A Man Is Dead

4 June 1997

In the early hours of June 1, 1997, Greg Taylor was kicked to death by a loyalist mob outside a Pub in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland. After reading some of the reactions to his death I posted this article to the soc.culture.irish Usenet newsgroup, and I've decided to post it here too.

A man is dead.

His name was Greg Taylor.

He was 41 years old.

He was married to Kathleen.

He had three children, the youngest of whom has Cerebral Palsy.

He was a traffic policeman.

I grew up hearing that someone had died in a riot/shooting/bombing every second night on the news. It became part of the background. Occasionally, for one reason or another, one particular death would break through the noise. The victim would have a familiar name. Or be the same age as someone I knew. Or his/her death would be particularly barbaric. Any reason. Usually though, the deaths were a dull background, part of growing up in Ireland.

A man is dead.

Think about what that means.

Greg Taylor was just a guy who died because he was doing his job. I don't know anything about him apart for the few facts reported about him, and the fact that he died a cruel and unnecessary death. Next week, I'll be reading about someone else who died an unnecessary death. Maybe it will be another RUC officer. Maybe a British soldier. Or a misguided 'patriot' blown up by his own bomb. Maybe just some unfortunate soul, protestant or catholic, who walked down the wrong street or said the wrong thing. It doesn't matter who it will be. What matters is, another unnecessary loss, another widow. Another grieving parent, or a child trying to understand.

What saddens me is that, in the word-games of condemnation and counter-condemnation that NI politics has become, one essential fact has been lost.

A man is dead.

This fact is lost in the hurrah and counter-hurrah over the nature of one man's death. Over what would have happened if he'd been a catholic instead of a protestant. The same Sinn Feiners who condemn his murder by a loyalist mob would have been noticeably silent had he been shot in the back as a 'legitimate target'. And the same loyalists who temper their criticisms would have been unreserved in their condemnations had that been the circumstance of his death.

None of which matters too much to his family at the moment, I'd imagine.

A man is dead.

How many more have to die before the madness ends.