A dreadful killing and the wisdom of John Lonergan
WHEN I first encountered John Lonergan he was governor of Mountjoy prison – a position he held for 24 years. The most senior prison officer in the land was a wise and compassionate man; I remember he told me as we walked around Mountjoy: ‘I have never met a happy drug user.’
I was reminded of how wise he is this week when he participated in a difficult discussion on the national airwaves. The discussion concerned Richard Kelly who, aged 19, had knifed John Fox, 23, to death in Sligo on March 1, 1987.
Kelly, now 49, contacted Liveline after a powerful contribution by a brother of John Fox on the anniversary of his brother’s killing. Declan Fox spoke movingly of how his family was serving a life sentence of pain, grief and hurt since his brother’s death.
Kelly – who had never met his victim before that fateful night, stabbing him in a ‘moment of madness’ – heard the interview and told me: ‘If I could turn back time, if I could have John Fox back with his family again, I would make it happen in a heartbeat.
‘It is a terrible thing to realise, to know you ended someone’s life. Humans are supposed to be makers of life, givers of life, not takers of life. I do fully understand and accept taking a life is a crime against man and nature.’
Kelly went on: ‘Please understand, I was 18 years of age, very immature, extremely stupid and very careless, under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Today I am a man with a family, a functioning member of Irish society, and I could not be further away from that foolish 18-year-old I was.’
But every time he spoke, I kept hearing the pain expressed so movingly by Declan Fox, who had spoken on Liveline the previous month. How do you reconcile this awful dilemma: a family grieving, and the man who caused their interminable pain pleading for forgiveness 30 years later?
Then John Lonergan intervened on Liveline to try to put some shape on the pain of the victim’s family and the lessons that Kelly says he has learned.
After 42 years in the prison service, the former governor spoke passionately about how rehabilitation was never on the government’s agenda.
He constantly fought with the authorities and, indeed in his bestselling autobiography, he constantly referred to the dead hand of the Department of Justice stymying any attempts at real progress in prisons.
But he did believe that while Kelly’s words might not help the Fox family, they might deter other young men from engaging in violence that can have catastrophic and lifelong consequences.
Lonergan now travels the country talking to young people and their parents about the scourge of ‘random acts of violence’ perpetrated in the main by young men. He is also deeply concerned about mental health problems, especially affecting young people.
Lonergan’s wise words on this difficult topic struck me as presidential. His name should be added to our wishlist of those who might succeed President Higgins next year.