wfn.org | Living with terrorism: Northern Ireland shares lessons

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 4, 2001  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-21-71BP{446}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by UMNS stories #447, #448 and #449.
Photographs are available.

By Kathleen LaCamera*

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (UMNS)  - Beryl Kelly knows all about the human
toll of "collateral damage."

Fifteen years ago, the Methodist laywoman was caught in an ambush as she was
getting her car out of the garage for a family outing. The blast from a
nearby rocket launcher tore through her inner ear, leaving her unconscious
and bleeding. Years later, she is still being treated for increasing pain
and hearing problems. 

But Kelly was not the object of the attack. The Irish Republican
paramilitary group, the IRA, was trying to hit a "military" target, British
army troops on patrol. Kelly was what is sometimes called "collateral
damage," a civilian who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time. 

Despite this and other experiences along Belfast's volatile Springfield
Road, Kelly resisted the bitterness that drove many Protestants to move away
or turn against their Catholic neighbors. Her neighbors were a godsend, not
the enemy, according to this mother of five.

"When a pipe bomb would go off, or there was trouble out in front of the
house, my neighbors would lift my children over the back hedge and let them
sleep in their houses," she said. "My children loved it because they had
bunk beds."

Ask Kelly what lessons she has learned in 30-plus years of living with the
terrorism and violence of "The Troubles" and she does not hesitate for a
moment. 

"Helping each other was the key to it all," she told United Methodist News
Service. "We never asked whether anyone was Catholic or Protestant. We all
just saw a need and we met it." 
 
During the last three decades, nearly 4,000 people have died in the conflict
that has pitted Catholic against Protestant in Northern Ireland and spawned
paramilitary or terrorist groups on both sides of the religious divide. A
fragile peace process struggles to move conflict on from military to
political solutions. But terrorism continues to be part of the fabric of
life in Northern Ireland. 

"If we had only listened 30 years ago," reflected the Rev. Harold Good,
president of the Irish Methodist Conference and member of Northern Ireland's
Human Rights Commission. "Even the best people in our churches have said we
should just go in there with force and sort it all out. But it's not that
simple. ... We've learned there is no military solution to our problem." 

Catholic Brendan Bradley lost a younger brother, an older sister, an uncle,
a nephew and a cousin in the Troubles, killed by people on all sides of the
conflict. Bradley now spends most of his time at the Survivors of Trauma
Center that he helped to found in North Belfast. Outside the center, there
is the frequent sound of police surveillance helicopters keeping an eye on
one of Belfast's most violent areas. Inside, the center offers everything
from one-to-one advice and counseling to after-school programs for
neighborhood children.  

As Bradley sat helping an 8-year-old boy with math homework, he explained
that in his experience, two wrongs never make a right. When responding to
terrorism, a bit of 'righteousness' and a whole lot of 'wrongness' is a
righteousness that is too costly, said Bradley. 

In the days following the death of his 17-year-old brother, Francis, in
1975, Bradley was told that two people would be murdered as revenge for
Francis' death. "I said, 'I don't want that,' but was told it wasn't my
decision."

Reflecting on the U.S. terrorist attacks, Bradley said he understands why
Americans must respond to the "bully." But he also hoped the mistakes and
suffering of Catholic and Protestants across Northern Ireland could serve as
a warning against a response motivated by revenge. 

"Revenge won't help. How much do you need to feel better? Ten bodies? Two
hundred bodies? Two thousand? A whole country? What will sort you out? It's
like alcohol."

For Methodists and for many others in Northern Ireland, the interfaith
Corrymeela community and its sister organization, the Mediation Network,
have been a valuable resource for conflict resolution. Doug Baker, an
American working for the network, said the terrorists who attacked the
United States must be held accountable, but also must be understood.

"Nothing justifies this [attack on the U.S.], but there are things that
might make it more understandable. ... If you want to rid the world of
terrorism, put as much energy into removing the motivation for it, rather
than just investing in mechanisms that prevent it."

Trevor Williams, head of Corrymeela, was even more blunt. "When Paul
instructed us to love our enemies it wasn't just good for them, it was good
for us as well." 

Williams maintained that the people who can teach us the most about
ourselves are our enemies. "As a Protestant, I need Catholics to help me
understand who I am. ... I need them to tell me why they are angry with me."

In the eastern part of Belfast, where shipyards that once provided
employment are silent and the appeal of hardline Protestant paramilitaries
is great, the Rev. Gary Mason is the pastor of the East Belfast Mission. His
Methodist church is not only a worshipping congregation, but also a mission
reaching out to people with employment, youth, family and community services
throughout the area.

Here, Williams' directive to 'love your enemies' would stick hard in the
throats of those who feel abandoned and isolated. Mason recalled that
following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was
a period of reflection in his community. 

"People looked at the U.S. and said, 'we don't want to end up like this.'"
But he noted with regret the mood did not last long in a place where
violence has been the norm for so many years.

Not far from Mason's church, a high ranking commander in one of the
Protestant paramilitaries, told United Methodist News Service that he
"couldn't believe his eyes" when he watched what was happening in New York.
"I'm deeply hurt by this kind of terrorism," he said.

He advised Americans to take military action that, by necessity, would be
"ruthless and cruel."

"You have to fight terror with terror," he said, and then added, "You can't
defeat a terrorist. This will be a long war - it's about suffering."

Noting the widely differing views on conflict resolution in his own small
community, Mason has learned a peaceful future is built one relationship at
a time. His advice to people in the United States is to begin building
bridges of understanding with people in their own communities. 

"Bring facilitators into your churches; get Christians and Muslims together
to hear each others' stories and pain... Ultimately, there has to be a
listening and a learning process."

The need for listening and critical reflection is something that has not
come easily to a place where every death fuels the need for more war to
avenge it. Methodist minister and theologian Johnston McMaster of the Irish
School of Ecumenics described the reflection process as extremely painful
and something that only three decades of violence finally pushed the people
of Northern Ireland to undertake. 

"It takes a long time to engage with critical reflection - and some are
happier to live with the old stereotypes," he explained. "I don't condone
evil, but we must look at what makes an angry young man that will plant a
bomb or drive an airplane into a building." 

Bertie Laverty is a Catholic woman whose own journey of critical reflection
has led her to put a human face on the Protestants she used to see only as
"the enemy." Laverty is the project coordinator for Fourth Spring, a joint
Catholic-Protestant community center. The Springfield Methodist Church,
where the center is based, is one of four ecumenical partners in the
project. 

Laverty had never met a Protestant until she went to university. In the
exclusively Catholic neighbourhood where she grew up, young men, even her
own father, were routinely shoved around and beaten by police. She admitted
that if she had been a boy, she would have joined the IRA. "When a policeman
was killed, my friends and I would celebrate," she recalled. 

She now spends her days building bridges between segregated communities in
West Belfast. She counts both Catholics and Protestants among her friends.
Recently she found out that the wife of one of her Protestant friends was
among those killed in a bomb planted by Republican terrorists years ago.
Protestants were people she said she cared little about back then.   

Laverty said she sees the world differently now, and although she
understands what drives people in the Catholic Nationalist community to
terrorism, she does not condone it. Instead, she has found a place to
address the problems that motivate terrorism; working on a one-to-one basis
with mothers, fathers, children, youth and others who live and work along
the Springfield Road.

		    			# # #       

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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