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John McGuffin
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John was responsible for re-introducing me to my grandfather Charles John "Nomad" McGuinness, and through this process of discovery, to expanding my awareness of my whole family. He opened my eyes to a man of family myth and made him real. He provided a bridge, unintentional though it may have been, to my past and my far flung family. He created a sense of continuity with a lost heritage. He came on my scene at a time when my own directions were confused, and stared me on a path of retrospective exploration. For these and many other reasons, his passing comes as a personal loss, even though I didn't know him well. Like a Paladin, he stepped in to slay the dragons of forgetfulness and fading history, and we are all the better for it. I consider myself better for knowing him and working with him on my grandfather's history! To borrow from one of John's own passages: John was unashamedly Republican, Socialist, Anarchist, Guevarist and iconoclastic. He said he took his philosophy from the 'Father of All Historians' the great Herodotus. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus succinctly laid down the historian's function.
And, as John then said: 'amnesia is the handmaiden of hypocrisy' – which is basically what George Santayana meant when he wrote: 'Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to fulfill it.' While, as an American, I probably will never fully understand the conflict in Northern Ireland that so profoundly touched John, and millions of others. Yet it has shaped my family history, and because of John, that history became real. I am truly grateful for the insight and inspiration! With deepest regret, and
my heartfelt respect, I say goodbye! Tim McGuinness,
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John McGuffin (1942-2002), "Irish journalist and political agitator. " John McGuffin was born in Belfast in 1942. He came from a Protestant background. Indeed, so much so that by his own account, he never met a Catholic until he was 18 years old. His uncle, Sam McGuffin, was a Freemason and had been a Labour Unionist MP at, and first speaker in, Stormont. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and then at Queen's University Belfast, where he took an honours degree in Modern History. Subsequently he taught in London and then in Saudi Arabia before returning to Belfast where he was employed as a lecturer. He was an active member of the People's Democracy. Interned in 1971 (as one of two "token Protestants", the other being Ronnie Bunting), he wrote the definite account of that process in Internment. He later resigned from political activity to concentrate on writing full-time. He died in Derry in April 2002. |
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