An all-Ireland hero is let down by political pygmies

Sunday Tribune 24 January


"This man is a true hero." Gay O'Brien blushed as my father gushed about his bravery. "He filmed Derry in 1968." It was October 1979 and I was 12. I hadn't a clue what the old man was on about. Filming a city sounded acutely boring. Nonetheless, I shook Gay's hand and made all the right noises.
Afterwards, my father explained that 'Derry' had been a watershed in the north's history. Civil Rights activists and elected representatives had been baton-charged by the RUC on the city's Duke Street while making a peaceful protest. O'Brien filmed the officers going berserk and his RTÉ footage was shown around the world. Finally, outsiders saw the RUC for what it was: a brutal, sectarian organisation.
O'Brien had put personal safety aside and stood his ground in the face of savagery. My father was right to embarrass him: he was a hero.
PSNI officer, Peadar Heffron is a hero too. Not for his exploits as captain of the PSNI GAA team or his championing of Irish in the Queen's constabulary. Not even for surviving a dissident Republican bomb earlier this month – he was a hero long before that. Heffron is a hero because he, too, stood his ground despite threats. He answered the call to create a new North and joined the PSNI. He took his Catholic Irishness into what many still see as enemy territory to dilute the force's old RUC reputation.
His decision to do this is a measure of how far this island has come since O'Brien filmed events in Derry. His payment for that decision was an amputated leg and multiple horrific injuries. Last week, Heffron regained consciousness to the sound of squabbling at Hillsborough. The DUP and Sinn Féin were head-butting each other again over the devolution of policing from London to Belfast – something all parties had signed up to.
As Heffron's wife, Fiona, reflected on her husband's future, the two men responsible for keeping peace in the North went running to mammy. Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness tugged at the governments' apron strings and Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen doled out the sticking plasters and Savlon. There was also a flash of the wooden spoon and 'daddy' America was phoned at work. This was a soap opera – with the same old risible plotline and characters. It was another show of the pathetic, self-important nonsense we're used to from the North's politicians.
While Heffron's mutilated body was being nursed in hospital, McGuinness and Robinson were bickering over 'points of principle'. Time wasted over 'points of principle' is time given to malcontents like those who attacked Heffron. It creates disillusion and breeds more recruits for their pointless 'cause'. There is no time for 'points of principle' while the bombers are regrouping. The DUP and SF were playing politics with people's lives. The former Chuckle Brothers have become the Bare Knuckle Brothers.
Jim Allister of the TUV hit the target when he said that the DUP and the Shinners can't even get their act together over the education system. Why, he asked, give them even more power? His observation appeared to be reinforced by their play-acting for the cameras.
There is now major concern that this pantomime will be staged every time there's a hiccup in the peace process. The Knuckle Brothers must stop throwing shapes and start governing. The alternative is a slide back into the past.
It's only 12 years since the celebration of the Good Friday agreement was rocked by the Omagh bombing. Twelve years since 29 people were blown apart. The era of paramilitary barbarism was only yesterday in our island's long history.
It's only five years since the GAA lifted Rule 21 which banned policemen like Heffron from playing gaelic games. It's only 17 years since the lifting of Section 31, which outlawed the broadcasting of Sinn Féin voices. It's only 26 years since a Loyalist mob invaded Clontibret, Co Monaghan. A mob led by Peter Robinson.
The past is still very close.
Our Taoiseach's involvement in last week's mess highlights how important the North's stability is to the Republic. Peace has brought both jurisdictions closer together. The cross-border traffic we witness at Christmas is testament to the eased relationship.
The lessons learned over 40 years make it harder to understand attacks like those on Heffron. They also make it harder to understand last week's time-wasting.
The histrionics at Hillsborough did him a huge disservice. He has paid his price for peace. It's now up to the North's leaders to honour his sacrifice and start behaving like statesmen rather than sulky local politicians.
Robinson said of the Heffron outrage: "Those who perpetrate such attacks will not succeed in returning Northern Ireland to the dark days of the past." Maybe not, but squabbling politicians like himself and McGuinness might.
In the meantime, Peadar Heffron's pain, like Gay O'Brien's archive footage, is a reminder that the dark days 'haven't gone away' yet.
His GAA-playing days are over, but Heffron is an all-Ireland hero in the truest sense of the phrase.

dkenny@tribune.ie

January 31, 2010