Derry’s Oakgrove Integrated College hosts victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord

“Victims first, not religion or politics.”

This was the heartfelt sentiment of Raymond McCord speaking to The Derry News following a Victims’ event hosted by Derry’s Oakgrove Integrated College.

The North Belfast victims’ campaigner, whose son Raymond McCord Jr was killed by the UVF in 1997, described Tuesday morning as a “massive success due to the students”.

“It all began with my appearance before the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Dublin in January,” said Mr McCord.

“We were making a submission regarding the British Government’s Legacy Act,” he added.

“The victims are rejecting what the Labour Party is trying to do to the Act. It was supposed to scrap the Act but it is tweaking it instead. We wanted the Irish Government to reject this too.

“The submission also outlined an initiative which I am interested in starting. It involved victims telling their stories to cross-community students, on both sides of the border, then taking it round the island of Ireland.

“When I came back, I spoke to John Harkin [the Oakgrove principal]. I know John from years past and he agreed to facilitate it. It could not have happened without his support.

“So today we had victims telling their stories, to educate the students on what the Troubles were really about. In talking to the students, I emphasised it is not what Sinn Féin or the DUP say. They have their own narratives.”

Mr Raymond McCord.

“We have one narrative and that is for truth and justice for victims. Not a Unionist narrative. Not a nationalist narrative. Not a green or orange narrative. And that was emphasised today. It was for the young people to hear the real truth.

“I told them not to heed what the political parties said and I watched them when I was speaking, telling them about my son’s murder, and they were really moved,” said Mr McCord, who was sharing a stage with Bloody Sunday family member, Kate Nash, and Hugh McCormick from Belfast.

“The teachers were telling me afterwards, the students loved the honesty of our stories,” he added.

“They ask you certain questions which might be awkward but you have to be honest and frank with them. For example, one student asked how I would feel if I met the person or people who killed my son.

“The students heard the truth first hand. They are not hearing from a political aspect or a sectarian or religious viewpoint.

“They asked me if the pain goes away and I said, ‘To be honest, it doesn’t go away. We lost somebody to brutal violence, brutality and planned murder’. The students were very empathetic,” said Mr McCord, who added he would appoint John Harkin as Minister for Education “for what he did at Oakgrove Integrated College today”.

“It really takes it out of you telling and re-telling your story,” said Mr McCord.

“But one thing about it is, you say to yourself, ‘It is worth it. The effort and everything is worth it’.

“I am keeping my son’s face alive to the next generation of voters and they are hearing the truth and hopefully they will realise, to the victims, the religion, the politics, don’t mean one thing, except the political parties that have failed us. They want to sit at Stormont and they want to sit at Westminster but they have failed the victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.”

Jarlath Canning names local trio to lead Derry City FC Women

Mark Crossan takes the reins of the club's youth system as Canning and his staff focus on the senior squad's evolution

Derry staff champion Radius Housing’s new partnership with Autism NI

The Derry-based team kicks off a two-year mission to raise funds and awareness for Northern Ireland’s leading autism charity

Returning to the Legacy Act, Mr McCord said families were not going to get “disclosure”.

He added: “There is going to be more cover up and special treatment given to this person and that person.

“Not only that, we have a politician who is going to decide what documents are given to the court. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State, has complete power. That can’t be acceptable, where politics overrules the law.”

Mr McCord reflected that he had been in Derry many times, with Kate Nash and at other events.

“I am from the Unionist community and every time I am made welcome, as a person, not a person from the Unionist community, but as a person they make me feel welcome. I feel I can go into any Nationalist community, not a problem,” he added.

“That is the way it should always be and I will be back in Derry in the future.”