Christ Unites Ireland

As I head towards 50 I want to say some thank yous

I returned to the church and meetings that I had been a part of some 4 years earlier. The dust had settled from the collapse of the Boys’ Brigade (BB) and people had moved on from the experience some like me physically moved on while others remained and allowed time to move things on.

A couple of young Christians reached out to me and helped establish me back on ‘the straight and narrow way’. Judith also reappeared in my life and introduced me to her spiritual mother Mary. Mary was keen to support young people in their spiritual life and decided to sponsor a group of maybe 15 of us to travel to Birmingham, England for a Eurofire conference.

Once again being outside the familiar I was open to new possibilities. As I mingled with thousands of people from all across the planet I was gaining a new sense of a global community united in their love for God rather than a love for a country.

This was impacting me particularly in relation to Ireland as amongst the many there were Irish people from the North and South. One night while in Birmingham I had a dream and in it, I saw the words, ‘Christ Unites Ireland’. That dream and those words changed my life.

I felt I needed to catch what I had seen and the impact on me that I almost immediately on waking got the words printed on a sweatshirt (as in the above photo).

On my return home I set about organising a march from Belfast to Dublin to proclaim the message.

In just over 3 months since the dream around 40 of us were on the road. Somehow the money, the talent came together and what had first appeared in a dream was now happening.

I was 18 and in my last year of college. We were applying for courses to further our education yet I felt that work was not complete in me. An opportunity came to study Theology in Galway in the West of Ireland, I took it and in September 1989 I was driven to Galway and there I remained for the next two years.

Thank you, Judith and Mary and all those who shared in the vision and brought it about.

Best day,

g