Sir, - At the start of my homeward journey from the Peace Park at Messines to the airport at Charleoi, the van rocked to the sound of Boyzone and Treacy Chapman. No matter what they say was sung by all, even me in my mellow years. I had spent a weekend with some of the young Irish people who were working during the summer at the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messine Ridge in Flanders. Their task was to landscape the grounds and act as tour guides to the many Irish and international tourists who visit the park.
As Messrs Ahern Blair, Trimble, Mallon and Adams strive to create a peaceful island for us all to live on, what is happening on the ground at Messines is a living testimony to what those men are trying to achieve. In the Great War there were battalions of men called pioneers whose job was to build trenches and defences. The pioneers in Messines today are builders with an equally hazardous task. They are building relationships, friendships and a better understanding between each other as human beings. They are 18 and 19 years of age, as young as the boys and girls whose bones lie in those lonely graves and in whose honour and memory the Peace Park was built.
Other than 80 years, there is little difference between their sense of mischief and adventure. Among the group was Ross from Sligo who was mad keen to know all about the Connaught Rangers. Jimmy came from the Falls and was worried about the wet topsoil he had to move. Clare came from Leitrim; she told the Belgian tourists about the Irish who liberated the Belgian village of Wytschaete near Messines. In the evening their dinners were cooked by Kathleen and Isa from the Waterside.
It will take many years of tender love and care to produce a peace park with scented roses and lush green grass. What these young folks need is support and encouragement. They have the unique honour, which many of us will never have, of one day telling their grandchildren that they sowed grass and lifted wet topsoil to build a peace park in Belgium. To Joe Falls, Rita Clondalkin, Ross Sligo, Kevin Galway, Kevin Belfast, Liz Cavan, Gary Belfast - the van driver who played Boyzone all day - Kathleen and Isa Waterside, on behalf of the Irish nation, I say well done. We are proud of your noble tasks. No matter what they say . . . - Yours, etc.,
Tom Burke, Ayrfield Road, Dublin 13.