Blog Listing of the Entire Talk Given by Reverend Harold Good on Monday 10 May 2010 at the Forthspring Community Center which resides in the Springfield Road Methodist Church:
Defining Moments
Reverend Harold Good on Similarities Between Sectarian Versus Racial Conflict
The Clergy of Shankill Road and Falls Road Meet
A Church in Shankill Road Finds Its Courage
Indigenous and Settler People in Ireland
First Stepping Stones to Peace In Ireland
The Good Friday Agreement and Decommissioning of Weapons
The Super Secret Decommissioning of IRA Weapons
Prayer at IRA Weapon Decommissioning
Finishing the Reconciliation
The Role of Confidence, Forgiveness, and Grace in Peace and Reconciliation
Showing posts with label decommissioning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decommissioning. Show all posts
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Prayer at IRA Weapon Decommissioning
On a Monday, May 10, 2010 our Volunteer In Missions group met at 3 pm with Reverend Harold Good who is a Winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize and was involved in decommissioning of IRA weapons. This is the ninth in a series relating his talk. In the prior blog posting, Reverend Good explained how the decommissioning was super secret and incredibly moving. Next, he related to us :
Before the process of weapons being turned in was over, Reverend Good pulled out the cards with the prayer of Saint Francis. He went around quietly and one by one, he approached some of the folks around and said, “I hope you won't think I'm one of those Protty preachers going around handing out tracts. That is not my way. But this is a prayer I pray often. I think we all need to pray it from now on.”
He remembered one guy who looked at the card someone else had been handed and said, “Are those tickets to the All Ireland Final?”
Of course, the All Ireland Final was a BIG thing, and it was about to take place in week or so in Croke Park. Reverend Good said, “No. No, it's not that. But when the All Ireland Finals have been forgotten, we'll still be praying this prayer.”
Reverend Good had forgotten about those cards, but a few months ago when he was speaking about something at a site in Ireland, a man came up to him and said, “I am glad of this opportunity to tell you, I recently met a man to whom you gave a card with a prayer. He asked me if I ever met you, to tell you how much that meant to him and how important that was to him. It's the prayer he now prays regularly. He had to be in the top brass of the IRA, though there's no way of knowing which of them it was.
The prior posting of Reverend Good's talk is here.
Prayer of Saint Francis (English version):
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
______________________________
This talk continues at the blog posting entitled Finishing the Reconciliation.
Before the process of weapons being turned in was over, Reverend Good pulled out the cards with the prayer of Saint Francis. He went around quietly and one by one, he approached some of the folks around and said, “I hope you won't think I'm one of those Protty preachers going around handing out tracts. That is not my way. But this is a prayer I pray often. I think we all need to pray it from now on.”
He remembered one guy who looked at the card someone else had been handed and said, “Are those tickets to the All Ireland Final?”
Of course, the All Ireland Final was a BIG thing, and it was about to take place in week or so in Croke Park. Reverend Good said, “No. No, it's not that. But when the All Ireland Finals have been forgotten, we'll still be praying this prayer.”
Reverend Good had forgotten about those cards, but a few months ago when he was speaking about something at a site in Ireland, a man came up to him and said, “I am glad of this opportunity to tell you, I recently met a man to whom you gave a card with a prayer. He asked me if I ever met you, to tell you how much that meant to him and how important that was to him. It's the prayer he now prays regularly. He had to be in the top brass of the IRA, though there's no way of knowing which of them it was.
The prior posting of Reverend Good's talk is here.
Prayer of Saint Francis (English version):
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
______________________________
This talk continues at the blog posting entitled Finishing the Reconciliation.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Super Secret Decommissioning of IRA Weapons
On a Monday May 10, 2010 our Volunteer In Missions group met at 3 pm with Reverend Harold Good who is a Winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize and was involved in decommissioning of IRA weapons. This is the eighth in a series relating his talk. In the prior blog posting, Reverend Good disclosed he and Father Alec Reid, a Roman Catholic Priest, were the two witnesses invited to the decommissioning of weapons. Next, he related to us :
For Reverend Good, it was an amazing experience, to be there, to share in that journey with the leadership of the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, and to witness and to physically take part in the decommissioning of the weapons of the IRA.
