There have been many \u201cunsung heroes\u201d associated with the peace process.\u00a0 I was privileged to work with people like Gusty Spence, Billy Mitchell, Jim McDonald, David Ervine and others.<\/p>\n
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One totally unsung hero friend was a leading UVF man who asked that I would not disclose his name just before he died.\u00a0 He was among the most decent human beings I have known.\u00a0 He saved lives, including lives of Catholics and encouraged fellow loyalists to think about the future.\u00a0 But he remained content that his work was virtually unknown while he worked away quietly for a better future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two other parallel stories illustrate how human beings can transcend divisions even in the dire circumstances of prison life to support those in need whatever their religion or politics.\u00a0 Their names may never be known.\u00a0 Both were Prison Warders, one Presbyterian the other Catholic.\u00a0 They were men of integrity and humanity who befriended prisoners from traditions that were not their own.<\/p>\n
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When Gusty Spence first went into prison he faced hostility and was occasionally treated with distain by certain Prison Warders who thought he had brought their cause into disrepute.\u00a0 But he wasn\u2019t long in Crumlin Road Jail before finding an unexpected friend, a\u00a0devout Catholic Prison Warder who Gusty codenamed \u201cMinister\u201d.<\/p>\n
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This was the only name by which Gusty\u2019s family knew the Warder during a time of painful separation.\u00a0 The Minister became a true and trusted friend who liaised with Gusty\u2019s wife Louie and their family.\u00a0 \u00a0During times of great tension and at great personal risk to himself, this Catholic Warder crossed the barricades into the heart of the Shankill Road because of his compassion for a fellow human being.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Minister carried personal messages for Gusty and his family and a deep lasting and genuine friendship developed between the two men.\u00a0 Gusty explained, \u201cTo me friendship means a person who\u2019s there whenever you need them and he was there whenever I needed him.\u00a0 Yes and I was there whenever he needed me\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gusty and Louie eventually met the warder who was ill and had retired.\u00a0 They picked him up in a rural village outside Belfast and spent a peaceful, quiet and enjoyable day of friendship reminiscing together.\u00a0 Gusty recalled that \u201cfrom time to time not only was there mirth, but there was tears in both our eyes\u201d as they remember mutual friends who had died.\u00a0 The Minister was held in the highest esteem to the very end of Gusty\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By a strange coincidence Paddy Joe McClean, also known as PJ, told me a similar story.\u00a0\u00a0 Paddy Joe hails from a small remote village in County Tyrone.\u00a0 Rather unusually he had the doubtful privilege of being interned not once but twice.\u00a0 The first was during the 1950s, the second by the early 1970s.\u00a0 Yet PJ was never involved in violence.<\/p>\n
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He came from a broadly nationalist background but would not appreciate being referred to as a nationalist.\u00a0 For a time during the 1950s he worked for Fianna Uladh during an election.\u00a0\u00a0 This was the political wing of Saor Uladh, the only Republican group to recognize Ulster (Uladh) in their title.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When PJ was first interned during 1956-1960 he got to know a Presbyterian Warder.\u00a0 When he was again interned in 1971 they met up again as PJ was being returned to his cell in Crumlin Road Jail.\u00a0 Paddy Joe had been tortured and the Prison Warder could not help but notice his serious injuries.<\/p>\n
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He asked Paddy Joe if there was anything he could do for him so PJ asked for pen and paper.\u00a0\u00a0 The man was skeptical about Paddy Joe\u2019s ability to write because of his injuries, but he got a pen and paper.\u00a0 Paddy Joe was then able to write enough to explain what happened and the Warder agreed to post his letter to Cardinal Conway.\u00a0 But at his own expense the man hired a taxi and delivered the letter by hand to the Cardinal in Armagh.<\/p>\n
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The Cardinal flew immediately to London to meet Prime Minister Ted Heath.\u00a0 This led to the torture experiment becoming public knowledge.\u00a0 The Government was eventually found guilty of cruel and degrading treatment at Strasbourg.\u00a0 That was 41 years ago but even today Paddy Joe McClean tells me that not a day passes but he thinks about the Presbyterian Warder and the lessons he learned.<\/p>\n
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It is inspiring to realize that human beings have the capacity to walk even in their enemies shoes and see fellow human beings lurking behind the labels we have placed on them.\u00a0\u00a0 Such stories should be told, treasured and remembered for all time.<\/p>\n
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