earl storey interviews journalist susan mckay

16 THURSDAY AUGUST 28 2008 Faith matters Religious Affairs Correspondent: William Scholestel: 028 9033 7544 email: w.scholes@irishnews.com

Troubles legacy brought tobook – but questions remainWhat right do theChurches have to beinvolved indealing withthe legacy ofthe Troubles?Not much,Irish News columnistSusan McKay tellsEarl Storey

WHAT is it like for awoman to have livedall her life waiting fora son to come backthen to discover he

has actually been lying in a bog forall those years?As she describes the pain of themother of Columba McVeigh, one ofthe Disappeared, Susan McKay givesa voice and human face to the suffer-ing of the Troubles.Reflecting on her experience as ajournalist covering some of the mosttragic events of the Troubles sherecognises that “for the family thatstory was only really beginning atthe point where it ended for thejournalist”.Susan McKay believes it is vital thatwe do not just simply walk away fromthe past.“The sheer brutality of what wenton in all those years – it needs to benot forgotten,” she says.“We need to try and learn some-thing from it and not let it pass.”She talks of the past as being anembarrassment to some.“It is an embarrassment of courseto Northern Ireland people in politi-cal power – the sort of things thatwere done,” she says.“People being shot in the back as

they fed their animals, being blownup in front of their children.“People being shot dead in frontof their families at the dinner table,people being stripped and left at theside of the road with a sign roundtheir neck saying ‘Tout’.”While being grateful for the politi-cal process, McKay remarks that “thesmiles at Stormont are great... but it’simportant not to forget what went onto lead to the situation”.“Always after a conflict there is atendency for the politicians to cleanit up, clean up the history,” she says.But does dealing with the pastendanger progress in the present?Her answer is clear.“A lot of injustice has been done topeople who have already paid thehighest price for the conflict in thenorth and now people in power aresaying ‘We have to leave it all behindin the interests of the stability of thepeace’,” she says.“As if somehow finding out whathappened is going to collapse thegovernment.“I don’t think that the agreementis so fragile that the truth emergingabout what happened to peoplein the Troubles is going to knock itapart.”On asking McKay why looking atthe past is so important she stressesthe consequences for the future ofnot doing so.“If people’s sense of injustice andanger isn’t addressed then that’sstoring up trouble for the future,” shesays.She feels that it was a process of“acknowledging what happened andbeing determined to never createconditions that could ever give riseto such a situation again and ac-knowledging that there are peoplewho are very badly hurt who needour respect”.McKay talks of some of the verymurky things are beginning toemerge, including collusion.

She talks of disturbing facets ofcollusion in relation to loyalist para-militaries.She also talks of how extraordinaryit is to think of people in the republi-can movement who allegedly mayhave been “responsible for deciding

which informers lived or died thenturn out to have been working for theBritish – the implications are enor-mous”.For relatives of those who diedthere is often great anger. There arealso questions.How come some people were savedand some were let go? Who was re-

ally making these decisions?Susan McKay has difficult thingsto say about the newly establishedbodies that have been set up toaddress different aspects of thelegacy of the Troubles.Her view of the Victims Commis-sion and its inception is that it is “atotal fiasco... the DUP and Sinn Feinwere simply unable to agree on aperson so therefore they have put inplace this completely unworkable[entity]”.Apart from the difficulty of definingits work or being clear how thecommission is going to make deci-sions she felt there was a danger thatwe may “get people selecting thecommissioner according to theirown political background”.Feeling that the matter has becomeso sectarianised, she concludes that“it would have been symbolicallysignificant if the DUP and Sinn Feinhad been able to agree on a candi-date but the fact that they weren’tsays it all”.Moving on to the Eames-BradleyCommission she describes it as“another peculiar body”.While not wanting to prejudge itshe felt that the motivation for thisinitiative was to stall for time.Describing it as a leadershipissue, she says that “those with thepower to make decisions in thesethings should make them instead ofconstantly fobbing us off with thesedifferent bodies”.In essence McKay believes thatsuch a body is a way of the powersthat be pushing an issue aside.It is “playing for time because it wasfelt they wanted the new institutionsto bed down and they felt that theissue of the past was potentiallydisruptive of that”.Reflecting on the composition ofthe Eames-Bradley body she has asobering view of the Church.“Why should it be churchy peoplewho decide all these things?

“It’s not like the Church providedgreat leadership throughout theTroubles,” she says.Susan McKay does something veryimportant. She highlights the rangeof human pain inflicted on those whosuffered in the Troubles.“Some people obviously need on-going medical help. Some peopleneed counselling,” she says.“Some people need to find out thetruth about what happened to theperson that was killed.“A lot of people don’t know, don’tknow who was responsible and don’tknow why their loved one waschosen. Some people want to knowwhy it was never investigated.”Highlighting the present need, shesays: “The war is over. Now is thetime to address the needs of thosewho have been most hurt by it.”Her challenge about dealingwith the past is also for the sake ofthe future.“Efforts need to be put into tryingto inspire some sort of belief in poli-tics in the post-Troubles generation,and some sort of sense of idealism,”she says.“You are not going to inspire ideal-ism by telling people that the truth istoo risky.”Perhaps McKay’s most poignantand sharp question comes in herrelaying of the suffering of onewoman from the Troubles.“Why did our lives have to beruined for 30 years? Why couldn’tthey have done this long ago? Whyare they able to sit down togethernow? What’s different? Why couldn’tthis have been possible 20 years agobefore my brother was killed?” Thequestion simply does not go away.

■■ Susan McKay is author of Bear inMind These Dead, which exploresthe legacy of the Troubles.The Rev Earl Storey is director ofthe Church of Ireland’s Hard GospelProject.

“The sheer brutalityof what went on in allthose years – it needsto be not forgotten.We need to try andlearn something fromit and not let it pass”

Susan McKay

PRINCIPAL of OurLady Of MercyPrimary SchoolSr Frances Fordecelebrates hergolden jubilee inHoly Cross parishhall in Ardoyne,north Belfast,with past pupilGemma Corr,baby Aodhinneand MargretMcGee.The occasion wasmarked for SrFrances at Masson August 19.This was followedby a reception inthe hall at whereparishioners

congratulatedSr Frances.After many yearsas a headteachershe dedicatedherself to parishministry in avoluntarycapacity in theLegion of Maryand the care ofbereaved.She has alsoled a mostproductive prayerministry andinstructed manyconverts andchildren in thesacraments.

PICTURE: Mal McCann

Mercy principalcelebrates hergolden jubilee

■ A VOICE FOR THE SUFFERING:Journalist and author Susan McKay withher book Bear in Mind These Dead

PICTURE: Seamus Loughran