At 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, August 22nd, the dream of a united Ireland was finally realized. Protestant, Catholic and Church of Ireland bells rang in all parts of the island signifying a striking moment of unity.
Was this a dream realized or a nightmare lived?
The bells tolled out not in celebration, but in mourning, and all over the island of Ireland, people stopped whatever they were doing to observe a minute of silence. Even planeloads leaving the country fell silent at their pilot’s request.
One week after the bomb in Omagh killed 28, and left over 200 injured, the enormity of the tragedy still leaves us mute. In a twist of irony, the term most often used to express sympathy for the passing of a loved one in Ireland. “I’m sorry for your troubles,” seems a poor play on words.
The “Troubles’ in Northern Ireland has claimed almost 4,000 lives, but only one other atrocity came close to the enormity of the loss at Omagh, the loyalist no-warning bombs in Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974. which claimed 30 lives.
The ’74 bombings came early in the Troubles. The bomb in Omagh came a couple of months after the people of the North voted overwhelmingly to accept the peace Agreement. It did not discriminate in its victims. Young and old, Spanish and Irish, Protestant and Catholic, including a mother and her unborn twins, were among the dead.
“It was a damnable thing to happen in a town that never had any hint of political or religious strife,” the writer Benedict Kiely who grew up in Omagh, said in an interview with the Irish Independent. Indeed, Omagh, has long been an example of how people of the two traditions could live and work together.
The bomb did not pull people apart and collapse the Agreement as was the intention of the bombers. If anything, the opposite has occurred. “They wanted a united Ireland,” said Amanda Heffernan, speaking to The New York Times of the `Real IRA,’ who claimed responsibility, “now we’re united in grief.”
As so often after the worst atrocities, we must look at the political as well as the emotional outcome. The wake of the deaths of the three Quinn brothers a couple of weeks previously saw the militant Orangemen call off their siege at Drumcree. The aftermath of Omagh brings the announcement that the `Real’ IRA and the INLA — another republican splinter group — have declared ceasefires. It also brought Sinn Féin’s absolute condemnation of the men of violence. More than anything else, however, it united people in their desire for peace.
But desire alone cannot bring peace. The main chance of a peaceful resolution in Northern Ireland involves the implementation of democratic principles.
The Irish and British governments ts reacted to the bombing with harsh security legislation that include removing a suspect’s right to silence. These measures not only severely limit the civil liberties of all, but do what the bombers failed to do — they resurrect the fears that have driven people apart. At worst they could cause a reaction which will result in a return to the past when internment without trial spurred thousands to join the IRA.
In the face of this tragedy, the governments’ emotional response is somewhat understandable. But emotion is reserved for people and should not be a part of how we govern.
I once heard someone criticize the death penalty, who, when asked, “What if it was your daughter that was raped?” responded, “I would want the bastard killed on the spot and that is why it should not be decided by me in that situation…that is what we have government for.”
Those responsible for the Omagh bombing and others who would commit such atrocities must be punished, but there must be a return of “due process” to the court system in Northern Ireland, otherwise we can never be sure that justice is served.
And in the future of Northern Ireland, there can be no return to politics of blame. If the Unionists use the aftermath of Omagh to further distance themselves from Sinn Féin and the community they represent, they do so at the risk of destroying all that has been accomplished.
First Minister David Trimble, who hitherto has refused to talk to Gerry Adams, must show himself to be a true leader in the implementation of the principles of equality and power-sharing that are the essence of the Agreement.
What the tragedy in Omagh brought home to us more clearly than ever before is that we all have so much in common. United as we are in grief we can be united in peace.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September/October 1998 issue of Irish America. ⬥
Leave a Reply