大象传媒

Jude Whyte was born in Belfast in 1957 to Catholic parents. After the sectarian conflict started in the late 1960s, several of his siblings left for England, but Jude remained in Belfast, taking a sociology degree and getting married. In April 1984, his mother, a part-time taxi driver, was killed in a bomb blast outside the family home.

鈥淚n those days there was no counselling or trauma advice and initially I was full of bile and hatred. I became a bad father, a bad husband and a bad lecturer. My thoughts were only of revenge and I could feel the bitterness eating me up. I knew I had to change. You could say my revenge for the murder of my mother is my forgiveness because it has given me strength.鈥�

Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning journalist who became interested in forgiveness at the time of the Iraq War. It鈥檚 a subject she鈥檚 explored now for many years, in books and through founding a charity, 鈥楾he Forgiveness Project鈥�. A common theme running through these stories is that forgiveness is difficult, messy, and complex, but it brings with it the power to transform lives.

Producer: Kim Normanton
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Just Radio production for 大象传媒 Radio 4