This review first appeared. in The Andersonstown News
FRONTLINE (UTV) sought out clerical memories of the Troubles. Rev Harold Good recalled how he came back from the US, where he’d been ministering, to Belfast. “It was a shock” he said. Fear was in the air – who would be next? “I’d come back to a different Ireland”
Sister Lucinda was a nun at Fortwilliam. She spoke of poverty and violence being linked, and the way out of that trap was education. She remembered the girl who had a 100% record for attendance, and who in 1974 put her uniform in a bag and came to school – “Strike or no strike.”
Canon Sean Rogan remembered how he’d told the congregation to “pray for those three soldiers murdered in Crossmaglen”. After Mass a man came to the sacristy and told him that the men hadn’t been ‘murdered’ – they were casualties in an ongoing war. The Canon was surprised by this – of course they had been murdered.
Harold Good remembered an explosion in which two babies were killed. As he left the scene to go and comfort the mothers, a man who had witnessed the same event went to join a loyalist paramilitary group.
The Rev Jim Rea recalled a young woman who had been killed and her body dumped. Later he had a phone call from a man – the girl’s father – who asked if Rev Rea would take him to the spot where her body had been dumped. He did so and they stood and wept together.
Harold Good remembered the burning of Bombay Street and we had a clip of a woman wearing a head-scarf, explaining how now she had nothing and no home in which to sleep. “There was fear, and there were those who exploited that fear.” He visited those left homeless by the Bombay Street attack and offered his sympathy. When he told his congregation that he’d conveyed this sympathy “in your name”, they collected gifts of whatever they could spare, to show the conflagration had not been done in their name.
The testimony of these and other clergymen was given with a background of melancholy music and old black and white film. The sincerity of the clergy and their detailed account of events was touching. But at no point did it appear that these good people had given any thought as to why these killings were happening. Some say there are too many churches and not enough Christianity here. FRONTLINE suggested there was an abundance of compassion but little sign of political understanding.
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