Society has not moved on, says man who penned song for Clinton
A COMMUNITY worker who wrote a song about Northern Ireland’s divisions over 22 years ago while recovering from an accident says he is sad that nothing has changed since it was performed for Bill Clinton during his historic presidential visit to Londonderry.
Jim McKeever (59), who is also an SDLP councillor, has worked in cross-community projects for more than two decades.
His poem and song None Are So Blind talks of sectarian divides and the fact that circumstances can be changed ‘by you and me’ and includes the line ‘For none are so blind as those who just won’t see’.
Mr McKeever, from Tamna her in in Derry, penned the words while recovering from an unsuccessful operation to save the sight in his left eye after the freak domestic accident.
“I was a young community worker back at the end of 1995,” he said.
“I remember being in the Guildhall at the launch of a peace initiative. My wife Susan and I arranged to take my aunt Christmas shopping that afternoon.
“She needed a wheelchair when out and about and I went to get it from a sort of broom cupboard in her hallway.
“The chair caught on a saddle board and as I bent over to lift it a curtain pole that was standing in the cupboard fell forward.” Mr McKeever spent several days in hospital as doctors battled to save the sight in one of his eyes.
He added: “The doctors hoped that gravity would have sorted the issue but they couldn’t see into the eye because of the damage and I couldn’t see out.
“After a few weeks I was sent to