Operation Banner Commemorative Service |
The Prime Minister in 1969 was Harold Wilson. It’s said on good authority that when the Cabinet was deciding whether or not to deploy troops to Northern Ireland, Harold Wilson went round the table twice asking each minister for their views, because as he said “if we go in, it will take many years to get out”.
It was an accurate prediction. Operation Banner was the longest deployment in British military history and involved more than 300,000 personnel.
The troops went in to protect society in Northern Ireland and its legal and democratic structures from being overwhelmed by para-military violence. Force cannot in the end resolve social conflict but can offer a vital breathing space in which the normal processes of democratic debate and decision making can re-assert themselves. Military intervention can hold the forces of chaos at bay while people learn again how communities with different histories and aspirations can live together and do business with one another. Operation Banner kept open that vital pass through which a more hopeful future for Ulster could enter.
In his poem, “The Second Coming”, William Butler Yeats saw a time when “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity … things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. But the centre did hold and mere anarchy was not loosed upon the world. Mistakes were made but the British Armed forces proved that they had the discipline and the resilience to stand firm until there could be a political settlement.
The people of Northern Ireland and their community leaders, having suffered so much, want to move on now and are at work building a new future. Much remains to be done in healing memories and embedding hope but the military phase, Operation Banner, has been brought to a conclusion and we can give thanks for it.
But how we remember what has happened is vital if we are to learn the lessons and understand the cost of what we are asking our servicemen and women to do on our behalf.
I have listened to many veterans of the 38 years of the operation. Here are some of their voices - We slept in all sorts of places - the attics of RUC police stations, in bunkers at the border watch towers, in ditches. You never knew where or when an attack would come. Sometimes teenagers shouting abuse or throwing stones would be come on to lure the patrol into the firing line of a coffee jar grenade attack or a sniper. The big challenge was staying disciplined and not reacting to provocation. The times when the threat was high were matched by periods of intense boredom.
What was required was not just high professional skill but also the ability to understand that fire fights might be won but the battle for hearts and minds lost. I have been able to see in other theatres how the lessons of Northern Ireland have entered the DNA of the British Armed Forces who combine to a remarkable degree military efficiency with a capacity to engage in a humane way with the civilian population. I have been given many examples of humour which defused tension but the jokes I have been told are perhaps best enjoyed in the bar and would fall flat in the pulpit.
People from all over the United Kingdom were involved and some were especially vulnerable as members of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Irish Regiment operating on their own home turf. More than a thousand members of the armed forces died and more than 6,000 wounded in the 38 years of Operation Banner. Reflecting on the death of a friend in an attack on a vehicle check point one veteran said “At the time I just had to keep going”. It was only after he had left the army that he realised the extent of the emotional and spiritual impact that the death of his friend had made. He had to confront anger, a desire for revenge, unresolved grief and sometimes an irrational fear which came from being constantly on edge.
So this is also an occasion for paying tribute to all those individuals and organisations who are concerned with the emotional and spiritual health of servicemen and women and who offer practical support to families. The work goes on of course among veterans as they establish their own inner peace and stability.
We honour the memory of those who were killed by never forgetting them and never forgetting what they fighting for when they died. It is fitting that all the names of those who were killed in the course of Operation Banner are recorded on the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire. We shall show our respect by caring for and comforting the bereaved and doing what we can to help the needy in the world. The Act of Commitment led by Field Marshall Inge at the conclusion of this service will give us all an opportunity to pledge ourselves afresh to this most creative way of remembering.
Civilisations perish invisibly in the night when no one is prepared to risk their lives for them. In 1969 the Prime Minister had a sense that the deployment would last for many years but probably not even he suspected that it would be 38 years. Operation Banner has been a test of faith and resolve.
We may have had a brief period after the fall of the Berlin Wall when we believed that it might be possible to take a holiday from history but we all know now that we face a challenging century, full of both promise and peril. The demands we are making on our armed forces are currently very great indeed and most of us can think of young men and women who are risking their lives as we assemble here. We honour and pray for them as they face their test of faith and resolve.
If we come to believe that there is no more to life than looking after “number one” and being as comfortable as possible until the end of our mortal span then the centre will not hold and the world as we know it will dissolve. Christians believe that the pioneer of our faith, Jesus Christ, has given us a new birth into a living hope by sacrificing his own earthly life. All the faiths represented in this Cathedral believe that we have access to a truth which Christians see in Jesus and which gives meaning and depth to our lives. The Christian faith expressed in our first lesson points to that realm beyond death where all that has turned to love in our lives will be united to the truth, whom we call God.
God is our hope and strength: a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea. Amen.
