May the Lord in His Mercy Be Kind to Belfast

by Tony Parker

Book Overview

At last, after twenty years, Tony Parker - one of the world's most brilliant interviewers - has found his subject: Northern Ireland. He has interviewed a huge range of people - terrorists, police, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805030530
• ISBN13: 9780805030532
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

MAY THE LORD IN HIS MERCY BE KIND TO BELFAST

May the Lord in His Mercy Be Kind to Belfast is a compendium of voices, a record of Northern Irish lives from many walks of life, including priests, educators, students, soldiers, paramilitaries, prisoners and working people, speaking about the Northern Irish Troubles, now thankfully in the past. Even on the page, their voices resonate with a variety of emotion, from shock to complacency, from philosophy to urgency. Typical of people in that region, the speakers are often able to tell their story---often of a lost loved one or near-death experience---with a calm detachment that quietly reveals a shock reverberating at a very deep level within the speaker. An intimate look at individual sufferings of the Northern people, and the culture that was everyday life for them during the 30 years of the Troubles. - Caroline Oceana Ryan, author - AN OLD CASTLE STANDING ON A FORD: One Yank's Life in an Almost Peaceful Belfast (Eloquent Books, 2010)

An unparalleled reading experience.

This book is a series of interviews with people from all walks of life in. Parker opens with an introduction that explains his introduction to Belfast. He follows that up with quoted conversations from various people that he dealt with when he first arrived in Belfast. They uniformly asked him to show to world, especially England, that Belfast is not nearly as bad as the media has made it out to be. The rest of the book is dedicated to over sixty interviews. Parker briefly sets up each interview with a description of the setting, including the outward emotional appearance of the interviewee unless specifically asked to do otherwise. That small description at the beginning of each interview is the only time that we hear Parker's voice. Parker interviewed ordinary people, children, elderly people, teachers, professors, students, political party leaders, army personnel, police, priests, clergy, people trying to make a difference, and people considered terrorists. The main point of this book was to give a voice to the people of Belfast. The point was to provide an opportunity for people to explain how they felt and why they felt that way without being edited or judged. The effect was that each person was able to be heard exactly as they had expressed themselves. Father Michael Brown expressed his disappointment that the church (either of them) had not taken more of leadership role to "build bridges . . . to keep the peace. . ." (p. 61). This book was perhaps the only format in which he was able to express his disappointment without being branded a traitor of sorts. Parker interviews several people from both sides of the Troubles who are seen as terrorists by the other side. To say the least none of them sees himself or herself as being a terrorist. Here they get a chance to explain why. Marie Jones is a member of the IRA. The intelligent manner in which she spoke lent credence to her philosophies. She spoke of her first moment when she began to feel anti-British sentiment. She had been walking home alone from school when two British soldiers stopped her with rifles pointed at her head just to ask her name and address. Given this opportunity she is also able to express her dislike and distrust of the Catholic Church. This opportunity would never present itself to her in any other format. Being a member of the IRA it would naturally be assumed in most circles that she is Catholic and proud of it. Parker's theme was kept throughout the entirety of the book. With each interview the reader understands that the speaker is speaking from a place of non-judgement as they get their chance to be heard. I was convinced throughout the book that Parker went to whatever extreme was necessary to make the interviewee as at ease as possible so that they would speak honestly and openly. On many occasions this was very obvious. Nowhere was this more obvious than when he interviewed members of the Royal Ulster. "The agreement was simple and st

If Only They Could Be Kinder To Each Other

The Irony of the generally hopeless tales that this book recounts, is that in an increasingly borderless and unified Europe the apparently ceasless sectarian hatreds of Belfast seem so absurd an anachronistic. The Protestants, fanatically clinging to and celebrating a Britishness completly alien to this contemporary Englishman. The Catholics, trumpeting a gaelic nationlism that if the truth were told embarrass most modern-day cosmopolitan Dubliners. What is so pitifully revealing about the book is the circular cycle of resignation to hatred that "The Troubles" have bought to this corner of the world. While the rest of the Island enjoys an economic boom that makes the Irish Republic one of the more desireable places to live and do business, northerners bicker about allowing marches in silly costumes to celebrate battles fought 400 years ago. Sadly there is little hope contained in the words spoken by the various individuals interviewed for this book. It is miserable, depressing though perhaps necessary reading.

Understanding the Troubles

With this book Tony Parker puts a face on those who suffer the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland. He puts aside the political mumbo jumbo to look at how the fighting affects individuals. In a non-biased way, he presents the personal stories from Loyalists, Unionists, and those who are caught in between. We hear the voices of terrorists, housewives, priests and pastors. Their stories help the reader to understand what is behind the troubles -- and all wars.