1999 (45 page)

No.

Peace would be the peace of the scarred and broken body that gradually healed enough to go on living.

But isn't that itself a form of triumph? Look at Ursula. The flames of adversity that can destroy have only made her stronger.

Will make Ireland stronger.

Barry desperately wanted to believe that.

 

Prince Charles and his wife Diana separated.

A fire destroyed part of Windsor Castle.

Elizabeth, queen of England, declared 1992 had been her “anno horribilis.”

 

Step by step, Barry and Barbara tried to repair their damaged relationship. He brought her little gifts. She took a genuine interest in his photography. They worried together about Séamus McCoy, from whom no letter came. They congratulated each other on the achievements of their growing children.

They slept in the same bed again. And sometimes there was passion.

Barry courted passion not only for the physical release it bestowed, but for the freedom it granted from mental tyranny. The perpetual motion picture theatre that was the human brain, showing reruns of events one would far prefer to forget.

November 4, 1992

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, THE MAN FROM HOPE, ARKANSAS, ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

That month, as a meeting of the Anglo-Irish conference was being planned, the Unionist Party withdrew from the talks process. After two years and a cost of over five million pounds, the latest efforts to get everyone to sit down together and discuss Northern Ireland's problems had failed.

 

When the telephone in the hall shrilled its two-ring bell tone as he passed by, Barry lifted the receiver and answered in his customary way: “Halloran here.”

“Halloran here too,” said a laughing voice.

“Ursula? Where are you? Are you in trouble, do you need me to…”

“All I needed you to do was answer the telephone so I could be certain my new mobile was working properly.”

“Your new
what
?”

“Mobile phone,” she replied smugly. “It's a handy device, every forward-thinking person should have one. My number is 088 something; I have it written on a piece of paper in my pocket anyway. Ring me whenever you like, but don't talk too long. This costs money.”

When the conversation ended her son went looking for his wife. “Ursula's bought herself a mobile phone, would you believe it? I can remember when she wouldn't even buy a fridge.”

On the sixteenth of December Sir Patrick Mayhew, former attorney general and newly appointed Northern Ireland secretary of state, said that British soldiers could be withdrawn if the IRA ended its campaign, and that Sinn Féin might then be included in the governmental process.

Eight days later the IRA called another three-day ceasefire.

 

That Christmas the Dublin middle class noticed that it had a bit more money to spend than in the past. They began to make small, rather nervous jokes about the onset of a “Celtic Tiger Economy.” It could not be true, of course; everyone knew Ireland was poor, always had been and always would be. But it was fun to dream about.

Barbara Halloran bought purpose-made Christmas gift wrap for the first time since her wedding.

 

On the thirty-first of December the UDA issued a statement promising to intensify its campaign “to a ferocity never imagined.”
¹

 

In January the single European market came into effect.

 

After Patrick Shields and his son Diarmuid were murdered by the UVF in County Tyrone, Diarmuid's girlfriend committed suicide because she could not accept his loss.

In March a UDA gang shot dead four Catholic workers in Castlerock. On that day two of the possible three routes taken by the workmen, who travelled together in a van, had been closed in advance by the RUC. Following the only road left open, the workmen arrived at Gortree Place—where the gunmen were waiting for them.

 

In England the Grand National entered history as the Grand National That Didn't Count. The greatest steeplechase in the world had difficulties from the beginning, when the horses were called back after a false start. The race barely got under way again when a flagman began waving his red flag to signal another halt. By that time the full concentration of the jockeys was on the race ahead and they did not notice. A number of horses completed the four-mile course over thirty daunting fences—only to have their jockeys and owners learn that the entire race had been disallowed.

 

On the twentieth of March the IRA planted two bombs in litter bins at the Gold Square Shopping Centre in Warrington, Northern Ireland. Two little boys died: Jonathan Ball, age three, and Timothy Parry, age twelve, causing a wave of revulsion.
²

Timothy Parry's father Colm expressed his family's gratitude for the many messages of sympathy and support they received. Subsequently he and his wife were instrumental in founding the Timothy Parry Trust Fund, which was established to promote greater understanding between Great Britain and the two parts of Ireland.

 

After their second meeting in two weeks, Gerry Adams and John Hume issued a joint statement. “The Irish people as a whole have a right to national self-determination. This is a view shared by a majority of the people of this island, though not by all its people.” They continued by saying, “As leaders of our respective parties we have told each other that we see the task of reaching agreement on a peaceful and democratic accord for all on this island as our primary challenge.”
³

 

When Alfred Reynolds was reelected by the Dáil as
taoiseach,
Barry took his photograph in Leinster House—standing in front of a portrait of Patrick Pearse.

