It is hard to reconcile the calm and the peace of this place with the tragedy that occurred here on that foggy morning five years ago.

We are here to honour the memory of those twelve men and women who died building a better future for the people of this country.

We honour their professionalism, their dedication and their sacrifice.

On behalf of the OHR, let me pay a personal tribute to our colleagues who perished:

 Leah Melnick. Charles Morpeth. Thomas Reinhardt.  Jurgen Schauf. And Gerd Wagner.

I did not know them. But I feel as if I knew them.

Because their spirit lives on today, in the determination of all of us here to bring lasting peace to this country, and to work, night and day, until we have done so.

The English poet Lord Byron wrote that “They never fail who die in a great cause’.

These men and women died in a great cause.

It remains a great cause today.

Let us honour them by re-dedicating ourselves to the work they began, and to seeing it through on their behalf, and in their eternal memory.