大象传媒

Good morning. On this day, 14th August 1969, British troops were sent onto the streets of Londonderry. A group of 300 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, the Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Yorkshire was deployed into the Bogside area to give relief to the cordons of police which had been responding to heavy rioting in the city for the previous three days. It was said by the government at the time that this would be a short-term measure, and that the troops would be pulled out within days. As things happened however, this limited arrival would stimulate a massive deployment of personnel, buildings, machinery and all the paraphernalia of a permanent security presence which came to describe 鈥渘ormality鈥� for my generation in Ulster in the years to follow.
Like most people from my part of these islands, and from both sides of the community living after the cease-fires, we are so grateful that our children have not been raised in an atmosphere of overt military activity, as we were. They are not searched when they enter a shop. They are not routinely stopped when they drive the car to visit a friend of an evening. There were deaths in those years 鈥� each one tragic, and impossible to justify. There are ex-soldiers and those who opposed them, perhaps listening to this who carry the scars in body and mind of those dark days.
Lord God, Jesus taught that we could forgive the worst thing done to us in this life, because he had forgiven the worst thing of all, done to him. May it be that for those whose memories of Northern Ireland are of a hard and bitter place, find a little more peace today. Amen.