Why I can understand how parents of murdered servicemen really feel

FAR be it for me to comment on the Northern Ireland situation. My understanding of the matter comes in the form of music and some movies — similar to some Irish basing their vision of America on John Wayne and the sort.

However, there is one component of the sad news from the North I can relate to and comment on — continuing the ancient chronicle that it is the young who will die in conflict. Two young British troops and a policeman, patriotically serving their country and most likely idealistically believing they were helping the citizens of Northern Ireland, were killed for policies that had nothing to do with them.

Now their families face a lifetime of disbelief and astonishment that their sons somehow could be blamed for things completely out of their hands. Consider the soldiers’ ages and try to comprehend how anyone thinks there was something to gain by killing them: a 21-year-old and a 23-year-old, their whole lives in front of them.

Because of my own experience, spending the last week of my son’s life at his bedside in a military hospital in the US, I am also drawn to the “secondary part” of the news report: two other soldiers and two civilians were also injured in the Antrim attack.

I do not know the full extent of their injuries but just the announcement sent me back to that period. There I was surrounded by young men of the same ages with horrific wounds. Young men who served their country as patriots convinced they were doing good in Iraq.

I disagreed with the policy there, but the courage of these young people was overwhelming. Now there are four families facing possibly difficult decisions. In the case of my son, there were things worse than dying.

Before my move to Ireland, my doctor told me that relocating to Cork would not leave my problems behind. My head would have to go with me. Now I know there is nowhere to go to escape the violence and the disregard for life that has always existed.

We can accomplish so much with our technology but we still hold on to our barbarism.

John Fenton

Crosshaven

Co Cork

(Proud father of US Marine Matthew Fenton, killed in action, Fallujah, Iraq).