Applause for church leaders

There was a palpable sense of happiness among the Bogsiders who turned out to witness the ground-breaking event. Young children and the leaders who made the humanitarian and Christian step were Bishop Ken Good, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Rev Dr Norman Hamilton, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and Rev Paul Kingston, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland.

Entourage

The entourage included Bishop Good's wife, Mary, and the Diocesan press officer for the Church of Ireland, Earl Storey, as well as the RC press officer, Fr Michael Canning and the Minister of First Derry Presbyterian Church, Rev Dr David Latimer, who is also an Army Chaplain and no tthat long ago returned from duty in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

As a gesture of goodwill, a presentation was made by the delegation of a miniature replica version of the bronze 'Hands Across the Divide' sculpture by Maurice Harron, which Bishop Good presented to families' representative Jean Hegarty.

The meeting took place at the Bloody Sunday Memorial in the Bogside.

MC for the occasion was Jean Hegarty, whose brother Kevin McElhinney, was one of those who died on Bloody Sunday, who said it was "a momentous day" and she was delighted to ave been asked to perform the duties of MC and make the introductions.

First to the podium was Rev Paul Kingston, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, who said he had been President of the Methodist Church for less than a week, drawing laughter from those around him.

"I am pleased to be here to bring to you our friendship at this particular time. Central to the message that we proclaim is the message of reconciliation. As Methodists our Founder encouraged us to be a friend to all and the enemy of none. We are not always perhaps the best at pursuing that but we do our best.

"We acknowledge that you have been through a very difficult experience. You have shown great patience in waiting for the report and we do trust and hope that it will bring some relief and healing in your experience to know that your loved ones have been declared innocent on that day when their lives were cut short.

Peace and togetherness

"And so it is, to show you our love and just to be with you and to hope that this will, indeed, mark the beginning of new hope, peace and togetherness in this City that we are here to bring you greetings today."

Vacating the podium to applause Rev Dr Norman Hamilton then took the stand, saying: "Like Paul I have just been Moderator for a week, but it feels like a year already."

He continued: "We feel hugely humbled by the warmth of the welcome we have received here this morning. I certainly didn't expect it to be on this scale or with this depth. I was in Dublin all day yesterday and was only able to see the events here in the City from afar, but the overwhelming impression that came over was of a City which was now beginning the process of healing. It may well be that the climatic events of yesterday are every bit as climatic as those that triggered them 38 years ago.

Hope

"I suppose it would be my hope, and I suspect, the hope of many, that yesterday and today will, maybe symbolise the building of a bridge between Derry and Londonderry, the building of a bridge between divided communities not just here in the City but across this whole island, and in saying that I am very conscious of the fact that there are many thousands of other victims and survivors who have still a long way to go in their journey, and I know that it is your heart as it is mine, that today is symbolic of bringing healing and help to all the victims epitomised in the exhonoration of yesterday as a result of the Saville Inquiry.

"So, thank you so much for your having us and thank you so much for your welcome and in the Providence of God I will be back here as Moderator later on in the year and I would love to meet you under the radar and not in front of the cameras. Thank you very much."

With applause ringing in the air, the final of the three clergymen, Church of Ireland Bishop Ken Good, also spoke.

"I have been Bishop of Derry for a week and eight years, exactly a week and eight years and this has become the town that I love so well," he said to laughter and applause.

Remarkable day

"Yesterday was a truly remarkable day and I had the privilege of being in the City from early in the morning right through the whole day, and there was not a cloud in the sky yesterday, hardly. I had been using the image all day in interviews of a cloud lifted, a cloud that has hung over us for a long time which has effected our relationships, which has made us more cautious somehow than we should have been in our dealings with one another. But that cloud is no longer there and I want us to have a more open, transparent a more natural, a more easy relationship with one another in this town that we all love so well.

"I want to express my gratitude for the graceful and dignified way in which the members of the families I have met have responded to me. They needn't have been so gentle and kind as they were.

Listened

"The first one I met was Jean," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, and adding: "I listened to her story. She came to my house and sat there with a gentleness and an integrity and in transparency and in honesty she told me her story. And then I heard other stories too, but all through them I was struck by something deeply painful, deeply emotional, deeply moving and something that needed to be resolved. And so, I am delighted that today in our small way, building on what Lord Saville said and building on what the Prime Minister said, and I think his speech was outstanding, and I thought your response to it was very generous, actually, too; we want to build on that now and there are opportunities for building here.

"We want to give you this gift, which you know well as the Hands Across the Divide by Maurice Harron, as a sign of our hands across any divide there may have been. We don't want there to be a divide and I want to pass it to Jean, and say 'May this be a sign of a renewed friendship, a desire to work together and to live in this place that we love so well'," he said.

Visibly emotional at the gesture, Jean Hegarty had to catch her breath a number of times before completing her simple thanks.

She said: "Thank you. On behalf of the Bloody Sunday families, and all families effected by Bloody Sunday and its consequences and on behalf of the Bloody Sunday Trust and our entire community, I would like to thank the church leaders and all those within the Protestant community extending this hand of friendship, both privately some years ago and publicly today.

"I believe this important initiative by the church leaders today will go a major way to healing our community. The impact of this day I think cannot be forgotten and hopefully it will be felt in this community, in the wider community and maybe even ripple out throughout the world. Thank you so much.

"It nearly wouldn't be any kind of a gathering at this memorial without Kay Duddy doing a minute's silence for all victims everywhere," she added.

Taking the podium, Kay said: "For all the victims that died over the last 40 years and for all the victims in the world of injustice, join me for a minute's silence."

And so it was silent, with the exception of five shutters clicking as a small scattering of the scores of cameramen captured the historic moment.

With the formalities over, it was a time for greetings and handshakes, of introductions and of the renewing of friendships already begun.