It was a great privilege to be invited to interview Rev Harold Good in Cushendun at the Old Church Centre. The live recording was part of a series of events held in September in the beautiful Antrim Coast village. Harold was accompanied by his dog much to the enjoyment of the crowd and she makes a few cameos in the audio recording. Harold is most well known for his role as one of two independent witnesses of the decommissioning of IRA weapons, alongside Fr Alec Reid in September 2005. He performed the same role in the Basque Country as ETA decommissioned and he has advised FARC on decommissioning in Colombia. But with those remarkable roles has come a lifetime of pastoral work as a Methodist Minister, starting in 1968 in the Shankill Road in Belfast as the Troubles broke out. A long held belief he lived by was that people can change, whether it was Martin McGuinness or Ian Paisley. We started the conversation by talking about the gift of his wife Clodagh who sadly passed away in June. Harold showed what leadership can look like from clergy in a divided society and his commitment to dialogue is one of the reasons we have peace in Ireland.
