I parked outside their home only a few weeks ago. As I idly
waited for my passenger, I looked at the low-roofed building wedged in between
the bigger business premised round about. Lace drapes hung in the little
windows and in one, I could see a glass vase holding some pretty flowers.
‘That’s a home,’ I remember thinking, ‘Someone who lives here cares enough to
make the place look special’. Then the door slowly opened and a small man
stepped out, dressed simply in a navy jumper and dark trousers. A hunchback
with a gentle face. He stood on the pavement and silently surveyed the street,
up and down, and then he simply soaked in the sunshine of the beautiful summers
day. Here was Tom Blaine, king of his quiet sphere.
Just a few yards around the corner from this peaceful humble
place is the office of Enda Kenny. It too is small and unpretentious, but the
whole town, indeed the whole country, know who Mr. Kenny is. Castlebar is very
much the Taosieach’s town and many here are proud of the ‘power’ the Mayo man,
‘one of ourselves,’ has attained. He is
rarely there, as the pressing responsibility of ruling the country and
developing the nation as a successful, ‘safe’ place in which to live, demands
much of his attention.
But so much has changed since that quiet afternoon on New
Antrim Street. Never again will Tom walk through that little door and gaze
peacefully around at his world. Never again will the traffic kindly come to a
halt and let him make his crossing as he takes a stroll around the town. For
Tom and his brother Jack were cruelly murdered in their home on Tuesday night.
They were needy. They
were harmless, vulnerable, human. Their deaths have reverberated around the community
bringing a devastating sense of loss; they have also forced us to take a cold
hard look at the state of our society. They should not have died. Their deaths
have no reason.
But it cannot be simply coincidence that as they were
battered to death in a town which ought to have insured that nothing like that
would ever happen, their neighbour was making a new law that in his country,
vulnerable, helpless human beings could be killed – in certain cases. Mr. Kenny
was resolutely facilitating the passing of a Bill by his government that would
legalize abortion in Ireland – a bill destined to tragically end the lives of
precious, vulnerable and helpless unborn children. The Bill this week has
passed through the Dail ad looks set to become part of Irish law.
Forgive me, but I cannot help seeing seeing in one event the
reflection of another. What sort of a
society have we that can produce young men like Alan Cawley? No, we cannot
foist the guilt onto a minority group, or say that an Irish person would never
do such a thing. One of our own is responsible for the deaths of two quiet men
who could not protect themselves. And yet, what sort of a leader have we that
can push through a piece of deathly legislation, against the wishes of
thousands of citizens, and make Ireland an even more dangerous place for the
vulnerable, the helpless, the most precious of our society?
Two neighbours; Tom Blaine, and his brother, needy and
vulnerable, brutally murdered – Enda Kenny, powerful and ‘self-sufficient’,
responsible now for innocent blood. Terrible things have happened in Castlebar
this week. We will miss Tom and Jack Blaine...and how many more?