Remember that in Republicanism, in the constitution of the Irish Republican Army, there are two things which are punishable by death:
1. One of them is a member to betray a colleague or comrade. Many people have died in this conflict because they were agents or double agents.
2. Another is for a member to surrender his weapon.
A formula had to be found that was agreed to by the British government, the Irish government, and by the IRA for the decommissioning of the IRA weapons that was not surrender yet was clearly an end to access to the weapons. So the definition of decommissioning is the putting of all weapons and munitions beyond reach and beyond use. For the IRA to engage in that in a way that was seen as not to be surrender, was really quite remarkable. The whole process was designed to remove any possible stigma of surrender. It was a very important step in the peace process.
Reverend Good couldn't tell the group, or anyone for that matter, a lot of details. He remembers the very first night. They didn't know where they were during the week long exercise. He's actually glad he and Father Reid didn't know where they were because he wouldn't want someone to be able to force that out of either of them. He remembers the first night he brought his devotions. He said, “What was the reading the very first night? It was of the whole armor of God”
{Ephesians 6:11 - Put on God's whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.12For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.13Therefore put on God's complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. Source: Amplified Bible}
He was struck by how when they were setting off to accomplish the decommissioning of these physical weapons, he thought they really must equip themselves with the whole armor of God. That to him was an extraordinary coincidence, although he doesn't use the word coincidence any longer. It was an extraordinary happening.
He remembered before he set off, he went into a religious bookshop. He was browsing around and there he saw a rack in which there were a whole lot of prayer cards with the prayer of Saint Francis: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. He bought a bundle of them and put them in his pocket to bring on their journey.
And when we came to the very end of the decommissioning, he could remember the last moment when General de Chastelain thought they'd dealt with the last weapon.
Way out from the corner came a man with a gun over his shoulder. They'd seen him all week and who he was protecting them from, they never knew. What he could have done with his one weapon had anybody come with ill intent, he didn't know, but symbolically he was kind of standing guard over them. He was clearly a member of the IRA.
Nobody knew what was happening. The security forces did not know. The politicians did not know. The media did not know. They'd have found them if they'd known. They would have rented every helicopter in the country. Nobody knew where they were or that this was happening. The only person close to Reverend Good who would know anything was his wife, because they were on a tour of China leading a group of 40 people when the summons came. He had to leave the tour half way through China, and come home to Ireland. Everyone except the tour thought Reverend Good was in China that week, but actually he was in Ireland, witnessing the decommissioning of the IRA weapons.
But the lone guard with the gun walked over and when he handed it over, Reverend Good could still recall the look on the General's face, because the General had forgotten about this weapon. The lone guard handed the General himself the gun. He didn't salute. But he took it off his shoulder, and handed it over with military formality.
Reverend Good remembered Father Reid turned to him and said, “There goes the last gun out from Irish politics.”
This talk continues at the blog posting entitled: Prayer at IRA Weapon Decommissioning.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Good Friday Agreement and Decommissioning of Weapons
On a Monday May 10, 2010 our Volunteer In Missions group met at 3 pm with Reverend Harold Good who is a Winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize and was involved in decommissioning of IRA weapons. This is the seventh in a series relating his talk. In the prior blog posting we learned of how reality itself was a stepping stone that forced both sides to turn toward peace. Next, he relates to us the pivotal Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 and the role of US leaders in it:
After the initial meetings of the IRA leaders with the British state, there were a whole series of political meetings: Sunnydale being one of the main ones. People said all these meetings failed.
But did these agreements fail? There is no question they did not succeed in bringing peace, but they did help to lead on to the next step. Each one showed why something would not work and caused people to change their perception. Taken together, these failed attempts brought the process forward.
Most important they brought about international facilitation, and this lead to the involvement of the United States. The United States made an immense contribution to the peace process. There were some Irish-Americans who reached out to young people. President Clinton, for one, took an amazingly personal interest in Ireland. President Clinton wasn't really an Irish-American. Someone claimed on his behalf a connection to someone from County Armagh, but it was very tenuous.
Clinton gave the Irish the gift of Senator George Mitchell, who is now better known for his work in the middle east. George Mitchell sat all the parties down except Mr. Paisley's party, as Mr. Paisley's party would not come into it.
