Jo Berry: Making Friends with the Enemy

I made a personal decision just two days after an IRA bomb killed my lovely father, Sir Anthony Berry, to bring something positive out of the horror and to try and understand those who had killed him. My father was attending the Conservative Party ConferencPatrick Mage in Brighton in 1984 and was staying at the Grand Hotel. I did not just lose my Dad that day. I was catapulted into a conflict which I then became a part of, feeling the pain and violence of each and every killing.

The journey of healing began with one small step and I trusted that life would then bring me the opportunities to heal and grow. Within two months of my father’s death, I randomly shared a taxi with someone whose brother had been in the IRA and had been killed by a British soldier. We should have been enemies but instead we talked about a world where peace was possible and there were no enemies. As I left the taxi, I suddenly understood that this was one way I could contribute; I could build a bridge across the divide. Read more