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| - Gordon Wilson (25 September 1927 – 27 June 1995) was the father of Marie Wilson, one of 12 victims of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day Bombing by the Provisional IRA in 1987. He was born in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim several years after the partition of Ireland. He spent most of his adult life running the family drapery business in High Street, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. A man of great Christian faith, he came to national and international prominence with an emotional television interview he gave to the BBC the same evening in which he described his last conversation with his daughter, a nurse, as they both lay buried in rubble. He expressed forgiveness to his daughter's killers and pleaded with Loyalists not to take revenge for her death. Although a resident of Northern Ireland, he was invited to become a member of Seanad Éireann in 1993, on the nomination of the then-Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. On many occasions he met with members of Sinn Féin. He also met once with representatives of Provisional IRA, seeking the reasons for the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing, but failed — in his view — to get a satisfactory answer. He also met several times with Loyalist paramilitaries in an attempt to persuade them to abandon violence. He died of a heart attack in 1995, aged 67, survived by his wife, Joan, and their surviving children. William Ury, wrote in his 1999 book The Third Side: In an interview with the BBC, Wilson described with anguish his last conversation with his daughter and his feelings toward her killers: "She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say." To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, "But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night." As historian Jonathan Bardon recounts, "No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact." (en)
- Gordon Wilson (født 25. september 1927 i Manorhamilton i County Leitrim i Irland, død 27. juni 1995) var en nord-irsk fredsaktivist. Hans offentlige engasjement i konflikten i Nord-Irland begynte etter at hans datter Anne-Marie Wilson ble drept av en terrorbombe som ble sprengt av Det provisoriske IRA i Enniskillen på Remembrance Sunday i 1987. Han var selv tilstede da bomben gikk av, og lå begravd under restene av huset som ble sprengt sammen med datteren. Under et intervju som ble vist på BBC fortalte han om sin siste samtale med sin døende datter mens de lå fastklemt. Han ba samtidig lojalistene innstendig om ikke å ta hevn. I 1993 ble han utnevnt til senator i Republikken Irland etter å ha blitt nominert av den daværende taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. Han møtte flere ganger medlemmer av Sinn Féin, PIRA og lojalistiske paramilitære grupper for å diskutere mulighetene for fredelige løsninger. (no)
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