Opinion

Fr Wilson’s impact on struggle for peace and human rights can’t be overstated

The recent death of Fr Des Wilson will leave a huge and unfillable void in the Ballymurphy and Springhill community of west Belfast where he had lived and worked since 1971. His impact on the struggle for peace, justice and human rights cannot be overstated.


I write this letter because I wish to pay tribute to his work and I believe that his unselfish, extraordinary yet humble contribution to the struggle for a better world needs to be acknowledged and fully appreciated.


He has inspired me and so many other people down the years and I feel honoured to have known such a great human being.


I first met this amazing priest in the mid-1980s when I was a naïve political activist hoping to change the world, he was a figure shunned by the political and religious establishment.


His logic, understanding and ability to decipher complex and or conflicting issues together with his unselfish willingness to help has left an impression on me that still inspires to this day.

To mark his 90th birthday Fr  Des published a small book of reflections Ninety (Merrily) in the Shade which begins with the lines:

“We left Maynooth college in the sunny days of June 1949, more than 80 of us, newly ordained Catholic priests, some of us wisely hoping to change the world, others hoping unwisely to keep the world and the Church the way they were.


We moved happily out of our studious world with its answers we couldn’t question into another world of questions we could not answer.”

Fr Des Wilson decided to become a priest so that he might ‘change the world’ after experiencing the Belfast Blitz in 1941, when more than 700 people were killed. Throughout his life he never lost sight of that goal. Not for him the easy way out.


When choices had to be made he chose the side of the voiceless, the oppressed, the poor and powerless over the side of the powerful, the respected and the privileged.


This was a momentous decision that is not fully appreciated, because Fr Des Wilson was a highly regarded, knowledgeable, articulate and competent figure within the Church and it is broadly acknowledged that, had he played his cards right he would have gone far within the established


Church’s hierarchy.


However, he unselfishly forfeited it all to dedicate his life to the poor, oppressed and voiceless and to stand by his beliefs.


How many of our politicians and establishment figures can say the same?

He was a man before his time who was, as Fr Joe McVeigh reminded us in his excellent funeral homily, never afraid to raise radical questions about the Church’s position on matters such as married priests, women in the Church and to question the official Church’s relationship with wealth, property and the powerful in society.

While we are all the poorer for his passing, we must acknowledge that we are all the richer for his unselfish life devoted to giving to others.

A really worthwhile life, the world needs more like him.

PATRICIA McKENNA BL


Peace and Human Rights Campaigner and former MEP

Dublin

Time for north to free itself from religious control

I am glad to hear that Rev Ivan Foster has a very clear understanding of the plans his God has for him (November 14). That must give him and his congregation a great feeling of peace.

People who do not believe in his God, and his particular theology may think differently. They call all that freedom of religion. This means in particular that people other than the Rev Foster may have different ideas about this all.

Let us make it clear, Rev Foster, or members of his congregation, will never be forced into same-sex marriages.

However, the Rev Foster does not have the right to impose his view and his interpretation of his God on the rest of the nation who may believe in a different God or, in my case, in no god at all.

I am pleased to learn that the Rev Foster is sure about his rewards in heaven. There he can be even more self-satisfied by knowing that myself, and any atheists, etc will burn in Hell. I am quite happy to accept that.

Let him enjoy that while Protestants in the north of Ireland are still in enthralled with religion. The rest of the island of Ireland has effectively freed itself from religious control, concepts and ideas.


Time to do the same in the north of Ireland for the sake of peace.

BRAM VAN KAMPEN


Newry, Co Down

Astounded by Paul Maskey’s achievements

There must be many like me who are astounded by the accomplishments of Paul Maskey, attributed by Fiona Maguire (November 11).  She has claimed that he has lifted thousands of children out of child poverty but in 2017 the only constituency with a higher level of child poverty was Foyle, another Sinn Féin constituency, but by 2018 west Belfast had overtaken it. There is considerable evidence that Belfast has attracted inward investment but that out of all the constituencies that west Belfast has attracted the least. Belfast Live has in recent months highlighted the drug problem in west Belfast but also indicated the lack of resources in tackling the problem. Mental health and the suicide rate in west Belfast are of great concern to the population there.  Where on earth does Fiona Maguire get the idea that Paul Maskey has greatly improved these problems?    Is it good enough for Sinn Féin to believe that there is no political alternative to it in west Belfast to the extent that it merely places a figurehead in a constituency election. Does this signify to voters how irrelevant such an election is to Sinn Féin?

SEAN O’FIACH


Belfast BT11

Political pantomime

Once again on December 12 under the guise of a democratic election a political pantomime is coming to the province where we useful innocents live. As usual the posters will be bright and glossy, spouting the same old guff and just like the last time the pantomime came we simple folk will lap it up and get our just deserts. All we have to do is to tolerate a sinecure brought about by our two main political parties, namely the DUP and Sinn Féin, cohorts in the betrayal of us simple folk.


Not entirely idle during their self-imposed sinecure, time will have been spent burnishing flags of orange and green and gilding orange and  Easter lilies which they will beguile us simple folk with as the tawdry pantomime passes through, and they know we will succumb as we have been doing for generations.

WILSON BURGESS


Derry City