the journal of cross border studies in ireland - The Centre for Cross ...

it is all our business.” Ruttledge knewthat as he was neither a follower nor aleader he must look useless or worsethan useless to this man of commitmentand action. As far as Jimmy Joe wasconcerned he might as well be listeningto the birds like an eejit on the far sideof the lake, and he made no furtherattempt at speech.´This business of offering to the otherside a full effort at understanding inMcGahern´s novel might be a metaphorfor how progress will be made in Ireland,not only between the tribes within theNorth, or between the North and South,but between those who have healthinsurance and those who don´t in theRepublic, or those who live west of theBann or east of it in the North, or indeedbetween gay people in the Republic ofwhom I am one, and those who run ourstate who would offer our way of lovingless respect than they would offer theirown way of loving. Hatred, division, suchlack of respect arise from a failure ofimagination. Quietly and modestly, JohnMcGahern understood that by practicinghis art he was offering the society whichhad wounded him a way out of its ownprejudices. It seemed to amuse him, orat least he never complained, that onlysome of us took him at his word.Bob Bain: an independent spiritI wish I had been able to introducehim to Bob Bain. As I walked betweenKeady and Darkley in south Armagh in1986 I had trouble finding Pastor Bain´shouse. When I did and when his wifeappeared, there was something abouther, something graceful, almost sweetin her way of watching me, but sheBob Bain in the new Darkley Gospel Hallwas suspicious as well. And as I foundmyself asking her if she were born again,her face opened into a pure brightnessas she said that she was, and she gaveme her husband´s phone number andsaid that if I wanted to come to theSunday service I should ask him. Thecongregation had dwindled, she said,since the shooting, people were afraid.The border was just half a mile downthe road. Later, when I phoned BobBain he said that he had two questionsfor me. One, was I member of the INLAand two, what religion was I. For thefirst I said ‘no’ with as much convictionas I could muster, and for the second Iuneasily told him that I was a Catholic.´You know you must be born again,´ hesaid and I thought that he meant that Icould not come to the service. But then30JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.5