ONE
The IRA My First Contact with P. O’Neill I LIT A FIRE IN the backyard of my home, to burn statements
in which you could count the dead. Enniskillen 11, Gibraltar 3, Holland 3, Lisburn 6, Mill Hill 1, Ballygawley 8, the number often determining for how long we would remember or how quickly we would forget. It was late 1988. The conflict was approaching its twentieth year. By now, many had seen all they wanted to see and heard all they wanted to hear. I can imagine televisions being switched off, or the volume being turned down. Only tuning back in when something more shocking than the ‘usual’ would demand attention. But this up-close reporting was new to me. New, in terms of those statements and how I came to have them. They were from my first contacts with P. O’Neill in the late 1980s. I would come to know five people by that name and in that role of authorised spokesperson for the IRA leadership. None of them were related, but all used the same name. They spoke of war before they came to speak of peace. 8
