![](https://www.gregoryscottblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image_7c0859ec-6f34-45cb-806f-3d01f3cef878-768x1024.jpg)
I’ve often said the existence keys is the best evidence we live in a fallen world. Keys are necessary to unlock locks, and locks are only necessary because people steal.
In terms of such evidence city walls run a close second. We’ve seen many examples of city walls in our travels: Jerusalem, Istanbul, Vienna, York, Dubrovnik. Today we added Londonderry to that list.
![](https://www.gregoryscottblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image_22b908cd-3250-4301-8fb5-12781e99f982-768x1024.jpg)
The irony is in Londonderry the walls could not defend against what threatened to tear the city apart following the Reformation. That threat culminated in “The Troubles” of 1968 through 1972, and more acutely on Bloody Sunday (January 23, 1972), where 13 civil rights demonstrators were killed by the police.
St. Columba and St. Patrick would have been shocked to hear “The Troubles” framed as a religious dispute amongst Christians. It was more political and cultural than religious. I never heard the leaders of the opposing sides debating salvation and the merits of monergism or synergism.
Our tour guide was careful to make clear that his use of the name “Derry” (the Irish Republican designation) instead of Londonderry (the UK/Unionist name), was not intended to be a political statement but a more convenient name for the city we were touring today. Fortunately, things have quieted down here since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and we no longer associate Northern Ireland with bombings and the IRA.
Key in bringing about that 1998 peace agreement was John Hume, a devout Christian who attended St. Columb’s (Columba’s) school, and St. Patrick’s College, where he studied for the priesthood before choosing a career in education and ultimately in politics.
Northern Ireland can be thankful Hume chose a career in politics rather than the priesthood, and more importantly that he choice to be peacemaker.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9.
When we act as peacemakers, we are imitating our Father. Like father like son. The Apostle Paul spoke of this imitation of the Father when he told the Galatians that those who are lead by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Galatians 8:14. When we are led by the spirit, we imitate God, Who is spirit.
Continue reading “Irish-Scotch Travel Journal Day – 8”