A senior Catholic priest in Northern Ireland has had to intervene in a row over the proposed location of a memorial to the victims of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing, to stress that the Catholic Church has “no objection whatsoever” to a permanent memorial being erected to the victims.
The IRA bomb exploded near the town’s cenotaph on 8 November 1987, resulting in the deaths of 12 people.
Mgr Joseph McGuinness, the administrator of the diocese of Clogher, made his comments in a letter read out at all Masses in St Michael’s parish in Enniskillen last weekend. In it, he rejected “ill-informed” comment and speculation in the media over the causes of the delay in granting permission to locate a memorial to the victims on land belonging to St Michael’s Diocesan Trust.
The memorial was unveiled on Wednesday of last week, the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing. However, within hours it was placed in storage until an agreement is secured on where to locate it. Relatives want it to be placed in a specific location outside the Clinton Centre.
Mgr McGuinness also rejected any suggestion that the Church had a problem with the symbol of the poppy on the memorial. This was “quite untrue,” he said. “Until the memorial was unveiled last Wednesday, the Trust was not aware of what was to be on the memorial and has never expressed any view on this.”
In his statement, Mgr McGuinness stressed that the Diocesan Trust has no objection to a permanent memorial being erected to the victims. But he highlighted that the charity under whose auspices the memorial was created submitted an application to St Michael’s Trust to negotiate leasing a portion of the land at the front of the Clinton Centre as recently as 26 September.
The hope was expressed that the diocesan trust could come to a quick decision in time for the unveiling of the memorial on 8 November. But according to Mgr McGuinness, the trust made it very clear that the matter couldn’t be resolved in that time, given issues such as health and safety and legalities in the proposed lease arrangement.
He also highlighted that former US president Bill Clinton had, on his recent visit to Enniskillen, flagged up a plan to expand the Clinton Centre that will involve modifications to the building and its surroundings, and that this would also have implications for the siting of the memorial.
“From all this I hope it is clear that, contrary to some comments being made, the Diocesan Trust is not trying to be in any way obstructive, but rather has had to begin to address complex issues which have only recently been posed,” Mgr McGuinness said.
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