Father Ed Brady displays the H-Block memorial medal.
“Some bonds can never be broken.”
Those words were etched into a small gold-colored medal struck for a 2011 reunion of former prisoners of the notorious H block of Belfast’s Long Kesh Prison—site of the 1981 hunger strike in which 10 Irish prisoners died. The commemorative medal came into the hands of Father Ed Brady through the good graces of a friend, and he chose a particularly meaningful occasion on which to share it.
Father Brady celebrated Mass at the Philadelphia Irish Center last weekend in observance of the 40th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre in which 13 unarmed protesters—mostly teenagers—were killed by elements of the British army in the Bogside district of Derry, Northern Ireland.
Plain white poster-board crosses hung from light fixtures throughout the Irish Center’s dining room, where the Mass took place. Each cross bore the name, etched in indelible ink, of one who died. Close to 60 Irish and Irish-American worshippers filled the room. The Mass was sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of the Derry Society.
Just before Mass began, Father Brady spoke of the Bloody Sunday dead, but he also recalled the sacrifices of the hunger strikers. He opened the little box in which the medal was held and he passed it around then room. Their shared sacrifice, he suggested, “is what’s it’s all about.” Later on, in his homily, he returned to the theme, recalling that the Bloody Sunday victims used non-violence in pursuit of their goals. “The easiest thing to do is to take up arms,” he said, “but the peaceful way is what triumphs in the long run.”
After the Mass, the Derry Society’s Bill Donahue said it’s only natural to remember the Bloody Sunday victims, even after all this time. “They made the ultimate sacrifice, not only for Derry but for the aid of Irish freedom. You always remember that.”