After slogging through days, and literally through nights, George Mitchell said to them on the Thursday before Good Friday 1998, if you all are not ready to agree tomorrow, I'm off. They worked through that night and on Good Friday, April, 1998, the parties involved, of course except for Mr. Paisley's party, had agreed. Some of the points of the agreement were aspirational, and some were to be realized more quickly than others.
The agreement was put to the people in a referendum. The vote was 73 percent in Northern Ireland in favor of the agreement. That was hugely important. Reverend Good asked what politician could ever get 73 percent agreement on something.
Across the entire island, something like 90 percent were in favor. People were saying there's got to be a way forward and this is the way forward. A commitment to exclusively peaceful means is the way.
Two parts of the agreement took longer than the rest. One was decommissioning of the weapons. That meant the weapons had to go. The other was devolution of policing and justice.
The parties said, they couldn't sit at a table where there were weapons under the table.
On the 26th of September, the International Commission on Decommissioning led by General John de Chastelain, former head of the Canadian Army, and his two colleagues, were responsible for bringing this accord forward. People were saying, “How do we believe this will be done?” There had been one or two attempts to complete this decommissioning that hadn't worked. So people were not ready to believe it would be done.
Then two clergymen were selected, one from each tradition to witness the decommissioning and to come back and tell their people, “I've seen it with my own eyes.”
Father Alec Reid, a Redemptorist Priest from Clonard Monastery, nearby to the Forthspring Community Center, and Reverend Good, himself were asked to be those two witnesses.
Reverend Good said he could talk to us a bit about that, without violating the confidentiality aspect, and trust to which he was sworn.
This talk continues in a blog posting entitled "The Super Secret Decommissioning of IRA Weapons".
After the initial meetings of the IRA leaders with the British state, there were a whole series of political meetings: Sunnydale being one of the main ones. People said all these meetings failed.
But did these agreements fail? There is no question they did not succeed in bringing peace, but they did help to lead on to the next step. Each one showed why something would not work and caused people to change their perception. Taken together, these failed attempts brought the process forward.
Most important they brought about international facilitation, and this lead to the involvement of the United States. The United States made an immense contribution to the peace process. There were some Irish-Americans who reached out to young people. President Clinton, for one, took an amazingly personal interest in Ireland. President Clinton wasn't really an Irish-American. Someone claimed on his behalf a connection to someone from County Armagh, but it was very tenuous.
Clinton gave the Irish the gift of Senator George Mitchell, who is now better known for his work in the middle east. George Mitchell sat all the parties down except Mr. Paisley's party, as Mr. Paisley's party would not come into it.
After slogging through days, and literally through nights, George Mitchell said to them on the Thursday before Good Friday 1998, if you all are not ready to agree tomorrow, I'm off. They worked through that night and on Good Friday, April, 1998, the parties involved, of course except for Mr. Paisley's party, had agreed. Some of the points of the agreement were aspirational, and some were to be realized more quickly than others.
The agreement was put to the people in a referendum. The vote was 73 percent in Northern Ireland in favor of the agreement. That was hugely important. Reverend Good asked what politician could ever get 73 percent agreement on something.
Across the entire island, something like 90 percent were in favor. People were saying there's got to be a way forward and this is the way forward. A commitment to exclusively peaceful means is the way.
Two parts of the agreement took longer than the rest. One was decommissioning of the weapons. That meant the weapons had to go. The other was devolution of policing and justice.
The parties said, they couldn't sit at a table where there were weapons under the table.
On the 26th of September, the International Commission on Decommissioning led by General John de Chastelain, former head of the Canadian Army, and his two colleagues, were responsible for bringing this accord forward. People were saying, “How do we believe this will be done?” There had been one or two attempts to complete this decommissioning that hadn't worked. So people were not ready to believe it would be done.
Then two clergymen were selected, one from each tradition to witness the decommissioning and to come back and tell their people, “I've seen it with my own eyes.”
Father Alec Reid, a Redemptorist Priest from Clonard Monastery, nearby to the Forthspring Community Center, and Reverend Good, himself were asked to be those two witnesses.
Reverend Good said he could talk to us a bit about that, without violating the confidentiality aspect, and trust to which he was sworn.
This talk continues in a blog posting entitled "The Super Secret Decommissioning of IRA Weapons".
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