “During this year in Ireland, we mark a number of significant national anniversaries. As recorded by The Irish Times and Belfast Telegraph last December you suggested, ‘… that we are all challenged to engage with our shared past in a manner that is honest, authentic and inclusive, and that if commemoration is understood in this way that it might assist in healing the wounds of conflicts, recognise different narratives as to their causes, and their repercussions, that cannot, and should not, be forgotten.’ You went on to say, ‘The complex events we recall from a century ago are integral to the story that has shaped our peoples in all their diversity, and how they are recalled and understood will continue to shape us and the decisions we make into the future. Amnesia will not help us…’”
Dr Bruce concluded his birthday greeting by adding, “You are right, ‘Amnesia will not help us’, and your words in ‘Take Care’, which you posted on Facebook recently, also struck a chord with me when you wrote in the opening, “In the journey to the light, the dark moments should not threaten.” Whether it is our distant past, or these current weeks in which we have experienced tension and disruption, I give thanks that we are seeing glimmers of hope that will take us out of those dark moments.