This blog is a little different from the usual. I’ve been asked by the BBC’s Sunday Sequence to put together 90 seconds (yes, you read aright – seconds) on the past and how we might best cope with it. I have some ideas ricocheting around in my head but I’d be interested to know: what would you say if you had that limited space? ( I shall of course ruthlessly plunder any goodies you may come up with and insist I thought them up myself…)
The past is some place where any atrocity committed by the British army/ruc/UDR/mrf is to be forgotten and never mentioned in polite company whereas any misdeed of the ira is pondered over and talked about in explicit detail as if all our woes began and ended with the birth of the the Provisional IRA .forget about context
Well stated my namesake. Unionism still thinking they have a God given right to superiority
Full independent international truth commission like the British PM David Cameroon proposed to the Sri Lankan Government during the week
Jude
I was trying to find a half remembered quotation from James Joyce about the past and I came across a line by Aleister Crowley of all people:
‘the only way to clear muddy water is to leave it alone.’
There is a battle going on now to see whose version of our past becomes accepted history. That needs to be left alone for a time. A long time.
Just go with Loyalist death squads, Unionist oppression, State collusion, shoot to kill, Diplock courts, gerrymandering, Glenanne gang, no jobs for Catholics, cover ups and that will leave you some time to drop in some Gerrymandering and promote Lethal Allies. Just leave five seconds to dispatch of a president.
Jude, when I think of the past and The Troubles, (from my 54 year old perspective), there are many things that I felt: real terror (terrorism goal achieved, check), hopelessness, anger, insecurity, insignificance, and on and on…but what REALLY stands out in my memory always, are the people who came on TV after their child was murdered saying they did not want it to be a tit for tat situation. I could not get over that kind of forgiveness and dare I say, love. I remember the resilience and humor and humility of a great people…..(said from across the Atlantic…)
Just go with Loyalist death squads, Unionist oppression, State collusion, shoot to kill, Diplock courts, gerrymandering, Glenanne gang, no jobs for Catholics, cover ups and that will leave you some time to drop in some Gerrymandering and promote Lethal Allies. Just leave five seconds to dispatch of a president
Thats just a stupid and unthinking rant
I totally agree with you neill.
We need icons like Mariead Corrigan, Gordon Wilson and Michael McGoldrick Snr, whose responses, when the troubles visited them, was inspirational and lifted us out of our narrow mindset. If worked right, the conflict resolution centre at the maze might have done the same job, but the necessary generosity, as exhibited above, was not forthcoming.
Dr C
How’s about highlighting that the past is in fact very much part of our present?
Nearly every modern topic/argument/debate is about two sentences away from being referred to an event from the past.