By Dominic Llewellyn, Conservative PPC for Newcastle-upon-Tyne East
Twenty five years ago, five people – including my great-great-uncle Tony Berry – were tragically killed in the Brighton Bomb. Five lives and many other livelihoods were destroyed or damaged in a moment of hatred; the murdered and those who were injured were fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends to so many.
Tony Berry’s daughter, Jo, has over the past ten years built a relationship with Patrick Magee, the Brighton bomber. This has not been without controversy, but they now stand on platforms together speaking of hope and peace for Northern Ireland. Some have praised her work, others have criticised it.
The path of forgiveness – especially where there has been such pain caused by an act of such hatred – is so emotive and it is not my place to judge people as to whether they walk that path or not. One thing forgiveness does is put the person you are forgiving on the back foot; it can be a moment of victory and not surrender. I think Oscar Wilde was right when he wrote “always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much”.
Another famous quotation poignantly states “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you”. My own small experiences of forgiveness in my life are that it has enabled me to be free, I also believe that in South Africa forgiveness was an enabling and not disabling force in Nelson Mandela’s presidency both between him and his perpetrators and in the country at large.
A quarter of a century after the bombing, Northern Ireland is – in the main part – at peace, its people are at peace with themselves, the IRA have decommissioned all their weapons and the British Army has ended all military operations. As with any peace process, trust needs to be rebuilt over time and warring parties need to learn to work together. There has been real progress, but there are still wounds. Both Tony Blair – for his work in the Good Friday Agreement – and John Major – for his role in getting the peace process rolling - deserve significant credit for their works in Northern Ireland.
This week, Hillary Clinton has been at Stormont urging politicians once more to work together and the Prime Minister has also spent time in the province over the past week. I may not be a Labour Party supporter, but I for one hope and pray that Gordon Brown’s role in Northern Ireland helps continue to build on the success so far of the Northern Ireland peace process.
