A LARGE crowd sat with rapt attention in St Patrick’s Hall, Coatbridge as Richard Moore shared the story of his life, his journey of compassion and forgiveness and his work through Children In Crossfire.
The campaigner, who was blinded by a British Army plastic bullet in Derry in 1972—just months after Bloody Sunday, in which his uncle was shot dead—is a world renowned figure. Though just 10-years-old when he was shot in the face at point blank range, Richard learned to see the world in a new way and brought his uplifting but challenging story to Coatbridge as part of the town’s St Patrick’s Day Festival.
Delivering the 2024 Festival Lecture he reflected on the path his life has taken, and offered words of encouragement to those in the audience that they can meet and overcome challenges in their lives with forgiveness.
Born into a city that would shortly become engulfed in violence, Richard’s life after his injuries was a dramatic departure from the life he knew before.
“I remember the Creggan before the conflict,” he told the Coatbridge crowd. “I remember playing football in the street. It was a peaceful place. Then in 1969, everything changed. The pavements were dug up to build barricades and to throw at the police. Shootings and bombings were a daily occurrence. In 1972, 13 people were shot dead. At least four of the people who were shot dead lived within 30 seconds of my door.”
Telling the harrowing tale of the day he was blinded, and the awful realisation that it was not the bandages which prevented him from seeing, Richard explained how after crying himself to sleep the first night he knew he would never see again, he threw himself back into life at his old school, his high school education and eventually university. Marriage and two daughters followed.
“I don’t mind being blind,” he said. “It’s brilliant doing talks like this, when I don’t have to look at you lot! And you never get any older when you look in the mirror. But seriously, it has genuinely been a positive experience.”
Positive change
Having entered the licensed trade with the compensation payment for his life-changing injuries, Richard viewed his life as a positive one, and in 1996 left the trade and launched Children In Crossfire, bringing the fruits of his own experiences to children around the world, especially in Tanzania and Malawi.
“I began to look at children in other parts of the world, who had their eyesight but had to endure suffering that I never knew. So I sold up the pubs and set up Children In Crossfire.
“When I think of what motivates me I remember walking past famine graves in Louisburgh. Shortly after that I was in Malawi and from a village of 500, 42 had recently died of hunger. They took me to their famine graves, being filled 150 years after ours were.”
Journey
Perhaps the most remarkable element of Richard’s story is the journey of forgiveness he took, which led ultimately to a meeting with the man who blinded him as a boy. Far from the young squaddie he imagined, it was a 35-year-old army captain who should have known better who had shot him, but the two formed a friendship (above, with the Dalai Lama) which endures to this day.
“I often asked myself, does he think about me?” Richard said. “This is the legacy of war and violence. Was it worth it? It wasn’t worth it for me.
“But I didn’t have a moment of bitterness or anger, because that destroys you from the inside out. I knew nothing about the soldier for 31 years, until in 2005 I found out his name. In 2006, I flew to Edinburgh to meet him. I sat with the man who blinded me and caused all that pain.
“What I learned about forgiveness is firstly that it is a gift. If he wants my forgiveness he has it. The second is that while it can’t change the past, it can change the future. I don’t believe I would be the happy, contented person I am today if I had hated that soldier.”
Heartbreak and hope renewed
Though he has forgiven the soldier, the sadness of his story still remains, particularly when he recalls the terrible toll it took on his parents.
“I’m not the only person who suffered,” he told the audience in St Patrick’s Hall. “My Mammy and Daddy were devout Massgoers and despite staying away from the Troubles, the Troubles found them. My Mammy’s brother was shot dead, and then three months later, I was blinded in the playground, and my Mammy and Daddy were heartbroken.
“I remember my Mammy crying out to God over my bedside when she thought I was sleeping, and praying for God to give me my eyes back. And years later I found out from my brothers and sisters that my Daddy had asked the doctors if they could give me his eyes, in an amazing act of love and compassion.
“The life I’ve had and the person I’ve become has been a response to their prayers. You can take away someone’s eyesight, but you can’t take away their vision, and this is what my vision is—Children In Conflict and events like this.”
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