Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Elizabeth & William Concannon, (Anniv).
11.00: Noreen Duncan, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

It is never too late for the truth, and so a British commission's inquiry into the "Bloody Sunday"' killings in 1972 of 14 unarmed demonstrators in Derry, should be welcome for the example it offers. The new report, contradicting a 1972 government whitewash, found that elite British forces opened fire without provocation, gave no warning, shot unarmed people who were fleeing, and mostly lied to investigators about their actions. So British Prime Minister David Cameron could hardly fudge the verdict of the report. Still, the apology he offered in the House of Commons represented a model of honesty and empathy that leaders in other countries guilty of other injustices should emulate.

"What happened was both unjustified and unjustifiable," said David Cameron. Little wonder the families shed tears along with their cries of jubilation. "It was as if a whole people had been released from jail" remarked one journalist who observed the families skip lightly out of Derry's Guildhall, punching the air and giving victory signs. The pent-up frustrations and anger of those 38 years burst like a dam last Tuesday. And 38 years is very long indeed - 38 years to grieve for a father or a brother, a husband or a son, knowing all the time that the one you saw mown down had been falsely branded as a villain intent on violence.

Mark Durkan, in response to Mr. Cameron's speech in the Commons, quoted from Seamus Heaney's powerful poem, "The Road to Derry." The poem recounts Heaney's own journey, both physical and emotional, back to Derry to the funerals:

Along Glenshane and Foreglen
and the cold woods of Hillhead:
A wet wind in the hedges and a dark cloud on the mountain
And flags like black frost
mourning that the thirteen men were dead
The Roe wept at Dungiven and the Foyle cried out to heaven,
Burntollet's old wound opened and again the Bogside bled;
By Shipquay Gate I shivered and by Lone Moor I enquired
Where I might find the coffins where the thirteen men lay dead.
My heart besieged by anger, my mind a gap of danger.
I walked among their old haunts.
the home ground where they bled;
And in the dirt lay justice like an acorn in the winter
Till its oak would sprout in Derry
where the thirteen men lay dead.

The oak finally sprouted in Derry on Tuesday last. The names of the thirteen victims were cleared utterly, no 'ifs', no 'buts'. The authorities must decide whether to prosecute the soldiers who fired at them. The report found that all but one of the soldiers lied to the commission, and those who did should be charged with perjury.

It would be unwise, however, to seek murder prosecutions of the soldiers. Indeed convictions would be highly unlikely. Such proceedings would also revive old enmities over many other acts of violence that went unpunished during 'the Troubles'. After a dozen years of peace in Northern Ireland, the highest priority now is simply to uphold the truth.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Great Interest

First Communions

"The whole of our faith is the belief that God loves us: I mean there just isn't anything else. Anything else we say we believe is just a way of saying that God loves us." -Herbert McCabe O.P.

Let the enchantment commence:

Deck the boys in slick suits,
Gel their hair.

Fit the girls out in petticoated frocks,
Pin cloth roses on their tresses.

Teach them to join hands,
Walk an aisle decorously.

Can it matter,
In God's enormity,

That few who watch,
Aglow in the light of a child,

Know the why of the bread,
Have any prayer but, "Thanks"?

-Padraig J. Daly.

SUMMER FESTIVAL

As you know, our Mid Summer Festival is being held next weekend, 25-27 June. We had a meeting on Wednesday night last at which we have finalised most of our preparations. We meet again on Thursday evening at 7.30 to tie up loose ends. We really could do with more helpers. Some of our most industrious stalwarts are unable to be with us this year, so we really do need new people to take up the slack. As St. Paul would put it (on one of his few good days!), "there are a variety of services to be done". Our Festival has five components:

1) Preparing the Church. Margaret Cunnane, Margaret Cunningham and Mary O h-Ici usually look after the floral decorations and they do it well. (2) Barbecue and Kitchen. Peter O'Neill will do the actual cooking outdoors. But we do need a team to work the kitchen too. (3) Liturgy; (see below) (4) Children's Art; (see across) (5) Children's Entertainment. (See below)

Happenings!

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