Forced from his church and home for exchanging Christmas goodwill messages with his Catholic neighbours 20 years ago, Rev David Armstrong talks to Southern Correspondent Valerie Robinson about his experiences as a target of bigotry.
Twenty years ago a Presbyterian clergyman sparked a storm of sectarian hatred and shone a light on bigotry, by giving a goodwill message to his Catholic neighbours on Christmas morning.
Reverend David Armstrong was hounded out of his church and his home by the violence and controversy that his action caused among hardliners.
After 15 years living in exile in England, Rev Armstrong, who retrained as an Anglican minister, now lives in Carrigaline – a satellite town on the outskirts of Cork city.
Although now removed by time and distance from the horrifying events that led to his departure from the north, Rev Armstrong remains angry that a handful of extremists had the power to hound him from his home and work.
The seeds of the drama were sown on Christmas morning 1983 when Fr Kevin Mullan – the Catholic priest for Limavady in Co Derry – visited the local Presbyterian minister to pass on season's greetings.
The pair were on friendly terms and Rev Armstrong had already established good relations with Catholics in his native east Belfast and his previous parish of Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.
However, even before he had arrived in Limavady three years earlier there had been rumblings of discontent among hardliners and the word "compromiser" had been used by Free Presbyterian figures.
Rev Armstrong recalls that many Protestants in the Co Derry town had felt a deep insecurity about their Catholic neighbours.
"When I was living in east Belfast it was about 95% Protestant, so they could live their lives without ever meeting a Catholic," he says.
"But I'd always known Catholics and when I was in college one lecturer, Professor John Barkley, was adamant that we should never think about despising people born and brought up in a different part of Ireland. That was how I'd always felt too.
"In Carrickfergus, the ratio was about the same as east Belfast, so Protestants didn't feel threatened by Catholics, but Limavady was about 45% Catholic and 55% Protestant.
"You could sense the insecurity that many Protestants felt. There was a real fear that unionist politicians would let slip and let Catholics rule the town."
In 1992, tensions were heightened when the Catholic church was destroyed in a loyalist bomb attack.
Rev Armstrong said that some people who knew him well enough to predict his reaction to the blast, urged him to keep his head below the parapet. But he expressed his anger publicly and was determined to show solidarity with the Catholic community.
He later attended the opening of the newly rebuilt church and expressed his sympathy to Bishop Edward Daly.
For Rev Armstrong it seemed natural that when Fr Mullan arrived at his doorstep on Christmas morning that he should invite the priest to address the Presbyterian congregation directly.
After his own service concluded, the clergyman then decided to call to the nearby Catholic church to thank the priest for his open-mindedness.
On seeing Rev Armstrong standing at the back of his church, Fr Mullan, now a close friend, asked him to convey his Christmas greeting to Mass-goers.
The clergyman received a round of applause for his efforts, creating a bond with local Catholics that would outlast the litany of abuse he would receive from opponents.
The years that followed became a living hell for Rev Armstrong and his family. Word spread and extremists picketed his church, pelted him with eggs and threatened the lives of his wife and four children.
"That whole time was unimaginably terrifying. My wife June would check everything that the children would pick up in the garden, in case it was a bomb," he says.
"I remember arriving home very late at night after visiting the sick at Altnagelvin Hospital and often leaning against the garage door, thinking 'thank God I'm safe'."
There was an outpouring of sympathy and support for the clergyman as the issue gained prominence, not only across Ireland, but also in Britain.
After one BBC programme, the family received 9,500 messages from viewers – but just 27 were from the north and 15 of those were "vicious attacks".
"I often felt that I was clinging on by my fingertips. Thankfully, June supported me fully. She knew that I had deep convictions," he says.
"The wives of other clergymen would ring June and tell her that they admired her courage but they would never give their names for fear that their families would be singled out and suffer they way we were."
Catholic leaders were also moved to offer their support, particularly the late Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich who presented the clergyman with a cheque when he finally decided to quit Northern Ireland and retrain in the Church of England in 1985.
The retired Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Donald Coggan, brushed aside claims by critics that Rev Armstrong's actions had been heretical.
He also received strong support from former Northern Ireland prime minister Sir Terence O'Neill.
Rev Armstrong worked as vicar of St Martin's in Cambridge for more than a decade – and even then the hate mail would sporadically arrive.
In 2000, Rev Armstrong's dream of returning to the country of his birth was fulfilled when he was given a post in Carrigaline, Co Cork.
"I wasn't worried about the reception I'd receive because I knew that Catholics in Northern Ireland would write to their friends and relatives in Cork and say 'please make David welcome'."
The goodwill within the town was evident in March this year when the Protestant church was badly damaged by an accidental fire.
The local parish priest immediately offered the Church of Ireland congregation use of his church. Ironically, Rev Armstrong had previously offered the use of his second church, in nearby Monkstown village, to a priest while roof repairs were being carried out on the Catholic church.
As a result of his cross-community work, Rev Armstrong said he was bitterly disappointed by the result of the recent assembly elections which saw the anti-agreement DUP take the lead as the largest unionist party.
He is convinced that the vote will have long-term consequences for the people and the churches in Northern Ireland.
"It is very, very sad," he says.
"It became obvious to me that very little had been learned in the past two decades. I really believe now that if peace is ever achieved in Northern Ireland there will be a mass exodus from all the churches.
"People will say 'you kept us at each other's throats for all these years, we want nothing to do with you'.
"We will all end up as losers."
