Dalai Lama’s address - Forgiveness in action

WITH the memory of the appalling killing of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr still fresh in the minds of right-thinking people everywhere, the message of the Dalai Lama will not go unheeded.

A spiritual leader of global importance, his words carry great weight.

Some may scoff at what they will see as high-minded utterances. But his philosophy could not be more to the point. Indeed, the world would be a better place if, in our dealings with other people, sentiments such as forgiveness and tolerance were our guiding light.

His address on the power of forgiveness at the University of Limerick was made all the more poignant by the presence of Richard Moore, founder of Children in Crossfire. Blinded as a boy of 10 when struck by a rubber bullet in Derry, Moore later befriended Charles Inness, the man who fired the bullet. Moore is an example of forgiveness in action.