Book: Here’s the Story: a memoir by Mary McAleese
I had this book on my reading list within seconds of reading about Mary McAleese’s strategy for ‘building bridges’ towards peace in the Let’s Talk book by Nihal Arthanayake.
The former President of Ireland takes us back to her childhood in Belfast. Mary McAleese experienced the Northern Ireland conflict from the Catholic perspective, which is something often overshadowed by the focus on IRA actions. This is something I have learned a little through Irish bands when growing up, but in more depth only after the Good Friday Peace Agreement. I have read and watched much about it. Even the brilliant Derry Girls gives some insight.
Mary McAleese faced windows smashed by bricks in organised attacks, leading to direct assassination attempts on her father. Eventually, their house had enough bullets in it through a loyalist attack, perversely, while they were all at Mass (they didn’t think that one through - or did they?) they they had to leave the area entirely.
The irony of being targeted for their faith, but their faith ultimately saved their lives.
In this, the author talks as much about the atrocities caused by the uniformed (mainly protestant) police and loyalists as she does about the IRA. The only thing is, that’s all we heard about - the IRA, who most often warned us when they’d planted a bomb and we all got out. I’ve lost count of how many times my plans or journey were disrupted by these threats and how many times I was rushed out of a building in London. Never mind how I could not get into my place of work (The Express Building) without my pass - no exceptions.
There are some similarities with the GDR book I recently read - another subject I have learnt much about in recent years. This also showed the East German side and what they had to lose after unification.
After losing their house and business - for which no criminal was ever convicted, even though they knew exactly who was responsible - they eventually had the offer a short-term rental in which they could all live together again. By this point, the family had been scattered all over the country to whichever family member had a spare bed or two. The property was lent to them by nuns and they later realised that previously the IRA used it as a weapons store and training ground.
There are so many anecdotes here - I mean, you couldn't make it up.
A mother turned up here with her son, protesting his innocence and could the McAleese/Leneghan family call off the unknown men who were targeting him. Recognising the boy, she asked them to wait at the door and she went to get the kid’s jacket. This is the jacket she had pulled off him when she ran after him after he was catapulting nails into her mum and the dog. The mother changed her tune. One person at a time, mindsets can be changed.
I learned about Father Alec Reid, whose photo was in the world’s press when he stepped into the line of fire to give a dying soldier his last rites. He was also instrumental in the peace talks.
I loved the interactions with Queen Elizabeth 11, who made the first State visit to Ireland from an English monarch. Again, MM was key to making this happen, talking to one person at a time, one-on-one.
The Queen acknowledged the troubles in an apologetic speech. This changed everything. Another piece in the puzzle towards the ultimate goal of peace.
There’s one about Ian Paisley goading the IRA into action, I assume as an excuse to get rid of Catholics from Northern Ireland. And we get to page 159 for the first mention of peace talks with Gerry Adams in 1988.
On her mother’s response to living in the firing line, “was to pray and knit and sew and bake and dust and polish. She and my father often brought every one of us breakfast in bed of sweet tea, toast and oranges. It was their way of trying to create a nurturing atmosphere in a world they no longer understood, but which we looked to them to interpret for us.”
I learnt MM picked up that knitting habit and finds it impossible not to do something with her hands, even at the back of the Presidential car.
Inconceivably, we have something in common. MM was also told she couldn’t have her chosen career - in her case, law - and this was a good 15 years before my ‘careers advisor’ said the same about my dream of a media career. (I succeeded too) Having been accepted into university in 1969, it was while she was having her celebratory dinner that the violence escalated and the Troubles, as we know it started. People who were going out to support the vulnerable came home, only to find their own house destroyed upon their return.
Her determination to succeed despite systemic discouragement shows her character early on. Also helped, I feel, by the enormous support from her large 9-sibling family and friends. She simply knows hundreds of people, and I think that was before she became President, given the dizzying number of names throughout this 400-page read.
Apart from multiple examples of violence from the many factions of the opposing sides, there is additional upset when reading about priest after priest committing horrendous crimes against young boys - including her own brother - and the Catholic church protecting them. The misogyny in the Catholic Church is something that MM has been vocal about throughout. It made her meetings with the Pope interesting reading.
The reason I wanted to pick this up so eagerly is to learn about the many one-on-one conversations Mary McAleese had with people with opposing opinions to get the ball rolling. All those hours, weeks, months and years eventually led to peace.
As President, McAleese's approach was deeply personal and transformative:
One-on-one diplomacy: She believed in changing "one person at a time, mindsets can be changed
Practical problem-solving: Helping a loyalist get an Irish passport and a US visa, then connecting him with business funding to start a football club - keeping kids away from sectarian violence
Bridge-building: Facilitating countless meetings with various loyalist factions
Historic diplomacy: Instrumental in orchestrating Queen Elizabeth II's first state visit to Ireland by an English monarch
To organise all those meetings with (far too many) factions of loyalist groups, MM enlisted her husband, Martin, for support. He quit his second career as a dentist to help her bring peace. (Frankly, I would do the same.) The slow but certain breakthroughs came from Martin personally inviting individuals to the presidential house.
After the Presidency, MM went to study canon law in Rome, which involved learning Italian. I thought this ending to the book would be a lighter, more entertaining read about retirement adventures in Rome. But no, the list of criminal priests seems to be endless.
However, Mary McAleese is quite the poet:
“But for the festering sectarian hatreds and injustices left unresolved for generations and ruinously exploited for political ends”.
My final takeaway is that Veda malt loaf is something I need to look up next time I'm in Belfast.
An important, insightful and vital read.