The issue now is how those pasts will be remembered and what role those memories will be allowed to play in the days and years ahead. Mr. O'Connor is the Chairperson of the Irish Famine Committee which is based in Cambridge. His piece was about a meeting his group recently had with South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Commission was set up by South Africa's President, Nelson Mandela, and its purpose is to bring to light many of the atrocities committed against black South Africans during the years of apartheid rule. It offers both victims and perpetrators an opportunity to tell their stories.
Truth is the road to reconciliation.
Because in Ireland or South Africa, unless there is forgiveness, there is no future. I can imagine that events in Ireland or South Africa or the Middle East may seem quite removed from us in any personal sense. As the people of good will, which I take us all to be, we look to these places and hope, for the sake of the persons living there, that a measure of reconciliation will come about that allows for the inhabitants to live in peace and safety, and with a sense of a secure future. We listen to the wisdom of an individual like Archbishop Tutu and give thanks for it, as well as for the presence of such a person in a place like South Africa where a process of healing is essential if that country is to have a peaceful future. At the same time, it may be difficult to see any of these events about being about us and the lives we are living.