Following Des O'Malley's resignation as head of the Progressive Democrats, Mary Harney became the first woman to lead an Irish political party. Barry photographed her too.

Later he invited Barbara into the darkroom to help him decide amongst the negatives of the new PD leader. “Pick the one that makes her look prettiest,” Barbara said.

“Male politicians can be handsome, Barbara—take Bill Clinton for instance. Or even Ronald Reagan. But being ‘pretty' would be a definite liability for a female politician in Ireland.”

“I don't see why. What if I ran for office, would you tell me not to look my best?”

“I'd tell you not to waste your time,” he said.

She flounced out to the kitchen to listen to the Irish pop group, The Cranberries, sing “Linger” on the radio.

Aer Lingus began direct flights between Dublin and the United States that summer. All planes were no longer required to stop at Shannon. Chambers of Commerce from Kerry to Galway worried that huge amounts of tourist business would be lost, but Ursula was delighted. She rang Barry to say, “This will make it easier for buyers to come over here and look at my horses!”

“I'm surprised you're still so involved with the business end of things,” he told her.

“What do you want me to do, sit in my chair and knit? I don't have to because Breda's taking up knitting instead. Between us we have this whole Old Woman business covered.”

 

That summer Israel and Palestine signed a peace agreement that gave Palestinian areas in the disputed territories limited self-rule.

For the first time, the Republic of Ireland under coach Jack Charlton qualified for the World Cup of Soccer. The nation went soccer-mad.

And Barry finally decided there was nothing left to be done to the house on Mountjoy Square.

He walked through it one more time, bottom to top. Smelling the fresh plaster, noting the coats of magnolia paint that created a neutral backdrop for the gracious, high-ceilinged rooms. His mind peopled those rooms with his family and his friends.

If you make a dream come true what do you have left to wish for?

He could not bear the thought of another family living in the house, because in some ways it was very much his own personal place, just as the farm was his mother's. But there were too many fault lines remaining in his marriage. To bring Barbara here, with all the attendant upheaval, might reveal them and crack the whole thing open again.

He compromised. He put the house with an estate agent to let as office space—retaining one apartment on the top floor for Barry Halloran.

 

The area stretching from Derry city along the northern coast through County Derry to North Antrim was under the control of a single UDA brigade. The territory included both rural and urban communities whose one unifying aspect was the fact that they all were subject to the whims of a highly organised paramilitary group who colluded with state forces to maintain a reign of terror.

Terrorism was not limited to Ireland. Six people were killed in a bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

After John Hume had a private meeting in London with John Major, he made a public statement. Hume said he did not “give two balls of roasted snow” for the people who were criticising his continuing discussions with Gerry Adams.

 

In October nine people—two of them children—died in Belfast when the IRA bombed a chip shop in the Shankill. Halloween night brought more horror when two loyalists entered the Rising Sun bar in the village of Greysteele, County Derry; a pub frequented by Catholics. Stephen Irwin and Torrens Knight,
^*
both members of the Ulster Defence Association, shouted “Trick or treat!” Knight, holding a shotgun, then stood guard at the door while his partner sprayed the pub with bullets. Nineteen were seriously injured; eight died.

The gun attack took place within view of an RUC barracks, yet the killers appeared unconcerned about any surveillance. After making their getaway they even returned to the scene of the crime, driving slowly past again for a second look.

No law officer stopped them.

 

That month a total of twenty-seven men, women, and children in Northern Ireland died as a direct result of the Troubles, the greatest number in any month since October of 1976.

In November John Major said that terrorists would have to be persuaded to end violence unconditionally. In the media his words were widely reported as claiming, “The IRA have to end violence unconditionally.” No mention was made of the loyalists.

As a result of the long-running Hume-Adams talks, on the fifteenth of December 1993 Albert Reynolds and John Major jointly issued the Downing Street Declaration, agreeing to a peaceful and constructive policy on Northern Ireland and committing both governments to its implementation.

The people of the Republic were divided in their reactions. The very fact that Gerry Adams had been partly instrumental in bringing about the step forward was seen by many as sinister. The Troubles had enforced a revisionist view of history. Driven by political expediency disseminated through the media, Irish people were embarrassed by their patriotic past and nervous of republicanism in general.

The Fianna Fáil Party no longer publicly described itself as the republican party.

Prosperity was no longer a distant dream for the middle class in the Republic of Ireland. There really were jobs that paid good money. Foreign companies were clamouring for highly educated young people.