BBC to screen truth and reconciliation meetings in Northern Ireland
-01/03/06
The BBC i
BBC to screen truth and reconciliation meetings in Northern Ireland
-01/03/06
The BBC is to screen some remarkable scenes in a television series bringing together victims and their attackers in the Northern Ireland conflict beginning this Saturday.
The Facing the Truth series is chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the crimes of the apartheid era.
Related Books
God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time by
Desmond Tutu £12.99
The series, to be screened for three nights from March 4, features six meetings between people from different sides of the conflict, who meet each other for the first time.
The series “explores a tough issue from a human, rather than political, perspective,” BBC 2 controller Roly Keating said.
Tutu is helped by experienced negotiators Donna Hicks from Harvard University and Lesley Bilinda, whose husband was killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and who later went on a journey to try to find his killers and learn the truth about his death.
Psychologist and trauma counsellor Nomfundo Walaza, former director of the South African Trauma Centre for victims of violence and torture, also offers advice.
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Recalling the filming, Tutu said: “We had some extraordinary moments in the week or so that we were here, where it was like something divine had intervened, and it was exhausting but eminently exhilarating.
“I think human beings are incredible … and I’ve seen examples here of the fact that it really is possible that we will see a resolution of the problems and people will say, as we did in South Africa, why were we so stupid for so long?
“I have a good sense that Northern Ireland is going to be held up one day as a place where we thought the problems were intractable and you see they were intractable – just look at how well they’re getting on together (now).”
Facing the Truth includes a meeting between former Protestant paramilitary Michael Stone and the widow and brother (Roddy and Sylvia Hackett) of a man he is convicted of murdering (Dermot Hackett).
Dermot Hackett was gunned down and murdered in cold blood. The 37-year-old Castlederg man was shot 15 times as he drove his bread van along the Omagh-Drumquin road in May 1987.
Reports suggest that the meeting, which will be screened in Monday’s programme, was a sensational and breathtaking moment that even moved one of the most ruthless terrorists in the history of the Troubles.
Stone became notorious when television cameras captured his gun and grenade attack on mourners at an Irish Republican Army funeral at Belfast’s Milltown cemetery in 1988. Three people were killed.
Michael Stone is now revered as a cult hero in loyalist communities for slaughtering Catholics; a man who triumphantly waved his arms in the air when he was saluted like a returning warrior by thousands of cheering supporters on his release from the Maze Prison in 2000.
“I suppose I was a wee bit apprehensive but I was there to support Sylvia because she wanted to ask Stone face-to-face why he had killed her husband,” Roddy Hackett said.
“I was expecting him (Stone) to come to the meeting acting ‘the big man’ but he looked pitiful when he hobbled in with his walking stick and I found myself feeling sorry for him,” he said.
Towards the end of the meeting, reports suggest that Sylvia stunned Stone, Archbishop Tutu and the watching television crew when she stood up and reached out to shake Stone’s hand.
“It really took the wind out of everyone’s sails,” said Roddy. “I got up then and I shook his hand. I told him I did it to prove there is a bit of humanity left in this country.
“He replied that I was a better man than he was because if the roles were reversed he would not have done the same.”
Another encounter, between Clifford Burrage and Mary McLarnon, whose 22-year-old brother Michael was shot dead by Burrage, will be shown on Saturday.
“At the end of filming, the participants all said it had been a worthwhile, even helpful, experience,” said BBC executive producer Jeremy Adams.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to the one in South Africa, has been considered by the government.
Facing the Truth: Saturday, 7.50pm; Sunday at 8pm and Monday at 9pm on BBC2
BBC to screen truth and reconciliation meetings in Northern Ireland
-01/03/06
The BBC is to screen some remarkable scenes in a television series bringing together victims and their attackers in the Northern Ireland conflict beginning this Saturday.
The Facing the Truth series is chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the crimes of the apartheid era.
Related Books
God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time by
Desmond Tutu £12.99
The series, to be screened for three nights from March 4, features six meetings between people from different sides of the conflict, who meet each other for the first time.
The series “explores a tough issue from a human, rather than political, perspective,” BBC 2 controller Roly Keating said.
Tutu is helped by experienced negotiators Donna Hicks from Harvard University and Lesley Bilinda, whose husband was killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and who later went on a journey to try to find his killers and learn the truth about his death.
Psychologist and trauma counsellor Nomfundo Walaza, former director of the South African Trauma Centre for victims of violence and torture, also offers advice.
Related Articles
Recalling the filming, Tutu said: “We had some extraordinary moments in the week or so that we were here, where it was like something divine had intervened, and it was exhausting but eminently exhilarating.
“I think human beings are incredible … and I’ve seen examples here of the fact that it really is possible that we will see a resolution of the problems and people will say, as we did in South Africa, why were we so stupid for so long?
“I have a good sense that Northern Ireland is going to be held up one day as a place where we thought the problems were intractable and you see they were intractable – just look at how well they’re getting on together (now).”
Facing the Truth includes a meeting between former Protestant paramilitary Michael Stone and the widow and brother (Roddy and Sylvia Hackett) of a man he is convicted of murdering (Dermot Hackett).
Dermot Hackett was gunned down and murdered in cold blood. The 37-year-old Castlederg man was shot 15 times as he drove his bread van along the Omagh-Drumquin road in May 1987.
Reports suggest that the meeting, which will be screened in Monday’s programme, was a sensational and breathtaking moment that even moved one of the most ruthless terrorists in the history of the Troubles.
Stone became notorious when television cameras captured his gun and grenade attack on mourners at an Irish Republican Army funeral at Belfast’s Milltown cemetery in 1988. Three people were killed.
Michael Stone is now revered as a cult hero in loyalist communities for slaughtering Catholics; a man who triumphantly waved his arms in the air when he was saluted like a returning warrior by thousands of cheering supporters on his release from the Maze Prison in 2000.
“I suppose I was a wee bit apprehensive but I was there to support Sylvia because she wanted to ask Stone face-to-face why he had killed her husband,” Roddy Hackett said.
“I was expecting him (Stone) to come to the meeting acting ‘the big man’ but he looked pitiful when he hobbled in with his walking stick and I found myself feeling sorry for him,” he said.
Towards the end of the meeting, reports suggest that Sylvia stunned Stone, Archbishop Tutu and the watching television crew when she stood up and reached out to shake Stone’s hand.
“It really took the wind out of everyone’s sails,” said Roddy. “I got up then and I shook his hand. I told him I did it to prove there is a bit of humanity left in this country.
“He replied that I was a better man than he was because if the roles were reversed he would not have done the same.”
Another encounter, between Clifford Burrage and Mary McLarnon, whose 22-year-old brother Michael was shot dead by Burrage, will be shown on Saturday.
“At the end of filming, the participants all said it had been a worthwhile, even helpful, experience,” said BBC executive producer Jeremy Adams.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to the one in South Africa, has been considered by the government.
Facing the Truth: Saturday, 7.50pm; Sunday at 8pm and Monday at 9pm on BBC2