‘I'm not going to do anything that isn't possible to do together': peacemaker Lord Eames celebrates 50 years since consecration
Fifty years on from his arrival in
Derry
as the city's
Church of Irelan
d bishop,
Robin Eames
, has vivid memories of two things: the suffering of the city on
Bloody Sunday
and its aftermath, and being reunited with the man who would go on to become a lifelong friend, his Catholic counterpart, Bishop Edward Daly.
'I broke with tradition and made history because, without realising it was the first and only time it had happened, I invited him to my consecration and he walked beside me,' Lord Eames said.
'That friendship and that hope image of what we wanted to do together took me through all the years of my service here, and Edward and I became very close friends and we did lots of things which were never publicised, but I hope were for the good of the people of this place.
'We treated each other as men, as people, forgot about the fabric of office ... We acted together.'
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Speaking following a service in St Columb's Cathedral in Derry to mark the 50th anniversary of his consecration as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Lord Eames recalled going, at Bishop Daly's suggestion, 'into the Bogside all by myself and going from door to door simply saying look, 'I'm Robin Eames, the new Church of Ireland bishop, I just called to say hello, I'm glad to meet you.'
'It was there in one of those houses, when the door opened, and a hush fell over the conversation, and somebody walked through the door straight over to me with a hand outreached.
'He said simply, 'Welcome to Derry. I'm John Hume', and that was the meeting of two people who were to work together in the years to come.'
In 1986, Lord Eames became Archbishop of Armagh and the head of the Church of Ireland; serving in this role from 1986 to 2006, he known for his work in peacebuilding and reconciliation, often, as in Derry, working in conjunction with his Catholic counterpart.
He had been due to preach the sermon for Remembrance Day sermon in Enniskillen in 1987, a service that never took place. Eleven people died when an IRA bomb exploded at the town's cenotaph; Lord Eames spent the day in the hospital, and later wrote that the experiences of that day 'will never leave me.'
As Church of Ireland primate he had a direct role in trying to resolve the Drumcree dispute of the mid-1990s, and in 1998 was an advocate for a 'yes' vote in the referendum on the
Belfast Agreement
.
Throughout, his approach was inspired by his belief in human connections. 'It's what's always made sense to me in my ministry ... I have emphasised over and over again that I'm not going to do anything that isn't possible to do together.
'That's been the way of it, and I hope that's what people will remember when they bury me,' Lord Eames said.
Following his retirement in 2006, Lord Eames became co-chair, along with Denis Bradley, of the Consultative Group on the Past, an independent group set up to examine how to deal with the legacy of the North's Troubles.
Its recommendations included an independent commission to examine legacy cases over a five-year period, but it became embroiled in controversy after a plan for a £12,000 payment to victims' families was leaked, and its proposals were never adopted.
'That report, quite honestly, turned out to be before its time,' Lord Eames said. 'If there had been time before we published it, I think it might have had more effect. So much that has happened since could have been avoided ... But I don't regret one word of it.'
To move forward, Ireland must 'look back on its past with humility' and acknowledge 'hurts have been inflicted on both sides'.
'If we can only have the humility to say yes, these things happened, but they've no part and place in our future,' he said. 'Let's learn from the past, let's learn from the mistakes.
'In Ireland we've so much going for us, so many opportunities, and if only we can be a generation that takes these opportunities, I believe the future is bright for us all.'
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