Perhaps no word has been gang-banged out of all of its original meaning more than the word 'hero'. It is used constantly and indiscriminately by the media to describe, for example, footballers, cricketers and any over-paid, over-hyped, 'muddy-metalled rascals' who play silly games in which the greatest risk is a twisted ankle. But just occasionally, a real hero dies, and in the slight hush that ensues, one has a chance to be reminded in the obituaries, of true heroism of the rarest kind.
The death of Gerry Fitt is just such an occasion. No need for me to rehearse all that has been written of his life and works. Suffice to say that he was born in humble circumstances into the Catholic side of Ulster's divided society. During the war he served on the Murmansk convoys, in my opinion, one of the most horrific and heroic of all the campaigns fought by British forces during WWII. After the war he entered politics as both a socialist, and as a campaigner for a more equitable polity in the gerrymandered political scene in Ulster. In the end, his cause and his people were snared and trapped by the murderous, vile and corrupted romanticism of Sinn Fean/IRA. This was his testing time. Almost all of his colleagues and friends and constituents shrugged and trimmed. But not him! At great personal danger he stuck to his belief in democratic politics. He demonstrated, not only physical courage, but even more difficult - intellectual courage.
Gerry Fitt was 'the real thing'!
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