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The Northern Ireland situation
In recent days, the grim images of forensic personnel sifting through the sludge of a lonely stretch of Irish bog land for the body of a young man abducted and murdered by members of a terrorist organisation have appeared on our television screens.
November is a time in the Christian calendar when we pay particular reverence to the dead.
Exactly a year ago, the spotlight of the search teams was focused on finding the skeletal remains of Danny McIlhone. This November, the same expertise is being used to try and return the remains of Gerry Evans to his family. That such events continue to be chronicled is an indictment of a society that claims to be one built around essentially Christian values.
The apologists that tried to find validation in the summary executions of individuals such as Danny McIlhone and Gerry Evans and others used words that were shamefully hollow. They argued that, in a war situation, there was no room for qualified sentiment. M ore than three decades on, insincere words of partial contrition continue to be uttered by the political heirs of the original gunmen. The sickening stench of hypocrisy still permeates our politics.
On 3rd November 2007, the President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, spoke in the Northern Ireland Assembly on the Disappeared. He acknowledged the grave injustice inflicted on the families whose loved ones had been abducted, killed and left disappeared by the IRA. However, in a classic example of doublespeak, credit was given to that same organisation in the continuing search for those still missing.
The objective, said the Sinn Fein President, was that the Disappeared would be given Christian burials. Why, however, did it need to take all that time for those words to be spoken? Why did it take the Republican movement so long to admit its guilt, when it could have moved positively many, many years ago? Its lack of moral courage has left many hearts to be racked with needless pain. It has meant that many have gone to meet their God without knowing the truth surrounding the death and final resting place of their loved ones. They were singled out to be the victims of faceless men and their lives were viciously and cruelly extinguished.
In this special month of November, there still remains a challenge for all Christians living on this island. It is to ensure that actions, not politically- crafted statements, are the tools used to find the remaining Disappeared. Until that happens, we will never be able to bury the past legitimately.
Alasdair McDonnell MP MLA
SDLP South Belfast
Constituency Office
120a Ormeau Road
Belfast
BT7 2EB
I wish to respond to the comments by Sammy Heenan and Joan Farrell in the Gazette of 13th November, following my letter in 30th October issue.
While I may reside in "another land", as Sammy suggests, we do seem, at least or on the face of it, to belong to the same Church of Ireland.
To answer his question, "Why so many Northern Catholics electorally endorsed the IRA campaign", perhaps the nationalist view was that a vote for Sinn Fein offered the Catholic population real hope for the future and a means to an end of the cycle of violence. A similar view was shared in Ireland during the general election of 1918, when Home Rule was an issue. Then, Sinn Fein won a large electoral majority.
I am not sure where Joan is coming from with her comments about the Southern Government turning a blind eye during the troubles.
I have lived here long enough to know that the Garda have maintained throughout a vigilant standpoint against terrorism. One can only presume that the justice system which controlled extraditions between the Republic and the UK was aware of mistakes that were sometimes made by police forces over wrongful arrests and resulting imprisonment based upon spurious evidence, which through the media caused a storm in this country.
Since the beginning of the troubles, it was generally felt on this side of the border that the road blocks and border checkpoints referred to were unnecessarily created by the British army and security services to control movement between the jurisdictions where no previous restrictions existed.
How the creation of an artificial border makes the North a safer place is beyond me, particularly as the peace seems to work better with an open border solution; crossborder trade and tourism have never been more prolific than they are at present.
It can’t be denied that the border restrictions created major logistical problems for the border communities.
Christopher Kirk
Ballaghanea
Virginia
Co. Cavan
Readers and administration of the Eucharist
I greatly appreciated George Leckey’s article (Gazette, 13th November) marking the centenary of Reader ministry in the Church of Ireland and I look forward to reading his forthcoming book on the subject.
In the midst of his excellent reflection, he says just one thing that I felt deserved clarification. He mentions that Readers can "administer the cup with permission from the bishop". While this was indeed the position of the canons, the 2004 Book of Common Prayer - in such matters a greater authority - is clear that "The bishop of the diocese may permit lay persons approved by him to assist the priest in the administration of the bread and wine" (page 77). It is interesting that such Eucharistic assistants need not invariably be Readers.
