Sir, - In your editorial of Monday August 14th you described those who bombed people and buildings in Omagh as "fascists". I would go further and describe them as idolators. Their worship of a false god drove them to sacrifice 28 people on their altar of death and to injure over 200 others, some of them very seriously. Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life and have it to the full (Jn 10:10), challenges such destructive idolatry and calls us to a more fully human life together.
Can we now find a new way of being human together on the island of Ireland? That future way of being together will also include living, working, befriending and interacting with people of different skin colours and ethnic backgrounds.
The bomb in Omagh exploded just days after a bomb in Nairobi murdered over 200 people, and maimed, mutilated, or injured in other ways over 5,000 people there. Some of us also find ourselves wounded within by the Nairobi bomb because of our experience of the inclusive love of Jesus Christ for whom no human person is a foreigner.
The bombs in Omagh and Nairobi can never be revoked; the suffering they have caused cannot be cancelled; the grief, trauma, and adjustments will be ongoing. And, still, all is not lost. Besides belief in eternal life with God, for those who hold it, there is the redemptive change that the experience of the victims can work in us. The horror and tragedy of these days can be overcome in some measure, if they move us to become a more caring, considerate, and compassionate people. - Yours, Michael O'Sullivan, SJ,
McDonagh Tower,
Ballymun,
Dublin 9.