PRIEST: I AM LIVING IN A TOWN OF GHOSTS
Priest: I am living in a town of ghosts
AN Omagh priest yesterday said he now lived "in a town of ghosts" after the bombing.
Father Kevin Mullen, from Christ the King Church, said on BBC Radio Four's Thought for the Day: "Each of us here in Omagh has been revisiting in our minds the still-cordoned section of Market Street at the lower end of town.
"The people in the dress shop, best-dressed or about to be so, half-naked, limbless, lifeless.
"Those in the paper shop, now to be read of themselves in the newspapers of the world.
"The once happy Saturday afternoon shoppers betrayed by a lie as to the location of death and herded towards and not away from destruction.
"Ghosts that are going to wander always around this corner of the street.
"The daughter, mother and granddaughter; the foreign children who stepped, singing off their bus; the father and son returned that morning from their holiday; the 28 at least who will neither see nor be seen here any more.
"We were schooled together, worked side by side, played together and heard the One Lord call us together in a variety of bells to worship him on Sunday or at least by a good conscience.
"We voted together for a new beginning to listen to one another's hearts and share this place as one. Our ghosts are happy ghosts, the ghosts of friends and we will not betray them.
"We who must bury them now will walk together to their too-early graves and together into the future.
"We must not betray their poor ghosts."
AN Omagh priest yesterday said he now lived "in a town of ghosts" after the bombing.
Father Kevin Mullen, from Christ the King Church, said on BBC Radio Four's Thought for the Day: "Each of us here in Omagh has been revisiting in our minds the still-cordoned section of Market Street at the lower end of town.
"The people in the dress shop, best-dressed or about to be so, half-naked, limbless, lifeless.
"Those in the paper shop, now to be read of themselves in the newspapers of the world.
"The once happy Saturday afternoon shoppers betrayed by a lie as to the location of death and herded towards and not away from destruction.
"Ghosts that are going to wander always around this corner of the street.
"The daughter, mother and granddaughter; the foreign children who stepped, singing off their bus; the father and son returned that morning from their holiday; the 28 at least who will neither see nor be seen here any more.
"We were schooled together, worked side by side, played together and heard the One Lord call us together in a variety of bells to worship him on Sunday or at least by a good conscience.
"We voted together for a new beginning to listen to one another's hearts and share this place as one. Our ghosts are happy ghosts, the ghosts of friends and we will not betray them.
"We who must bury them now will walk together to their too-early graves and together into the future.
"We must not betray their poor ghosts."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/052
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
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