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Alan McBride: TV encounter with Gerry Adams wasn’t easy
Friday, 19 February 2010
enlargeA man who lost his wife and father-in-law in the IRA Shankill bomb says he is “nervous and apprehensive” ahead of Sunday’s television broadcast of a meeting with Gerry Adams.
Alan McBride agreed to be filmed in conversation with the Sinn Fein president as part of a Channel 4 documentary The Bible: A History.
“It’s not easy to do these things,” Mr McBride told this newspaper.
“You try to do them for the right reasons, but sometimes you can end up hurting the people you love the most, my family.”
Mr McBride’s wife Sharon and father-in-law Desmond Frizzell were killed in the blast, and there was huge controversy at the time when Gerry Adams carried the coffin of the IRA bomber Thomas Begley.
Begley died when the device he carried into a fishmongers shop on the Shankill Road exploded prematurely. Nine others were killed.
Days before being filmed Mr Adams and Mr McBride spoke privately, a meeting facilitated by former Methodist president Harold Good.
On the filmed encounter, Mr McBride said: “I think it was a good meeting. It wasn’t me cosying up to Gerry Adams.”
Mr McBride said he is worried about the reaction of his family to the television broadcast.
“Sometimes I forget that they haven’t been on the same journey that I have been on,” he said.
“They are at a different stage, and I understand that.
“After I did it, I thought about why I did it, and was I a bit naive.
“I suppose that’s for other people to decide. I’m not having second thoughts about it.”
Mr McBride works for the victims group WAVE and is a member of the recently appointed Victims Forum.
He said when news broke of his meeting with Gerry Adams he was approached in a shopping centre by a woman from the Shankill.
She told him, “that the meeting gave her and the people where she lives hope that this country can change”.
Mr McBride said whilst he found that encouraging, he remains concerned “about the hurt it causes to the people I know and love” — a reference to his family, who 16 years ago lost so much in that IRA bomb.
One man’s amazing journey
When Alan McBride describes his meeting with Gerry Adams as “not easy” he is understating just how difficult it really was.
You have to remember that Adams carried the coffin of Thomas Begley, the IRA man who carried the bomb into Frizzell’s fishmongers shop on that Saturday afternoon in October 1993.
The UDA met regularly in an upstairs room of an adjoining building. The IRA said they were the targets of the bomb, but there was no meeting that day.
Some time later a police officer described the horror of digging in the rubble of that collapsed building.
“I saw a young girl’s foot, and I knew it was a young girl’s foot because her shoe size was about three or four,” he told me. “I wanted to stop digging then.”
Alan McBride’s father-in-law owned the fishmongers shop. He was among the dead in the rubble, as was Alan’s wife Sharon.
And that is what makes his meeting with Gerry Adams not easy, but so very difficult.
I was on the Shankill Road shortly after the explosion. My job that day was to report on the statements of the IRA and the UDA and then on the week of killing that followed.
It has only been much more recently that I got to know Alan McBride. His mission after the all the hurt he has experienced is peace-building.
I have heard him talk about and explain his journey. And when he speaks you could hear a pin drop.
Meeting Gerry Adams was not an overnight decision.
He hounded the Sinn Fein president in the immediate aftermath of the bombing — and years later made his peace with the republican leader in a letter written after David Ervine’s funeral.
Alan McBride’s first meeting with Gerry Adams came 16 long years after the bomb. He was adamant that he would talk to Adams privately before Channel 4 filmed the two.
And on Sunday we will see the next steps in one man’s amazing journey.
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Alan McBride, you are a wonderful human being, with clear Christian views. God Bless you.
Posted by jomarco | 02.03.10, 14:25 GMT
Dear, oh, dear observation. Not very observant are you.
The reference to organised religion and using the term "your god" isn't obvious enough for you to realise that I am not religious? Surely you must have noticed the cynical undertone of my comment that rebukes religious hypocrites?
Then again I notice that you managed to attempt an insult of the catholic religion for no apparent reason by attacking it's representatives. How very unoriginal and predictable of you.
Posted by Ulysses32 | 23.02.10, 15:11 GMT
Having watched the programme on Sunday night I was very impressed by Alan McBride. He told Adams that we should look more closely at Jesus rather than religion. How very true in Northern Ireland.
Adam's "investigation" into the historical Jesus spent little time in the Bible itself. Instead he chatted over the writings of Josephus with a expert on Jesus (who stated that Jesus was most likely not born in Bethlehem!)
I hope Adams reads the New Testament and discovers that he needs God's forgiveness as much as anyone. Jesus is an eternal being, not a historical figure. And by the way, His central message was not the Sermon on the Mount...it was this...I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Pretty hard to ignore that one!
Posted by Craig Jackson | 22.02.10, 12:14 GMT
The Shankill's beacon of hope, that's Alan McBride. He has experienced great pain, yet he shows forgiveness and compassion to others. He has earned our empathy, respect and admiration for his efforts to build bridges in our divided and directionless province. We need more Alan Mc Brides. Lead on Alan.
Posted by Pragmatist | 19.02.10, 22:16 GMT
well done alan, more people like you in this country and we can all see a great future for our kids. our family has suffered death from groups in the so called "troubles" but we decided we could all die from cancerous hatred or rebuild our lives and we all choose the latter. gerry adams has been part of the peace deal and the past is history. the future is what is important. god bless!
Posted by peter | 19.02.10, 18:04 GMT
ulyssess 32 and double talk, how many times have you been to confession and been forgiven by an ordinary man,that is what a priest is with all the sins inherited by such,if he was not this some of them would have been incapable of the most terrible sin of abuse against children.but of course you must know this hence your statement ,only god can forgive. so please get some sense.
Posted by observation. | 19.02.10, 17:46 GMT
This took alot of courage for Alan to meet with Gerry Adams, its easy to turn your back and remain angry its much harder to do what he did, and I admire him for that.
Posted by p | 19.02.10, 17:46 GMT
Alan, I was born Catholic, My father was shot (but did not die) by the U D V (something). I left the country rather than react.
I take my hat off to you. I dont know how you can be as strong as you are in doing what you have done.
It gives me hope, that the north part of that beautiful country can some day return to normality
You know in your heart the only way forward is mutual respect and
a hope for real peace.
Posted by James | 19.02.10, 17:07 GMT
fact, I think you may have mis-interpreted the concepts of the organised religion you are involved in.
It is not you who is repsonsible for "judging" anyone. Nor do you have the power to "forgive." Surely that is the responsibility of your god.
Posted by Ulysses32 | 19.02.10, 16:45 GMT
Well done Danny you've said it all.
Posted by Sam | 19.02.10, 15:10 GMT
Alan Mc Bride - should be proud that for someone that has lost so much that he is willing to meet the likes of Adams to demonstrate to the community on both sides that there is a way forward and that is through peace and dialogue with our neighbours, If Allan can do this then so can everyone including the O.Order and residents, Allan's efforts are helping to heal not an individual but a country and he should be rewarded for it. It is because of Alan and others that share his approach that future generations will live not only in peace with each other but together as one community, not divided by religion but united in pride of what has been achieved and the country that we belong to. Why should Trimble receive a Nobel Peace prize for a job he was paid to do when Alan and others like him are the true peace makers and healers in our country.
Fair Play Alan you are doing a great job - keep up the good work and keep setting the bar for the politicians on both sides.
Posted by Danny | 19.02.10, 09:39 GMT
it is a disgrace to have adams on a religious programme ,i would not speak to the man as he is unrepentant, therefore deserves no forgivness, and this programme is an affront to christians.
Posted by fact | 19.02.10, 08:16 GMT