CHRONICLE COMMENT: We are truly blessed to have had such a peacemaker

As is its wont during the summer, and even more so during the Covid-19 pandemic, RTE has been running its ‘Reeling in the Years’ series from its archives.

On Saturday evening last, the year 1993 was featured. For many people today under the age of 40, it is hard to appreciate the horror that was visited on the people of “these islands” - two land masses off the continent of Europe, for almost 30 years.

1993 was a particularly bad year. In the English town of Warrington, Chesire, two young boys, three year-old Johnathan Ball, and 12 year-old Tim Parry, died when an IRA bomb exploded in the town centre.

Later that year, in October, there were two massive atrocities in Northern Ireland. One of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles in Northern Ireland was the Shankhill Road Bombing, when the Provisional IRA attempted to blow up the leadership of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA), who were reported to be meeting in a room over Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankhill Road. The bomb detonated prematurely as two IRA men carried it into the shop. Ten people were killed: one of the IRA bombers, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians, two of whom were children. More than 50 people were wounded.

A week later, in Greysteel in Derry, members of the UDA opened fire on civilians in a crowded pub, killing eight and wounding 19. The pub was targeted because it was frequented by Catholics though two of the victims were Protestant.

This was the type of news that people of Ireland and Britain woke up to on a regular - almost daily - basis from the late1960s to the 1990s. The Omagh bombing of 1998, the year the Good Friday Agreement was signed, was the last major incident. From shootings of civilians, soldiers and policemen, to the blowing up of judges, assassinations of ambassadors, MPs, British royal family members, to bombings in Dublin, Monaghan, and across the UK, including an attack on the entire British Government in Brighton in 1984, the level of atrocity was shocking.

Against that backdrop in 1993, John Hume, the leader of the SDLP party, was being heavily criticised for talking to Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein, aimed at achieving an IRA ceasefire and eventually a new way forward. Some within his own SDLP felt he should not be engaging with Sinn Fein before a ceasefire. He was also viciously criticised in some sections of the Dublin media.

Hume attended the Greysteel victims’ funerals. As he walked behind the cortege, a woman spoke to him. Then, in the full glare of the world’s media, he broke down and sobbed as he turned his face into the embrace of his wife, Pat.

He later revealed the conversation that sparked his tears.

“The woman told me that her family prayed for me around the coffin of her loved one the night before, and they prayed that I would be successful in my work to get the violence ended so that no other family would suffer what they had suffered,” he said. The woman pleaded with Hume not to give up. The encounter encouraged him to keep to his task, he said. Less than a year later, on 31st August 1994, the IRA declared a ceasefire.

This evening, as John Hume’s own family gather around his coffin, the people of Ireland owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the man who was the scriptwriter for the Good Friday Agreement, the architect of peace who strived to bring together two communities, two parts of an island, two states; in an effort to end a bloody conflict that had cost over 3,500 lives and 47,500 injuries.

It should not be forgotten that, along with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, that John Hume was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For him, and those who worked with him, like the late Albert Reynolds, the late Fr Alec Reid, the recently deceased US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, and all the players, including Pat Hume, now is the time to pause and remember, in the midst of a world in disarray.

And that is what the Hume family has asked us to do tonight. In stark contrast to a recent paramilitary-style funeral in Belfast, the Hume family is conscious of the risks associated with Covid-19, and has asked the people of Ireland to light a candle with them for John.

Father Paul Farren, Administrator of the Cathedral of Saint Eugene in Derry, says: “Pat and her family are very grateful for the outpouring of love and support following the death of their beloved John. Instead of lining roads and streets to show respect to John, it is the wish of the Hume family that we remain at home and, at 9pm, light a candle and join with the family to pray the Prayer for Peace of Saint Francis of Assisi in the presence of John`s body in the Cathedral. This `Celebration of Light for Peace` is a fitting tribute to a much loved and distinguished Irishman.”

Let us join the Hume family tonight to remember peacemaker John, and all of those people who died in the conflict on these islands.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

PHOTO: Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, and SDLP leader, John Hume, at talks in Government Buildings, Dublin, following the IRA ceasefire in August 1994. Photo: John Quirke.