Craic On

This was originally published in 2011.

John Hume

He was in Rosatos last night, as is his wont, having a glass of white wine and a Baileys.

There was a couple from Lurgan in the bar who were astonished to see him.

It’s often the way.

People from Moville are so used to seeing him now but people from down the country are usually taken aback just to bump into him in a local pub.

They usually want their photographs taken with him.

On the Telly

He told us he was going to be on the telly tonight.

We’d seen clips of it.

“I hope they’re going to say something good about me” he said.

A lot of bad things had been said about him in the past.

Strangely, campaigning for peace can make you hugely unpopular.

However, those days are long gone for John.

Peace In Our Time

Even Gerry Adams barely suppressed a tear as he said that John Hume was the guy who broke the circle and brought peace.

If John Hume had never been born I’m not sure that many people would believe that between them Ian Paisley, David Trimble and Gerry Adams would have brought peace to Northern Ireland.

Would they have been able to work out how to get the army checkpoints on the border (now long disappeared) removed?

Credit Union

Until I read it in Wikipedia when I was doing some research for a Rosatos quiz I didn’t realise that John Hume was instrumental in setting up the Credit Union and was the leader of it in Ireland by the age of 27.

As he said the other day himself, “Of all the things I’ve done the Credit Union is the one I’m most proud of.

“It’s done more for people of both persuasions on both sides of the border than anything else I’ve done.

“Before the Credit Union was set up there were pawn shops everywhere taking advantage of the poor.

“Now there’s not one pawn shop in the whole of Ireland”.

“St. Patrick got rid of the snakes from Ireland and you got rid of the sharks” I told him and was delighted to hear him have a chuckle at that.

Important

I let my son Robbie stay up to see the programme even though it finished at 11:30pm.

Why not?

He had been doing some history homework before I took him out to Rosatos.

However, that night he had talked to a man who had made real history, voted Ireland’s greatest man, and I wanted him to know the full extent of what he had done.

He said that boys in his class didn’t even know who John Hume was.

His Thoughts

I asked him afterwards what he thought of the programme.

He said that it had changed totally the way he thought of things as regards The Troubles.

He’s not alone.

John Hume changed the minds of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Edward Kennedy, Tip O’Neill, David Trimble, Tony Blair, Gerry Adams and even Ian Paisley as to how they saw The Troubles and the solution to them.

South Armagh

A few weeks ago there were a few people from South Armagh in Rosatos.

Although delighted to meet him they told him that the IRA had fought for justice and human rights in Northern Ireland.

He told them “How can you say that you are fighting for justice and human rights when you take away from people their most basic human right, their right to life”.

John is the only person to have won the Triple Crown of Peace Prizes – the Nobel Peace Prize, the Martin Luther King Award (presented to him by his widow) and the Ghandi Prize.

Peace – what a fantastic thing to be known for and to have brought to people.

How many lives has it saved?

And then there’s the Credit Union as well….

A Dream

John said that Martin Luther King was both his hero and his inspiration.

Martin Luther King had a dream.

John had a dream too – and a vision to go with it.

Despite as much opposition to it as Martin Luther King encountered, he made the dream come true.

Imagine all the people,
Living life in peace.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll come and join us…
..and the world will live as one.