3,637 dead: what was it all for?

THERE is a new dawn breaking in Irish politics.

Democratic and non-violent politics has finally triumphed over the advocates of physical force and intransigence.

As the New York News said of John Hume on May 24, 1998, after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement: “More than 20 years ago, he first packaged the ideas at the core of the Good Friday Agreement: a new Assembly and shared powers between North and South. In the end, Hume never budged. Everyone else had to change their minds about killing and discrimination”.

We can now add that everyone else had to change their minds about powersharing and support for the police, too.

It is essential now that we remember one group of people — the families of the 3,637 victims of the Troubles.

For them, it is a time of raw emotion with tears shed for loved ones and their sense of relief tinged by sadness, frustration and anger. These families will want to ask some simple but very powerful questions, even if it’s unlikely they will ever get satisfactory answers.

What were the Troubles for?

Why did so many innocent people have to die?

Why did Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams not seize the opportunity for powersharing at the time of the Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 and avoid the terrible pain and loss in the succeeding 34 years?

These are just a few of the tough and difficult questions which need to be asked again and again as we now set about the momentous task of building a new Ireland based on truth and justice for all.

Cllr Tim Attwood, SDLP

Upper Falls

2 Lakeglen Green

Andersonstown Road

Belfast