The Latimer Syndrome

The innocent victims of IRA terrorism are livid and deeply hurt over the appearance of Rev Dr David Latimer at the Sinn Fein conference last weekend. The plaudits he heaped on Martin McGuinness were nauseating in the extreme. The fact that a Presbyterian minister would even contemplate accepting an invitation to speak at such a conference beggars belief. Had he gone there with the purpose of holding SF/IRA to account for its bloody past (and current) activities, its murderous campaign against decent, hard-working, law-abiding people - and some of those activities not too far into the past - was clearly not his intention. Many of those murdered by McGuinness' 'death squads' were members of Dr Latimer's denomination, a fact of which he would have been well aware, only adds insult to injury. Had Dr Latimer gone there as a Gospel minister and called on IRA/SF to acknowledge the wrong it had done, and to repent of that wrong, then it might have been worthwhile; but he went there and paid tribute to this killing machine and to one of its senior officers. Utterly shameful.

Does he not care how the innocent victims of IRA terrorism in his own area and throughout the country feel? Is their hurt of no account to him whatever? Was the loss of young men's lives in the service of their country a matter of no concern to this part-time army officer? It appears not. Indeed, I have not heard a word of condemnation of his actions from his own denomination, leading one to believe that they supported his involvement with IRA/SF last weekend. This is something that members of that denomination ought to consider very seriously. One Presbyterian victim of terrorism said he was disgusted, though not surprised, at his church's lack of support at this time.

Victims of terrorism are still reeling over Dr Latimer's involvement at this conference. I had a representative of the Claudy families in contact with me, very angry that a minister from his denomination should insult him and his family in such a callous manner; and we remember, of course, that McGuinness was in charge of the 'Derry' brigade of the IRA at that time (1972) when the three bombs were exploded in the Co. Londonderry village. Indeed, very recently, the IRA's partners in terrorist crime planted a bomb at a GP's home in that same village. McGuinness' refusal to name those known to him to have been involved in the 1972 atrocity demonstrated that he was not remotely interested in helping these victims get the justice they deserve. The member suggested that Dr Latimer, as a soldier, is working for the government, hence his decision to act in such a way as to inflict further hurt on IRA victims. It is so disappointing that there are those whose purpose in life is to inflict as much pain on the victims of terrorism as possible. And Dr Latimer's delusional action indicates that those trying to further hurt the victims of terrorism come from very surprising quarters.

My youngest brother, Ken, was murdered by the IRA in 1977, the organisation headed up by McGuinness; and to hear him being regaled by David Latimer as one of the great leaders of modern times, was profoundly hurtful. Obviously Dr Latimer is working to a totally different agenda to that appreciated by terrorist victims.

It is surely time for our country and our politicians to waken up and see that it is being led by the nose down IRA/SF's republican track, and, as McGuinness said, they are working to an eventual united Ireland. And it would now be most opportune for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to issue a statement telling the country, and its own members, what its view of Dr Latimer's action is. They surely deserve no less than that!