About six weeks ago, reflecting on the 30 th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire I wrote a poem that embodied my feelings at the time and over the following three decades, and I subsequently read it at a service in Clonard Monastery organised to mark both the IRA and later Loyalist ceasefires… On this day which marks the 30 th anniversary of the statement by the Combined Loyalist Military Command, my reflections are somewhat longer and more prosaic. At the time Gusty Spence read the ceasefire statement my first emotion was a reinforcement of the profound sense of relief that had hit me 6 weeks earlier. The fact of the ceasefire didn’t surprise me as much as the previous one. Various sources, publicly and privately had assured me that it was coming. But the wording was interesting. The suggestion that the “permanence” of the Loyalist ceasefire was “completely dependant upon the continued cessation of all nationalist/republican violence” maintained the myth that loyalist violence
Written today on a wonderfully relaxing holiday in Istria, and dedicated to our marvellous hosts and tour guides Nikki and Steve. Bobbing on the surface Of a sun-warmed sea, Just off a shingly shore, Buoyed by the salt water, Feeling muscles, taut For far too long, relax, I realise that I rarely permit My mind to do the same; That even now I am grasping For words to encapsulate This all too rare experience, Rather than mentally drifting Off from the shingly shore To lie back, bobbing. Selah