David Ervine's Funeral – Urban Parable 3
As is traditional here, the family of the deceased were lined up outside the door of the church and were being condoled by those who were at the service. This line up took almost an hour. Towards the end I walked against the tide, back inside the church to see how many more people were left. After all, there are time constraints at such events, the crematorium had been booked for a particular slot and we were now in serious danger of missing it.
As I got into the entrance of the church building I heard my name being called, I turned and saw a big man heading towards me with his hand extended in greeting. I confess I didn’t recognise him, and when he saw the confusion in my eyes he introduced himself. I hadn’t seen him for three years, and then only very briefly and for a very unfamiliar moment.
It was my geography teacher from when I was fourteen (that’s the bigger part of 30 years ago!!). He is now the headmaster of my old school, and it turns out that he was at the funeral with his wife and two daughters (who were older than I was when he taught me in school). The last time I met him three years ago was through Davy. A bunch of us were meeting in a room in the Mission. A local paramilitary leader’s phone went off, the conversation ensued and when it ended he complained to me that Davy was always getting him to do things. Later that afternoon Davy wanted him to meet a school group from Bray. When I told him I was from Bray, this leader rang Davy back, told him this and Davy suggested I go along too. I happened to be free so I did, and found that in the company of a British loyalist paramilitary leader I was meeting my former geography teacher and a bunch a pupils from my old school. Go figure.
It turns out that Davy had invested a lot in that exchange programme. He had even been the graduation speaker at the school a couple of years back, and now Gerry and his family were paying their respects.
Davy Ervine had a unique ability to win the respect of people and to bring together the most extraordinarily different people.