The Five Demands

Parla il figlio di una vittima dell’INLA

A pochi giorni dall’ufficialità notizia del disarmo dell’Irish National Liberation Army, sono molti i ricordi che riaffiorano nelle menti di chi dall’INLA è stata toccata da vicino.
Craig Seawright, è figlio di George Seawright. Vittima dei Troubles, ma sicuramente una di quelle che non ha lasciato un ricordo positivo nella mente delle persone.
Unionista ‘estremo’, George Seawright venne espulso dal DUP nel 1984 quando, in qualità di consigliere comunale di Belfast, durante un incontro incentrato sull’educazione nelle scuole cattoliche affermò che si sarebbe dovuto comprare un inceneritore per bruciare tutti i sacerdoti.
Nel 1987, George Seawright cadde vittima dell’IPLO (Irish People’s Liberation Organisation -branchia dell’INLA) mentre era seduto nella sua auto. Solo successivamente l’UVF dichiarò l’appartenenza del politico alle sue file.
Craig Seawright aveva all’epoca 10 anni, e di quel giorno ricorda solo una grande rabbia. Una grande rabbia e un gran dolore che hanno segnato la vita di tutta la famiglia, per anni.
Solo alla soglia dei 20 anni, ha maturato la scelta del perdono pur sostenendo che il fatto che non sia stata fatta ancora giustizia, significa solo che è in ritardo.
L’uomo dice di aver conosciuto l’identità di uno degli assassini del padre, ma è convinto non sia più in vita. Tempo dopo l’omicidio, l’UVF assassinò colui che definì il responsabile della morte di George Seawright, ovvero Martin O’Prey.
Craig, di religione cattolica, sposato e lavoratore a tempo pieno, ha completato la propria formazione teologica in Galles ed in Texas, proponendosi ora come insegnante della Bibbia.
Afferma come ora i tempi siano cambiati, come la gente oggi si senta molto più ‘libera’ e parlando del perdono dice: “È estremamente difficile, ma come cristiano, Dio mi ha dato la forza per farlo. Non riesco a immaginare nessun altro capace di farlo, senza la forza di Dio.
“Sono ancora un unionista e ho amici nazionalisti.
“Io lavoro con i repubblicani e ho imparato a convivere con le loro opinioni. Vorrei fosse data voce a tali differenzee ma senza lasciare che diventino un motivo di conflitto e di attaccarsi a vicenda”.
Liz, sua madre, venne eletta a successore del marito George in seno al consiglio e gli furono attribuiti grandi applausi quando ,dopo l’assassinio, si recò in visita di un gruppo di donne di Falls Road.
Ora ha deciso di ritirasi dalla vita pubblica, perchè afflitta da sclerosi multipla. Malattia considerata dal figlio Craig come una conseguenza delle grandi sofferenze arrecate dalla vedovanza.
Craig accusa ora l’INLA di non aver lasciato il tempo al padre di poter ravvedersi, così come hanno fatto molte persone soprattutto dopo la firma del Good Friday Agreement.
“L’Accordo del Venerdì Santo e il  cessate il fuoco e hanno dato ad altre persone la possibilità di fare un passo indietro e riconsiderare ciò che era meglio per la gente di cui sosteneva di preoccuparsi. E poi la gente ha cominciato a cambiare direzione.
“Hanno capito i compromessi che dovevano essere raggiunti per il futuro dell’Irlanda del Nord. Questo può essere difficile da accettare per alcune persone, ma mio padre non ha mai avuto la possibilità di guardare ai Troubles con il senno di poi, al modo in cui molte persone sono morte”.

‘INLA robbed my father of the chance to change’ (NewsLetter)
A son of an INLA murder victim reveals his faith has made him able to forgive the killers.
Philip Bradfield reports…
Best remembered for his comment that Catholics should be burned, George Seawright is not a victim of the Troubles whose fate evokes widespread sympathy.
But his son Craig, while accepting that his father was seen as “extreme”, remembers with sadness the loss of his “daddy” — and wonders if, like many other extremists, his father might have changed his views if he had been allowed to live.
The INLA’s announcement of decommissioning this week brought back memories of the killing “as fresh as yesterday” for Craig Seawright.
His Scottish-born father was a Belfast City councillor who was expelled from the DUP after in 1984 he told an education board meeting on Catholic schools that an incinerator should be acquired in which to burn priests.
He was shot dead while sitting in a car in 1987 by the IPLO, a faction of the INLA. The UVF later claimed him as one of its own.
“I was 10 when it happened,” says Craig. “I was taken out of my classroom at Springhill Primary School by the headmaster and my younger sister and cousin were in the corridor waiting for me.
“We knew there was a hit out against my father, I knew right away what had happened.
“The day I feared had come to pass. I felt only angry.
“There is a reality my father was a public figure and people saw him as an extreme politician. But to me and my sisters our daddy had been taken away.”
For many years it had an extremely damaging effect on the Seawright family, says Craig.
“It took until my early twenties until I realised that I had to take the choice to forgive.”
The decision was crucial “in order to free me, my wife and my children from living it all out again and from putting bitterness into my young son’s mind”.
On his father’s killers, he says: “If I met them, as a committed Christian, I would simply want to say that unless they get forgiveness from who really counts, the justice that families like us would seek is not denied — it is just delayed. I don’t bear them any ill will.”
Craig says he may have known the name of one of the men responsible, but he believes the man is no longer alive. Nobody was ever charged with the murder. The UVF later killed the man it said was responsible — Martin O’Prey.
Married and working full-time, Craig has completed theological training in Wales and Texas and is aiming to become a Bible teacher.
Justice for him is that his two-year-old son is “freer” from his family’s past and the past in general. Justice is the reality that the people of Ardoyne now have opportunities to be free “from the men that terrorised their community”.
“Forgiveness is a big question for many people,” he says. “The only person unforgiveness hurts is me and my family — it is the only choice.
“It is extremely difficult, but as a Christian, God has given me strength to do it. I can’t imagine anyone else doing it without God’s strength.
“I am still a unionist and have nationalist friends.
“I work with republicans and have learned to live with their views. I would like to see us voice those differences but not to let that be a reason for conflict and attacking each other.
His father’s death had “a profound effect” on his mother, Liz, who won George’s seat in the council after his murder and won plaudits from nationalists for visiting a women’s group on the Falls Road. She has now withdrawn from public life and suffers from MS, which Craig sees as a physical manifestation of the stresses she suffered, “but she is now extremely happy, and has dealt with it all in her own way”.
“No matter how extreme my father’s views, the gift of hindsight may have made him a very different man,” adds Craig.
“The Good Friday Agreement and ceasefires gave other people a chance to step back and reassess what was best for people they claimed to care about. And then people began to change direction.
“They realised the compromises that had to be made for the future of Northern Ireland. This may be hard to accept for some people, but my father never had the chance to look at the Troubles with hindsight the way that many lesser men did.”