NORTHERN IRELAND: A Chilean Solution To A Question of Peace?

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sarah O'Hara

DUBLIN, Jan 21 1995 (IPS) - A man whose father was shot dead by the British army in 1972 cited the experience of Chile as one example of a way forward for the disputed territory of Northern Ireland at a Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin here.

Tony Doherty’s father was among 13 peaceful demonstrators killed in the incident known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ in the British province of Northern Ireland. He cited Chile, where he said “the need for admissions before healing can begin” was recognised.

Doherty was speaking at a debate Friday — led by ‘victims of violence’ — on how the people of the province can come to terms with the legacy of the 25 year civil conflict in Northern Ireland.

He compared the “refusal” of successive British governments to acknowledge the enormity of the crime committed on Bloody Sunday with Chilean president Patricio Aylwin Azocar’s acknowledgement of the crimes committed by the country’s dictators.

“He (Aylwin) formally assumed, in the name of the Chilean state, responsibility for atrocities committed by the military and secret state forces,” said Doherty. “He also apologised to and sought pardon from the families of the victims, and asked the army to acknowledge its role in the violence.

“Aylwin had not been part of the government and neither had he (had) a hand in the atrocities. But he saw it as symbolically important enough for the building of a new future in Chile.”

Doherty said it was “an essential starting point” to reconciling “the historical problems between Britain and Ireland” for the British Government to “come clean” about Bloody Sunday.

Northern Ireland remained under British rule when the rest of the country won independence from Britain in the 1920s. In 1968 hostility between mainly Protestant supporters of continued union with Britain (Loyalists) and mainly Catholic supporters of reunion with the rest of Ireland (Republicans) boiled over into violence that claimed the lives of thousands before a ceasefire last year.

Victims of violence committed by the republican guerrillas of the Provisional IRA also spoke, notably Gordon Wilson, who has become a symbol of peace and reconciliation on the island since his daughter, Marie, was killed by an IRA bomb in 1987.

Wilson, who publicly forgave his daughter’s killers on the same day of her death and who later joined the upper house of the Irish parliament as a senator, told the Forum that it was time to say sorry to everyone and make a fresh start.

“We must clear and clean the wounds so there is no festering below the surface,” he added.

Wilson said he had been helped in his healing by his family, friends and by his God, and Doherty said he had found that “grief passes naturally”. But a psychotherapist told the Forum that “new coping mechanisms” were needed to ensure a lasting peace.

Marie Smyth, a lecturer at the University of Ulster, called for the setting up of an independent agency to coordinate services for those affected by political violence. “Violence, and the associated fear, have passed into the culture of everyday life in Northern Ireland,” she said.

“In order to survive the last 25 years, people have used coping mechanisms such as denial or minimising violence — strategies which, whilst functional in a violent situation, are dangerous in a peaceful society.”

Smyth argued that the effects of trauma do not necessarily resolve themselves ‘naturally’ over time.

“Over 20 years later, sleep disturbance, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts and flashbacks have been reported. Some people use alcohol, aggression, or even violence, as ways of dealing with the original, unaddressed trauma”.

The Forum for Peace and Reconciliation was founded last year by the Republic of Ireland Government as part of their contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The Forum had asked for contributions from ‘victims of violence’ for their tenth session, on the theme of “sharing the peace dividend,” which also heard submissions from community groups, women’s groups and former prisoners.

But the Forum has also served to indicate the scale to the problems faced by the peacemakers in Northern Ireland. The pro- British union parties have boycotted it, and deeply ingrained anger and sorrow has made for sometimes difficult exchanges.

Finding the right words for the right answers has proven difficult even for people like Wilson, who said that he had been unable to decide how to respond to frequent calls for a permanent memorial to the more than 3,000 who have died in the conflict.

Doherty said he found it “amusing in a cynical way” to be classified as a ‘victim of violence’ — a phrase he believed had been distorted to mean victims of republican and loyalist terrorist violence — not those wounded or killed by the security forces.

“If I am a genuine victim of violence, does that make me a victim of the ‘men of violence’?” he asked the audience, which included Irish prime minister John Bruton and his foreign minister Dick Spring.

“And, if so, then who are these ‘men of violence’? What should be done with them?” he added. “Shall they be rounded up, squeezed out of society like toothpaste, and deprived of the oxygen of publicity?”