Gordon Wilson (peace campaigner)

Gordon Wilson (1927-1995) was the father of Marie Wilson, a victim of Enniskillen Commemoration Parade bombing by the Provisional IRA. Born in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim (Irish Republic) shortly after the partition of Ireland, he spent most of his adult life running the family drapery business in Church Street, Enniskillen. A man of great Christian faith (he attended Enniskillen Methodist Church and studied at Wesley College, Dublin), he came to national and international prominence with an emotional television interview he gave to the BBC the same evening in which he described his last conversation with his daughter as they both lay buried in rubble. He expressed forgiveness to his daughter's killers and pleaded with loyalists not to take revenge for her death. Although a resident of Northern Ireland, he was invited to become a member of the Irish senate in 1993 on the nomination of the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. On many occasions he met with members of Sinn Fein. He also met once with representatives of Provisional IRA, seeking the reasons for the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing, but failed - in his view - to get a satisfactory answer. He also met several times with loyalist paramilitaries in an attempt to persuade them to abandon violence.

Related Topics:
1927 - 1995 - Enniskillen - Provisional IRA - Wesley College, Dublin - BBC - Loyalist - Irish senate - 1993 - Taoiseach - Albert Reynolds - Sinn Fein

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