The horror of the terrorist attacks on New York,
the Pentagon and Pittsburg shocked people throughout the world
and nowhere more so than in Northern Ireland.
The ties between Ulster and the United States of America
go back to the formative years of the Republic and long before
that, as the fine series of Scots-Irish Chronicles books by
distinguished local author Billy Kennedy has shown.
Billy's books have traced the origins of the Ulster-Scots
settlements in what was then the British colonies of North
America, the part played by those sturdy settlers in the taming
of the frontier and the French wars, followed by the America
War of Independence and the securing of freedom.
They also trace the subsequent history of the United States
and the great part played by Ulstermen as Presidents, politicians,
churchmen and soldiers.
The Ulster-Scots may have been assimilated into the American
population in a way that did not happen with other groups
like the Irish-Americans, but their influence has been profound
ever since.
Americans have always been extremely popular in Northern
Ireland, and their soldiers were made to feel at home when
huge numbers of them were stationed here during the Second
World War.
Many Ulster cities and towns are twinned with communites
in the United States and that has brought enormous benefits
to Northern Ireland.
All this and above all the blood ties of kinship have meant
that the sorrow, the grief, the horror and the anger have
been felt here almost as if it happened in our own country.
The thoughts and prayers of Ulster people have been with
Americans in their great loss, and also with the people of
other countries, including our own United Kingdom who lost
loved ones in the New York and other atrocities.
It will be a long long time before the intensity of the feelings
over the New York attacks diminish.
If there is any consolation to be gained from this dreadful
act it is that surely any lingering sympathy throughout the
free world with terrorists of any kind will have finally evaporated.
How can anyone ever justify again the actions of people who
would murder and maim and destroy lives in any cause?
The American attacks were on a huge and unprecedented scale
and it is understandable this has created such a vast scale
of sympathy.
All the other smaller and less spectacular acts of terrorism
throughout the world in the past three decades fall into the
same category of being evil in the extreme - the bombings
in Spain by ETA, the bombings in Italy, the Middle East atrocities,
and closer to home, Canary Wharf, Manchester, and, of course,
Omagh, which was the largest in a long line of bomb atrocities
committed against the people of Northern Ireland.
Whatever else evolves from the American atrocities one thing
is certain, it must end for all time any lingering sympathy
or empathy on the part of people with the actions of terrorists
of whatever hue. It should also mean a drying up of any financial
aid provided for terrorist groups, and a closed ear to any
case for terrorists provided by their political representatives.
Terrorism from any quarter in support of political aims and
objectives is wrong and we in Northern Ireland have known
that for over 30 years. It must evoke the same feeling throughout
mankind, otherwise all the understandable grief and sorrow
expressed in the aftermath of the New York murders will have
been in vain.
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