Stressing that lay people may also assist with the administration of the bread is not merely a point of pedantry. Such participation is a visible reminder that all God’s people, ordained or not, have a ministry of equal value and that all such people, however many, form one body. As the consecrated bread is administered, ‘lay’ people are drawn into the breaking of it in a way that emphasises fellowship and equality. It therefore surprises me that I still rarely see Readers being as fully involved in the adminstration of the Eucharist as the Prayer Book expects.
Readers may be interested to know (given Mr Leckey’s comments on training) that here in Cashel and Ossory, our next batch of aspirant readers will have their diocesan qualification accredited by NUI Maynooth via its Kilkenny campus - turning such training into academic hard currency makes the course deservedly comparable with other areas of substantial adult learning.
In their centenary year, I salute the Readers on whose dedication so much of the Church’s public worship depends. I also believe, with Mr Leckey, that the relationship between readership and a possible permanent diaconate should be carefully addressed.
Michael Cashel and Ossory
Bishop’s House
Kilkenny
I thought my letter (6th November) would be read not as purporting to offer definitions, but rather as situating the usage of the terms ‘Protestant’, ‘Catholic’ and ‘papalist’ at different times and in different places in the history of Church and State.
It seems that it is less the usage of terms and more the issue of ethos that intrigues Graham Gordon (13th November). He puts himself at variance, not only with those in the Church of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland who speak of maintaining schools that are of ‘Protestant ethos’, but also with Roman Catholic bishops who speak of maintaining a ‘Catholic ethos’, in that he sees no difference in ethos (ethical climate) between schools.
Roy Foster, in The Luck of the Irish, writing of the changing face of Ireland, avers that citizens of the Irish Republic are now virtually all ‘Protestant’ in outlook, a view seemingly in agreement with Gordon Graham. If so, this is perhaps a trickled-down, secularized aspect of the Calvinism of Weber’s thesis to which Graham Gordon referred, the changing face being a turning away from de Valera’s ‘Catholic nation’ of pious peasants and from what was then the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that dismissed a proposed health service (Noel Brown’s ‘Mother and Child’ scheme, modelled on the United Kingdom’s Welfare State) as contrary to ‘Catholic’ teaching.
Wm A. Miller
150 West Circular Road
Belfast
BT13 3QJ
Consultative Group on the Past
I write as someone who has spent his entire life within the Church of Ireland and now serves as an incumbent in its youngest parish.
This year, I attended my first General Synod and, unplanned, was moved to address the Synod on the topic of the Eames/Bradley report. I spoke as someone who knew from personal experience the cost of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An attempt was made by the IRA on my father’s life in 1976; thankfully, he survived, but a work colleague and friend did not.
I was 10 years old when this happened and 33 years later, my father still suffers physically, mentally and emotionally from this incident. My father is unable to do any physical work as a result of his injuries and that places added responsibility on us as family members.
My father was a part-time member of the UDR. That was sufficient reason in the eyes of some for him to be targeted and on the fourth attempt for him to be shot. I have never heard my mother or father speak in ‘bigoted’ terms of those who carried out the assassination attempt on his life, nor against the nationalist/republican community who aided them in their actions.
However, when the Eames/ Bradley report was published, I saw my mother cry as one of the leaders of her Church placed her husband in the same category as ‘terrorists’ (be they loyalist or republican). Personally, I was offended and deeply saddened by the insensitivity of the Eames/Bradley report. I know of the wonderful pastoral support and care that Lord Eames offered to many families who were bereaved or traumatised by the actions of terrorists, but this only added to the betrayal, hurt and injustice generated by his words, both spoken and written.
When I spoke at General Synod, Archbishop Harper was kind enough to express his sympathy, not just for my family but all families who suffered in the Troubles, and some Synod members from the Republic of Ireland sought me out to express their gratitude that I had spoken. A few of them were "amazed" (their word) that, despite my experience as a child, I was now in the ordained ministry. I could only tell them that it was the very practical pastoral care of the Revd Joseph Cully at the time that planted the seed of ordination in my soul that would later come to fruition.
Alan McCann (The Revd)
The Rectory
20 Meadow Hill Close
Carrickfergus
Co. Antrim