Clodagh Finn: The credit union loan that acted as a stepping stone on path to peace

It is hard to think that trust in the irish retail banking sector has even been partially restored, writes Clodagh Finn

'It’s time, on several levels, to recall John Hume’s principles not just in politics but right across the board.'

 It is 50 years since the phone rang in the Hume household in Derry one June day and Pat Hume answered to find Senator Edward Kennedy on the line. When she went to tell her husband, he was incredulous.

“Pull the other one,” he said, before being persuaded that the American senator was indeed phoning because he had heard John Hume was “the man to talk to about peace in Ireland”. The senator asked him if he would fly to Bonn in Germany to meet him.

John Hume immediately agreed and then went to the credit union he had set up in his native city to borrow the fare.

It might be overstating it to say that the credit union movement helped to kickstart the Northern Ireland peace process, but only slightly. As John Hume’s friend and colleague Seán Farren remarks, you can, in fact, trace a link from the credit union movement to the Good Friday Agreement.

Not least, he explains, because that credit-union-financed meeting between Hume and Kennedy in June 1972 marked the beginning of a relationship between the two men and a lifelong commitment to build peace in Ireland through non-violent means that respected difference and diversity.

Senator Edward Kennedy in 1999. Kennedy was a big admirer of John Hume.

Senator Kennedy later recalled the substance of the meeting: “He [Hume] looked at this as a political process that was going to be built upon different traditions and mutual respect ... I believe it’s important to listen to the ones who are risking their lives and are attempting to do it in a non-violent way.”

Anniversary

The John and Pat Hume Foundation for Peaceful Change and the Edward M Kennedy Institute will commemorate the 50th anniversary of that crucial meeting on June 23 in Bonn. And yet, when John Hume was once asked by a journalist how he would like to be remembered, the man who shared the Nobel Peace prize with David Trimble in 1998 said he wanted to be remembered for setting up the credit union in Derry.

That famous response came to mind when John Hume Jnr commented last week that there were lessons to be learned from his father’s life that could be used in today’s political climate. He said things such as respect for difference, respect for diversity, and respect for the rule of law were all things very close to his heart.

Absent values

Those very values are entirely absent right now as the British government tramples all over the principles of partnership and mutual respect by publishing a bill that ignores major parts of the Northern Ireland protocol. There has been a chorus of international condemnation, yet the British government is not for turning.

 John Hume and Marian Finucane with Uel Adair (President ILCU) at the unveiling of a commemorative portrait of the Irish League of Credit Union Irish founders Sean Forde, Nora Herlihy, and Seamus P MacEoin in 2008.

The bill and its implications will fill many column inches over the coming days and weeks but little will be said about the core principles underlining John Hume’s other great legacy, the credit union movement. At a time when the worst cost-of-living crisis in four decades is causing real hardship, it is worth restating the values of a movement that puts people before profit.

John Hume’s son was speaking about his father’s beliefs in Strasbourg as a sculpture by Elizabeth O’Kane to honour the former MEP and founding member of the SDLP was unveiled at the European Parliament. Let us recall the day that John Hume himself was present at the unveiling of another sculpture, this one by artist Paula O’Sullivan in Ballydesmond on the Cork/Kerry border honouring teacher Nora Herlihy, a native and co-founder of the credit union movement in the republic.

Financial control

In 2000, John Hume paid tribute to a woman who had done something concrete to help people who were locked out of access to credit in banking institutions. Like Hume, Nora Herlihy saw that the key to helping people was developing a system that allowed them control over their finances.

With Tomás Ó Hogáin and Seamus MacEoin, she set up the Dublin Central Co-operative Society, an organisation that eventually led to the establishment of a credit union network in Ireland. It started small, in Nora’s own home, and in that of her neighbours in Donore Avenue, Dublin, the Ni Bhrion sisters, Aingeal and Eileen. They went from door to door to tell people that they were setting up a credit union. The first weekly collection yielded £7.

By the time Nora Herlihy died in 1988, the movement had almost one million members in 500 branches around the country. Nora would be remembered as the greatest woman in the history of Ireland to date, John Hume said more than two decades ago.

We might reawaken the legacy both of them left now as people trying to open new bank accounts as Ulster Bank and KBC exit the Irish market are facing long waits, red tape and many challenges.

Banking culture

The airwaves paint an interesting picture; they are full of banking adverts stressing customer services and talk shows where customers or would-be customers tell a tale of confusion and difficulty.

It is hard to think that trust in the Irish retail banking sector has even been partially restored

Even leaving aside the banking collapse of 2008 and subsequent bailout — and that is an awful lot to leave aside — the tracker mortgage scandal that followed devastated the lives of tens of thousands of people who were denied the more favourable tracker rate. Many lost their homes.

The final cost to the banks in compensation will top €1billion and yet the Central Bank reports, year after year, that banks have yet to embed a culture and a mindset that puts the customer first.

Little wonder that younger customers have opted for digital banks even if they do not come under the protection of the financial ombudsman. There has been a pandemic uptick in those going to credit unions too, many of which are offering new services such as current accounts and debit cards, making them viable alternatives to banks.

Progress

That is a really positive step for several reasons. One, it gives ordinary people access to credit where they might have had none. The surge in prices makes alarming headlines but behind each one is a story of human worry and suffering as some people are forced to choose between paying the rent or buying food to put on the table.

In the past, the credit union has saved people from nerve-shredding sleepless nights or loan sharks. It is, as John Hume’s close friend Seán Farren puts it, the ultimate self-help organisation because it helps ordinary people to pull themselves up by their own shoelaces.

The Irish movement also has an international dimension. It helped to set up similar voluntary bodies in Sierra Leone and other countries in West Africa.

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Right now, the banking sector would do well to adopt some of the principles of the credit union movement. There is also a risk, however, that credit unions will become more bank-like, ie, less customer-focused, as they continue to expand and offer new services.

It’s time then, on several levels, to recall John Hume’s principles not just in politics but right across the board.