BOOK OF THE DAY: GEMMA HUSSEYreviews Can I Give Him My Eyes? by Richard Moore (with Don Mullan) Hachette Books 285pp, £12.99
IT IS hard to imagine, harder still to come to terms with, the suffering of children, innocent victims caught up in grown-up violence.
We see them every day in media images, most of them in places far away, wearing strange clothes, wept over by traumatised parents.
Close to home, in Derry, 10-year-old Richard Moore was running along on his way home from primary school on May 4th, 1972, when everything went dark. Voices shouted, murmured, his clothes were pulled, someone said, “what’s your name, son?”, and he recognised the voice of one of his teachers. But the teacher did not recognise his pupil because his nose was flattened, his face “was a bloody mess”, and his eyes had been torn from their sockets “and hung close to his cheekbones”.
Little Richard Moore did not regain his sight, and never will. Now he has written a simple, straightforward account of his life before and after a British soldier fired a rubber bullet into a crowd – and took away his sight.
It is the story of a child – one of 12 – growing up in the Creggan estate in Derry, in a deeply religious home. What makes the story extraordinary is the calm courage of the young boy recovering from his trauma, the love and support which sustains him, and the immense generosity of spirit which enables his grieving parents to forgive his assailant.
That spirit survives even the Scrooge-like behaviour of the authorities as they haggle over compensation.
His mother had lost her brother Gerard McKinney on Bloody Sunday and was still grieving when her little boy was blinded.
The same spirit allowed his parents to accept the love affair, and subsequent marriage, of their daughter to a British soldier.
As Moore grew up and blossomed into the unusual, outward-looking man he is today, he enjoyed every moment of the fuss and attention paid to him at home and abroad.
He unselfconsciously relished meeting the great and the good, and one can almost feel his glee when he meets Ted Kennedy and travels to places he never thought possible. His admiration reaches a zenith when he meets and is befriended by the Dalai Lama.
Turning towards the greater world, and inspired by the Dalai Lama, Moore founded the charity Children in Crossfire and has brought his philosophy of peace to many parts of the world.
The culmination of the book is Moore’s meeting with the British soldier who fired that rubber bullet. Frank and open as this book is, it does not pretend that the meeting was easily achieved or easy to handle.It was preceded by a letter from the soldier (now a retired senior officer) which caused Moore some grief and appeared insensitive.
But the actual encounter was successful, and has led to mutual esteem and understanding.
Moore has forgiven “Charles” and has enjoyed the hospitality of Charles and his wife and family in England.
On July 18th, 2007, the Dalai Lama introduced Moore and the man who shot him to a huge crowd at the Millennium Forum in Derry, on the 10th anniversary of the founding of Children in Crossfire.
In his foreword to this book, the Dalai Lama says of Moore: “I consider him not only my friend but also my hero. Why? Because while I talk about forgiveness, Richard Moore lives it.”
Gemma Hussey is a former minister for education