Stephen McBride ([email protected])
Tue, 29 Dec 1998 23:24:49 -0000
There is U2 content, I assure you. Scroll if you don't want to read...
"I want to meet where you are,
I don't need you to surrender."
Just listening to this song from the Omagh (for want of a better
word) tribute show. I don't know about any other northern Irish on
this list, but in all conscience, I find this song, and these two lines
so bloody hard to sing along to.
I've had relatives shot by the IRA, and damn it, the last thing I want
to do with these bastards is understand or forgive them! preferably,
I'd have them shot, but the least I'd settle for is their surrender!
Having said that, I am more than aware that there are others on the
opposite side of the divide who have suffered injustice. inustice
that I would never, in any way condone. I suppose they want my
side to surrender as much as I want their's to.
Dreadfully simple, and yet so hideously difficult to attain. In one
sense, the likes of Elizabeth are wrong in demanding deep
philosophical insights into the reasons for what happens in
Northern Ireland. The trouble may not go away overnight (indeed,
it's too ingrained for it to ever do that), but that is what so many of
us here want it to do.
I'm 35. This shite has lasted just slightly less than my lifetime.
Much as it hurts to do so, all of us in Northern Ireland have to let go
of our holy cows and shibboleths. It will not change every thing
overnight, but it is the only way forward. What, however, would
help would be some apologies from those who perpatrated the
horror. It will never bring back, and never atone. But it would
signify a change of heart and a wish to move forward.
I can only speak for myself, but one reason why I can never trust
Gerry Adams, is because his organisation holds on to its weapons
of murder. As do the Protestant paramilitaries. Weapons have to
be handed in before any of us can believe in this "peace process" -
a misnomer if ever there was one.
The one place where I will agree with Elizabeth is that one cannot
say all Prods are English/all Catholics are Irish. Ask any
Protestant their opinion of the English, and the answer will not be
polite!
I carry two passports, British and Irish. I rejoice in the numerous
Irish Protestants who have made a positive mark on Ireland's
history, such as Oscar Wilde (tho' he would have considered
himself British!), Bono, and Louis MacNeice. Similarly, as a
Northern Irish soccer fan, I thank God for Catholics like Pat
Jennings and Gerry Armstrong playing for us. A daft example, you
may think! Ask any of us who can remember that fantastic match
against Spain in 1982!!
The point is, both Irelands have a huge diversity in language,
culture, religion, music, literature,and our very, very black humour.
Our hardest battle will be in celebrating our differences without
tearing each other apart. It will involve us in letting go of pains that
we feel have not been expiated by justice. It will mean not insisting
upon surrender. Much as that hurts, and costs all of us in Northern
Ireland.
This is why I can get so hostile towards Irish Americans and their
pronouncements on Northern Ireland. Wrong of me, i will be the
first to admit, but too much is too raw within me. I'm sure many
mean well, but you have to let us solve this ourselves. Twee
comments about the home country or, for that matter, university
style theses matter little to those of us who have gone through the
experience of Northern Ireland. I studied for four years at Queen's
in Belfast, and after all that, the biggest thing I discovered from
history is that both sides can make "history" say what they want it
to.
I remember a poster campaign on the walls of Belfast from
Christmas 1976. It said, "Seven years is enough. Don't make it
eight."
Here we are going into the 30th year of conflict. I pray to God it
may be over for real this time.
Stephen
"I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world" - Walt Whitman
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