Every time I read into my files, I am reminded of those no longer with us and I think about them in the different phases of the conflict and in the peace of this place. Some of them shouldered the heavy weights of change, while others made things difficult and, at times, impossible.
We often talk about the different sides in conflict. There are also different sides in peace. And there are those whose voices will no longer be heard in the conversations on legacy and in the telling of the battles of the Past and the making of agreements.
Who speaks now for those missing voices in politics, in military, in policing, in intelligence - in the loyalist and IRA leaderships? For those who have taken their memory and experiences and truths with them. There is a long, long list that stretches into the churches through to those who offered international help and advice - to the big community voices and into the media, to colleagues of mine who reported on that long journey from then to now.
For several decades, this place lost itself in the trenches and in the traps of war, before discovering the importance of words and dialogue and the challenges of compromise. Here I list just 40 of those missing voices. There are many, many more.
- Martin McGuinness
- Brian Keenan
- Ted Howell
- Bobby Storey
- Kevin McKenna
- Rita O'Hare
- Brendan McFarlane
- Joe Cahill
- Gusty Spence
- David Ervine
- William 'Plum' Smith
- Billy Mitchell
- Jim McDonald
- Hugh Smyth
- Winston Churchill Rea
- Andy Tyrie
- Mo Mowlam
- May Blood
- Pat Hume
- Rev Roy Magee
- Fr Alec Reid
- Fr Des Wilson
- Dr Jack Weir
- Bishop Edward Daly
- Brendan Duddy
- John Hume
- David Trimble
- Ian Paisley
- Albert Reynolds
- Charles Haughey
- Robin Masefield
- Sir John Wilsey
- Sir Patrick Mayhew
- Margaret Thatcher
- Sir John Hermon
- Nelson Mandela
- Martti Ahtisaari
- Seamus Kelters
- Stephen Grimason
- Ken Reid
The funeral of Belfast republican Brendan McFarlane
The living and the dead
February 25th 2025: I thought about those carrying the coffin of Brendan McFarlane - the IRA jail leader during the 1981 hunger strike. And I thought about so much more. Thought about how the Past is being buried and lost, and thought about the living and the dead. Inside Milltown Cemetery, the coffin was carried by Padraic Wilson, Martin Lynch, Gerry Adams, Sean Hughes, Sean Murray and Martin Ferris, and the oration was given by Gerry Kelly.
Speaking at a legacy conference eight days later, I described the men in my picture frames as the corporate memory of the republican leadership - able to speak to the Past if ever we find a process in which to make this possible. At that conference on March 5th 2025, there were questions about naming names - about those behind the orders and the actions. We are fooling ourselves if we believe this type of ‘truth’ is possible.
I expect something like the formulaic, pre-learned responses that David Park described in his 2008 novel ‘The Truth Commissioner’. And this is why I argue for an international report on the conflict years; written with pens free of emotional ink. We are not capable of doing this ourselves and, as far back as 2008, we should have realised this when four victims commissioners had to be appointed instead of one.
We also need to record the stories of leadership that brought the conflict here to an end. And there should be some proper place of remembrance and for storytelling; something imagined and shaped from outside of politics. All of this would allow for a generational shift within this process that is future looking. Is there the leadership now and the will to find a way through?
David Ervine, Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, 'Plum' Smith and Gusty Spence all had parts in this remarkable journey.
Leaders matter: the former MP Sylvia Hermon remembering David Trimble and how he made the Good Friday Agreement possible.
Text transcript
Whenever David Trimble's name is mentioned, two particular observations come immediately to mind; a two-word sentence by Tony Blair and a Biblical reference by my late father.
"Leaders matter." wrote Blair when reflecting upon the making of the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement. Without Trimble's courageous and inspirational leadership, we would not have had the Agreement in 1998.
Yet, in 2005, he lost his Westminster seat and resigned as Leader of the UUP.
I remember asking my father, "Why?" With the wisdom of his 90 years, he replied, "Trimble was like the prophets of old... not without honour, except in his home country."
Sylvia Hermon
Impossible Peace 2: Explore the collection
-
28 July 2005: 4 o'clock and all is well
Read now to access more details of 28 July 2005: 4 o'clock and all is wellThe archive follows the next phase of the Northern Ireland peace process through the years 2005-2010 and what happened after the IRA decision to end its armed campaign at 4pm on Thursday, July 28th 2005.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Introduction
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: IntroductionThis publication builds on our previous work -‘Impossible Peace’. Our focus now is the period 2005/10, and what happened after the IRA decision to end its armed campaign at 4pm on Thursday, July 28th 2005.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Tea for two
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Tea for twoThe old receipt takes me back twenty years to a Saturday morning - July 23rd 2005. I was in one of those meetings of words and silences; sitting with Richard McAuley a senior aide to then Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Thrown to the political wolves
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Thrown to the political wolvesA seismic shift. A rapid sequence of events. What were the sentiments around the decision to demilitarise?
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: "The taigs are getting everything"
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: "The taigs are getting everything"Tense conversations. Lists of grievances. A day of rage.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: On a wing and a prayer
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: On a wing and a prayer"The job is done. It can't be done twice." What were the doubts and narratives around IRA decommissioning?
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: The bunker in the peace
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: The bunker in the peaceNew steps and ideas after 2006: "How do you build new policing on that battlefield?"
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Bullets in their socks
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Bullets in their socksBrian Rowan reflects on trying to make the pieces of the peace process narratives fit together.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: The murders at Massereene
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: The murders at MassereeneMarch 7th 2009: another murder scene painted onto the canvas of an imperfect, troubled, tortuous peace.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Where have all the leaders gone?
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Where have all the leaders gone?The peacebuilding project took leadership - where are the leaders today?
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: An everyday kind of miracle
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: An everyday kind of miracleThe afterword to the project archive by Declan Lawn - the screenwriter and director behind BBC's "Blue Lights".
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Impossible Peace 2: Much more than an archive
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Much more than an archiveThis project, under its heading Impossible Peace, is intended to do more than log detail and analysis. It is about taking all of that information into a wide conversation to discuss moments of history and learning and the different perspectives.
Level: 1 Introductory
-
Ceasefire anniversary in Northern Ireland: 30 years of an impossible peace
Read now to access more details of Ceasefire anniversary in Northern Ireland: 30 years of an impossible peaceA story of change, drawing on the thoughts of some of those who made the ceasefires and the political agreement in Northern Ireland possible.
Level: 1 Introductory
Download the archive (PDF, 37MB)
Rate and Review
Rate this article
Review this article
Log into OpenLearn to leave reviews and join in the conversation.
Article reviews