Historic Mass recalls fallen comrades
The well known saying 'time is a great healer' is sometimes overused but in the sombre surroundings of St Mary's Church in Granard last Sunday, it seemed apt.
That's because for the first time, and in a major break with tradition, the names of 18 policemen and British sevicemen who lost their lives in Longford and Westmeath during the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence were read out a special remembrance Mass.
The conciliatory gesture was made all the more pertinent given that the roll-caller was retired garda and former member of Granard Garda Station-Pat McCarthy who read out the names in front of a congregation made up of Gardai, retired Gardai, high ranking PSNI officers and their predecessors from the RUC.
Having served as a garda from 1954-58, Mr McCarthy has become something of a keen historian when it comes to charting the annals of Irish policing history ever since his chance encounter with a former Royal Irish Constabulary veteran in April 1955.
Over 50 years on, the father of ten last Sunday finally achieved what he has spent much of his retired life planning for and that three months ago looked a mere aspiration.
"We are a divided community, this is the start towards rectifying that I hope," were his simple yet striking words following the 45 minute Mass.
It was a view which certainly was not lost on the ceremony's chief celebrant and local parish priest Fr Simon Cadam.
The Granard cleric said the day marked a "very historic moment" in the new found friendship and commonalities that define policing on both sides of the border.
Recalling a line taken from then Minister for Justice Des O'Malley in 1972 which indicated crime had descended to an "unprecedented level of viciousness", Fr Cadam said events such as this underlined the ability of the human mindset to forgive and move on, a view which was also shared by Jim McDonald, Chairman of the RUC George Cross Foundation.
"Looking at history you will find all sorts of scurrilous remarks about the cadets but yet if you look the people who we have commemorated today one man from Cork won the military cross in the 1418 war and one Lieutenant commander won a distinguished service order, cross and medal-very brave people and yet they came to help us solve what was a problem. I think today marks another step on the road to peace," he poignantly remarked.
At the reception which was held in St Mary's National School shortly afterwards, Assistant Commissioner John O'Mahony admitted the RIC had paid a heavy price for their efforts prior to the gardai's takeover of law and order in 1922.
Local Superintendent Dermot Mann was equally complimentary of the need to hold similar events in the future despite being slightly more facetious in his delivery.
"I myself have met a number of people right back to people I went to school with here today that I haven't seen in over 30 years, right back to the guards in Mullingar that used to be chasing me down the street. But I do hope this is a start of things to come," he said.
Yet for the man who helped bring last Sunday's memorial service to fruition, his journey has only just begun.
“I am going to start a process where we can have a plaque erected to the memory of the 493 policemen who lost their lives in those three and a half years,” he defiantly maintained. “I mean when I was in Granard we had one accident in four years. We had no motor cars, just bicycles. We were part of the community and that's what we need to get back to.”
And judging by the huge strides he has made thus far, who would bet against him achieving just that?
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 11 C to 19 C
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