A CROSS-COMMUNITY organisation dedicated to dealing with the legacy of the Troubles is organising a host of events across Northern Ireland to recall victims of violence.
Healing Through Remembering is hosting a “day of private reflection” today to consider the conflict and to look towards a more peaceful future.
Following last week’s publication of the Saville report on the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry, the organisation is stressing the importance of today’s events.
“For many people – particularly those who have lost a loved one or been injured during the conflict – the report and its media coverage will be a reminder of their own particular circumstances and hurt,” the group said yesterday.
Board member Rev Harold Good, the former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland who helped oversee the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005, said: “The day of private reflection is a day to acknowledge the deep hurt caused by the conflict, to reflect on our own attitudes, on what more we might have done or might still do, and to make a personal commitment that such loss should never be allowed to happen again.”
He added: “The day is a society-wide initiative offered as an inclusive and positive experience that emphasises a commitment to a peaceful new society. It provides a voluntary opportunity for everyone in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and further afield to reflect upon the conflict in and about Northern Ireland and the future that is before us.”
The group is facilitating events to foster what it calls “quiet reflection”.
It is also organising a series of events including a special assembly at an integrated college; the launch of a stained glass window in memory of local people killed in the conflict in Derry; and the lighting of commemorative candles at a victims-survivors group.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church said last week that everyone should be able to hear the truth about the events that affected them during the Troubles.
Rev Dr Norman Hamilton said it would be impossible to replicate Saville, “nor should we even try to do so. But it does raise the question of how the stories of the unheard victims and survivors can be told”.
He continued: “We have not applied ourselves, either in the churches or in the wider community, as to how people should be given the opportunity to be liberated and valued by having their stories heard. ”
Writing in the Belfast News Letter, he said of the Saville report that it was "surprisingly clear, unambiguous and devastatingly straightforward. Wrong was done, and in response wrong has been specifically acknowledged and apologised for and I believe that is a very good thing."
But he had “have grave reservations about the desirability of pursuing any convictions arising from the Saville Report, though I fully accept that is a call for others to make.”