LEADERS TO RECALL VICTIMS ON RADIO
Leaders to recall victims on radio
POLITICAL leaders from Britain, Ireland and the US will remember victims of the troubles in a historic and moving radio broadcast on both sides of the border and the Atlantic Ocean today.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and US president Bill Clinton are to join President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and David Trimble to contribute personal reflections on some of the 3,637 deaths.
The 30-minute programme is scheduled to be heard simultaneously on BBC Northern Ireland and RTE - as well as on a New York radio station.
Linked to a recently published book, it has been prepared to coincide with Christmas, the millennium - and the now hoped-for permanent resolution of the troubles.
President Clinton concentrates in his contribution on the most recent mass-murder outrage - the Real IRA bomb attack on Omagh, Co Tyrone, in August last year, when 29 people died and more than 200 were injured.
Mr Clinton, who visited Omagh with Mr Blair two weeks after the bombing, focuses on the fate of Avril Monaghan, a mother of four, who was pregnant with twins at the time of the attack.
Mr Blair focuses on the three young Quinn brothers, of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, who died in a loyalist petrol bombing of their home a month before Omagh.
He refers to "the courage to take the leap of faith needed so that we have a real prospect of seeing a genuine lasting peace in the new millennium".
"That is a noble ambition for all of us, seizing the moment to end the hatred and the bitterness so that above all else, the children of Northern Ireland have the chance of a future denied to those no longer with us."
Mr Ahern talks of the 1974 Dublin -Monaghan bombings, when 33 people died in the biggest single victim toll of the whole conflict.
The Irish government this week set up an inquiry into those attacks, to be headed by Chief Justice Liam Hamilton.
One of the most poignant contributions comes from Mr Trimble, who was clearly close to tears as he looked back to the 1994 murder of a man who worked as a cleaner at an RUC station in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
The incident happened near Mr Trimble's constituency office. Fredrick Anthony was killed when his car was blown up. His wife and two children who were also in the vehicle were injured. His daughter was hugging her father at the time of the blast.
Belfast-born President McAleese recalled the murder of a Protestant friend by a man her family knew well - and the impact on everyone caught up in the killing.
Others involved in the programme included former US senator and Northern Ireland peace process broker-in-chief George Mitchell, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, SDLP chief John Hume and David Ervine, head of the Progressive Unionist Party.
POLITICAL leaders from Britain, Ireland and the US will remember victims of the troubles in a historic and moving radio broadcast on both sides of the border and the Atlantic Ocean today.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and US president Bill Clinton are to join President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and David Trimble to contribute personal reflections on some of the 3,637 deaths.
The 30-minute programme is scheduled to be heard simultaneously on BBC Northern Ireland and RTE - as well as on a New York radio station.
Linked to a recently published book, it has been prepared to coincide with Christmas, the millennium - and the now hoped-for permanent resolution of the troubles.
President Clinton concentrates in his contribution on the most recent mass-murder outrage - the Real IRA bomb attack on Omagh, Co Tyrone, in August last year, when 29 people died and more than 200 were injured.
Mr Clinton, who visited Omagh with Mr Blair two weeks after the bombing, focuses on the fate of Avril Monaghan, a mother of four, who was pregnant with twins at the time of the attack.
Mr Blair focuses on the three young Quinn brothers, of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, who died in a loyalist petrol bombing of their home a month before Omagh.
He refers to "the courage to take the leap of faith needed so that we have a real prospect of seeing a genuine lasting peace in the new millennium".
"That is a noble ambition for all of us, seizing the moment to end the hatred and the bitterness so that above all else, the children of Northern Ireland have the chance of a future denied to those no longer with us."
Mr Ahern talks of the 1974 Dublin -Monaghan bombings, when 33 people died in the biggest single victim toll of the whole conflict.
The Irish government this week set up an inquiry into those attacks, to be headed by Chief Justice Liam Hamilton.
One of the most poignant contributions comes from Mr Trimble, who was clearly close to tears as he looked back to the 1994 murder of a man who worked as a cleaner at an RUC station in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
The incident happened near Mr Trimble's constituency office. Fredrick Anthony was killed when his car was blown up. His wife and two children who were also in the vehicle were injured. His daughter was hugging her father at the time of the blast.
Belfast-born President McAleese recalled the murder of a Protestant friend by a man her family knew well - and the impact on everyone caught up in the killing.
Others involved in the programme included former US senator and Northern Ireland peace process broker-in-chief George Mitchell, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, SDLP chief John Hume and David Ervine, head of the Progressive Unionist Party.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0335
Published Date: 24-Dec-99
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