wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Never going back

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Note #8475 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:


04401

September 9, 2004

Never going back

Northern Irish Protestants, Catholics vow not to return to violent past

by Marj Carpenter

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - "My husband was shot on Christmas Eve in our own home in front of my children and his body left under the Christmas tree. It took our joy of Christmas away forever."

        This statement came from an Irish woman named Molly, one of the victims of the earlier "troubles" in Northern Ireland who spoke to members of the 10th biannual Irish Summer Institute here.

        The institutes are co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Committee for Northern Ireland and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. This year 23 U.S. Presbyterians attended from Washington, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Kentucky, California, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas.

        Northern Ireland is in much better shape since the Good Friday 1994 cease-fire agreement between Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries stopped most of the bombings and killings that plagued the country for 30 years. There are still 1,800 unsolved murders as a result of the "troubles."

        However, Molly and other victims of the tragedy find it hard to forgive and forget. On that fateful Christmas Eve she had gone upstairs to help an elderly family member to bed. She heard the gunfire, and then her son came running upstairs screaming, "They've shot Dad!"

        Another widow told about her husband being shot eight times and burned while sitting in his car. The long memories of Irish on both sides of the conflict remember every battle, every bombing and every massacre all the way back to William of Orange.

        Institute participants met with Protestant leader John Hume, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, who repeatedly says, "Bring us jobs, not guns." His sentiments were echoed by Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) Moderator Ken Newell, who urges Irish citizens to "live a life of love, just as Christ loved us."

        Veteran PC(USA) missionary to Northern Ireland Doug Baker reminded participants of this denomination's longstanding commitment to the peace process in Northern Ireland - where discrimination against the minority Catholics by the overwhelmingly Protestant majority has wreaked social and economic havoc.

        And they heard pastors decry the claims of young people that Christianity offers them nothing. Conversations were held with a retired Catholic cardinal as well as leaders of the Catholic Church, the PCI and the Church of Ireland (Anglican).

        Officials told the group that the number of integrated schools is increasing, though some Catholic resistance remains. Catholic speakers also complained of the continuing practice of Protestant "parades" through Catholic neighborhoods to celebrate historic Protestant victories in the sectarian fighting.

        The group met with police and civil service representatives, who explained efforts to better integrate police and government services. And in the beautiful city of Coleraine they met with the city's mayor, viewed the city's centerpiece Peace Fountain, and visited a community center that has been rebuilt after being destroyed in a bombing.

        Protestants and Catholics, led in many cases by churches, are busily developing "cross-community" projects as a way to break down hostility. The group visited one such project in Belfast>called "174 Trust">in which a Presbyterian minister has turned a deserted Presbyterian church into a community center in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood.

        Led by the Rev. James MacDonell, a Presbyterian, and Marie Hilliard, a Catholic, institute participants visited such attractions as the Peace Center at Corymeela, where Baker serves, the Tyrone Crystal factory and the Giants' Causeway.

        Wherever the group traveled they heard loud and clear gratitude that the economic situation in Northern Ireland has improved and that the "troubles" seem to have subsided. And they heard determination not to go back to the days of killing and unabated fear, even though it is hard, as Molly reminded them, to forget.

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