THE CHURCH of Ireland primate, Archbishop Alan Harper, has
dissociated himself “entirely” from an editorial in the current issue of
the Church of Ireland Gazette dealing with Northern Ireland issues.
It was dismissive of the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past (CGP) report.
The
editorial described the recent appointment of Stormont special adviser
Mary McArdle as “insensitive, not only because she had a part in the
1984 murder of the 23-year-old Mary Travers but also because Mary
Travers was so brutally attacked coming with her parents, precisely,
from Mass.”
It “highlighted again the issue of coming to terms
with the past in Northern Ireland”, the editorial said.
The editorial
referred to a recent BBC Northern Ireland Sunday Sequence programme on
which Denis Bradley and the Rev Lesley Carroll of the former
consultative group were interviewed.
It noted the Rev Carroll said
then “that society had let the CGP’s report ‘sit there’ and stated that
if she were doing the report again, she would not do anything
differently. Mr Bradley said that increasingly people were now
discussing the subject in a more ‘rational’ manner.”
It continued:
“Contrary to Lesley Carroll’s view, society has not simply shelved the
CGP report. It has rejected it.”
Mr Bradley’s “rational” comment was
“simply an affront to the public”.
Both “came across on the programme rather as spoilt children who had not got their way,” it said.