The leaders of the main churches in Ireland have issued a Brexit statement, urging people to get along.

Representatives of the Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian and Church of Ireland churches have all contributed to the statement.

It says: "As the final stages of the initial part of the negotiations for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union draw to a close, we as church leaders here on the island of Ireland are inspired by the challenge of Jesus to love our neighbour."

It says relationships between the people North and South "have improved and deepened immeasurably over the past 30 or so years".

"This atmosphere of mutual respect, understanding and growing friendship has been the positive background against which many significant developments have taken place - ceasefires, political accommodation, increased connectedness and rising prosperity for many."

Church of Ireland primate Dr Richard Clarke speaking in Armagh in 2013 | Image: Paul Faith/PA Archive/PA Images

Signatories on the statement include Dr Richard Clarke, Reverend William Davison, Archbishop Eamon Martin and Dr Charles McMullen.

They say: "It is important that we acknowledge the legitimate aspirations of those who voted to leave the European Union and those who voted to remain.

"We also pray at this time that the inevitable tensions, which the Brexit negotiations and their outworking will entail, will not be allowed to undermine the quality of relationships and mutual understanding which are both so important in enabling all of us to work together for the common good."

They are also encouraging public representatives "to weigh their words carefully, to respect the integrity of those who conscientiously differ from them and to speak with grace."

Archbishop Eamon Martin at a press conference at Maynooth University in Co Kildare | Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire/PA Images

"Regardless of the outcome of this process, as peoples and communities who share this island, we will remain closely related and will have to both get along together and work together in this changing and somewhat uncertain world that lies ahead."

"This calling will be helped immensely as we all strive to listen and relate to one another in the context of mutual respect and even growing trust, rather in a divisive and unhealthy atmosphere of needlessly destructive debate and broken and fractured relationships."