I’ve just become aware of a report on the ‘Shared Future News’ website of a panel discussion I took part in last month, discussing whether the Troubles could be ethically commemorated. It was part of the Imagine Festival and organised by the Civil Rights Commemoration Committee and the Slugger O’Toole blog.
The event was chaired by the SDLP’s Tim Attwood and the other panellists were Seamus Farrell and Maureen Hetherington from the Juction; and former DUP politician Nelson McCausland.
You can read Allison Lira’s comprehensive report here.
My own contributions drew on my most recent research projects: a biography, Unity Pilgrim: The Life of Fr Gerry Reynolds CSsR, which will be published in May; and Considering Grace: Presbyterians and the Troubles, with Jamie Yohanis, which will be published by November.
You can read the full text of my opening remarks below.
Can you ethically commemorate the Troubles?
The Junction’s ‘ethical and shared remembering’ project has given us an excellent starting point for our conversation: the devastating human cost of violence should inform all efforts to commemorate the Troubles. This reminds us that the purpose of commemorating is to prevent violence from happening again. But I am not sure if thinking about this as ‘ethical remembering’ or ‘ethical commemoration’ is always or entirely effective. There are those who are not willing to assent to the idea that violence is never, or almost never, justified, even in the face of human suffering. With that in mind, the term ‘ethical’ conjures up images of adjudicating about what was right and wrong during the Troubles; and identifying right and wrong ways to remember what happened. In the name of determining what is ‘ethical’, it could be quite easy to descend into time-honoured practices like demanding that others repent of their sins in sackcloth and ashes; or engaging in endless rounds of ‘whatabout-ery’.
Over the last three years, I have been working on two research projects: one, in partnership with the Presbyterian Church, on how Presbyterians responded to the Troubles; and the second, a biography of Fr Gerry Reynolds from Clonard Monastery. Books based on both projects will be published later this year. I want to share two brief reflections informed by this research.
First, it could be constructive to start talking about ‘gracious remembering.’ This idea comes from the project on Presbyterianism, where we interviewed 122 people with a variety of experiences of the Troubles: ordained ministers, victims, security forces, those affected by loyalist paramilitarism (including ex-combatants), emergency responders and health care workers, quiet peacemakers, politicians, people who left Presbyterianism, and critical friends from outside Presbyterianism. Theirs are stories of faith and doubt, fear and courage, suffering and forgiveness, and division and reconciliation. These are a range of human experiences that should be part of our remembering of the Troubles. In addition, some Presbyterians talked to us about grace, defined as free and unmerited favour, extended to those who do not deserve it; or courteous good will. For them, grace is a gift, one that individuals can receive from others, themselves, or God; grace is also a gift that individuals and communities can bestow on each other. Grace remembers wrongdoing but its gift-like quality mitigates against divisive adjudication about what was right and what was wrong. I am aware that this may sound glib, a sort of ‘cheap grace’; and this admittedly must be guarded against. Further, even though we did not ask people questions about forgiveness, a majority, including almost all victims, introduced it to our conversations. Forgiveness, they confirmed, is not forgetting. Forgiveness meant that they wanted to remember their loved ones and what happened to them, but their preferences for how to remember were not uniform. I cannot say that every person we interviewed was forgiving or fully healed. But for some, they remembered what happened in ways that they hoped would create a better future. All this makes me wonder if talking about ‘gracious remembering’ could be a more helpful way to prompt constructive conversations about commemorating the Troubles?
Second, we should not just remember the death and destruction, we also should remember and celebrate those among us like Fr Gerry Reynolds: people who devoted their lives to peacemaking. Gerry is best-known for his ecumenical and inter-church work in Clonard between 1983 and 2015. He also supported and assisted Fr Alec Reid, whose legacy included bringing the IRA in from the political wilderness. Gerry was resilient in the face of setbacks and realized the cumulative value of small steps in the right direction. But it is not only exemplars like Gerry who should be remembered. One Presbyterian we interviewed told me that during the Troubles, he saw his role as a citizen as carrying on with life as normally as possible. He said, ‘There were lots of people who we’ll never know about, unsung heroes. It was our job to keep normality normal: in faith, in work, socialising in the town, shopping. Because if you didn’t, then you were failing in your job. Not just as a Christian, but as a human being.’ We also should find ways to remember people like him.