COWARDICE DEFINED HERE
Cowardice defined here
AS the silence of mourning settles upon Omagh it is difficult to speak, for fear of falling far short of the eloquence of silence. Yet it is necessary to do so simply to identify this moment.
'Will those people in Northern Ireland never learn?" the world asks. I believe we are learning because some important things are being redefined here -things of great moment not just for us, but for a world racked by terror.
First, cowardice is being defined here. Cowards cannot bear pain or carry their own cross. And so they take their cross and slam it down on the shoulders of visiting Spanish teenagers, of a grandmother, of her pregnant daughter and infant granddaughter.
They will say "history is on our side".We know now what this means. It means 'we will win in the end - and then we will rewrite history to show that we were the heroes, and all that innocent blood was justifiable just to prove us right."
But they are mistaken, for heroism is being redefined here also. It does not lie in the meticulous planning of a bombing operation, rather, it lies in the instinctive concern not for one's own injuries but for the sister or brother or mother or child who was by one's side just a moment ago, and who had simply disappeared.
It lies in the young man who searches through a jumble of human remains for identifiable signs of a relative who cannot be accounted for.
It lies in the RUC officer or nurse who responds to desperate pleas for help, despite the fact that they too have missing relatives.
It lies in those who reach for a prayer rather than an angry word.
It lies above all in those who shoulder their own pain, those who refuse to be propelled into hatred by hatred, into murder by murder, into bigotry by bigotry.
It lies in those who despite the most frightful provocation take up their cross, and face for the rest of their lives the burden of grief - without demanding that someone else bear this cross also.
They are the only real heroes, and they will prevail, because we will remember them long after the last terrorist.
SEAN O'CONAILL. Coleraine.
AS the silence of mourning settles upon Omagh it is difficult to speak, for fear of falling far short of the eloquence of silence. Yet it is necessary to do so simply to identify this moment.
'Will those people in Northern Ireland never learn?" the world asks. I believe we are learning because some important things are being redefined here -things of great moment not just for us, but for a world racked by terror.
First, cowardice is being defined here. Cowards cannot bear pain or carry their own cross. And so they take their cross and slam it down on the shoulders of visiting Spanish teenagers, of a grandmother, of her pregnant daughter and infant granddaughter.
They will say "history is on our side".We know now what this means. It means 'we will win in the end - and then we will rewrite history to show that we were the heroes, and all that innocent blood was justifiable just to prove us right."
But they are mistaken, for heroism is being redefined here also. It does not lie in the meticulous planning of a bombing operation, rather, it lies in the instinctive concern not for one's own injuries but for the sister or brother or mother or child who was by one's side just a moment ago, and who had simply disappeared.
It lies in the young man who searches through a jumble of human remains for identifiable signs of a relative who cannot be accounted for.
It lies in the RUC officer or nurse who responds to desperate pleas for help, despite the fact that they too have missing relatives.
It lies in those who reach for a prayer rather than an angry word.
It lies above all in those who shoulder their own pain, those who refuse to be propelled into hatred by hatred, into murder by murder, into bigotry by bigotry.
It lies in those who despite the most frightful provocation take up their cross, and face for the rest of their lives the burden of grief - without demanding that someone else bear this cross also.
They are the only real heroes, and they will prevail, because we will remember them long after the last terrorist.
SEAN O'CONAILL. Coleraine.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0201
Published Date: 22-Aug-98
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.