第11章
The Indestructible Kingdom
Northern Ireland, a small nation of less than two million people, has been torn by "the Troubles" for centuries. The conflict stems from the clash between two deeply rooted traditions: Roman Catholics (40% of the population) and Protestants (60%). Catholics tend to be Republicans wanting Northern Ireland united with the Republic of Ireland and free of British control, while Protestants tend to be Loyalists determined to keep their British allegiance. The struggle is more political-a contest for power-than religious.
On September 25, 1982, twenty-year-old Karen McKeown was shot in the neck by a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) while at her Protestant church in Belfast. The bullet tore through her spinal column, leaving her paralyzed and fighting for her life. Despite her condition, Karen maintained remarkable faith, telling her mother Pearl, "The only thing that matters is that we trust the Lord and never give the Devil a victory."
Meanwhile, Liam McCloskey, a Catholic Republican paramilitary, had been a prisoner on "dirty protest" for years, living in squalid conditions as part of the IRA's campaign to regain political prisoner status. Following the failure of the dirty protests, IRA leaders turned to hunger strikes. Liam volunteered for the strike after his cellmate died. By his forty-second day, his eyes began rolling uncontrollably, he vomited green digestive fluid, and he went blind. As he approached death, Liam questioned the meaning of his life and his involvement in Republicanism. Though the hunger strike was falling apart after ten deaths, Liam continued, praying "Not mine, but Thy will be done."
David Hamilton, a Protestant inmate in another Belfast prison, was praying for Liam McCloskey's recovery. Growing up in Rathcoole, Europe's largest government housing project, David had once played football with Catholic boys before religious differences became violently important. At fifteen, he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force. After another arrest in 1978, David encountered Trevor, a Christian inmate in the prison laundry. Initially resistant, David eventually knelt in prayer: "If you want this life, it's yours." His hatred of IRA men disappeared, and he began accepting Catholics as people rather than faceless enemies.
When Liam McCloskey woke on the fifty-fifth day of his hunger strike, he was blind and rapidly losing his hearing. His mother arrived, telling him tearfully that she would have him fed intravenously once he went into a coma-but by then his blindness would be permanent. Trapped by this situation and unwilling to burden his mother's conscience, Liam decided to end his strike. As his strength returned in the prison hospital, Liam began to question his involvement with the INLA. "I was ripping myself apart inside," he says, "thinking about the men who had died, thinking about God, and the truths I had begun to discover on hunger strike." He realized he couldn't follow both Republicanism and Jesus simultaneously. "I had reached the crossroads of life, and I took the way of Jesus."
During a Bible study at Magilligan Prison, the men prayed for Karen McKeown, the young Protestant girl shot by the INLA. Liam felt special responsibility for her suffering and had written to her mother Pearl. The former terrorists-Catholic and Protestant-joined hands and prayed for Karen and her family. Despite Karen's eventual death from meningitis, Liam continued writing to Pearl: "Pearl, we make strange friends in this troubled land. It is to the glory of God and He who makes it possible."
At Prison Fellowship's first international conference in Belfast in 1983, with the theme "In Christ, Reconciliation," Liam and Jimmy (both furloughed from prison) shared their testimonies. "My hope is to believe that God is changing the hearts of men like myself and Jimmy," Liam said. "Before, if I had seen Jimmy on the street, I would have shot him. Now he's my brother in Christ." Pearl McKeown was then introduced, and she embraced Liam on stage, explaining how Karen's death had been to God's glory and how Liam had shown her "how to love God again."
Though the cycle of violence continues in Northern Ireland, with casualties mounting among paramilitaries, soldiers, and police, the cycle is weakened every time someone chooses peace over war, forgiveness over retribution, love over hate. As Chips McCurry articulates: "Politics can't bring any lasting solutions. The only thing that will make lasting peace, the only thing that will bridge the gulf between Catholics and Protestants here is for people to give up violence and learn forgiveness. The only way that can possibly happen is through Jesus Christ."
