February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Enright Foundation is just such an example. It commemorates Terry Enright Jr., a young community worker who was murdered by LVF gunmen on Jan. 11, 1998 while working as a doorman at a nightclub on Belfast’s Talbot Street.
He had taken on the part-time job because he needed some extra money to renovate his kitchen. Only 28, Enright had for years made his mark in community work, often using his greatest passion, sports, as a means to help young people.
The senseless killing was condemned as usual — but not forgotten, like so many others in the past. The Enrights, Terry Sr. and Mary, came to New York last week to showcase the work that the foundation created in Terry’s memory has achieved and to thank those who have helped the foundation, including former Sen. George Mitchell, key peace broker during the early stages of the peace process.
“This is what is happening on the ground now,” said Terry Enright Sr., father of the murdered community worker.
“The work Terry did changed kids’ lives. His attitude was, ‘I can change any child if their confidence can be built up.’ “
Enright cautioned against viewing the situation in Northern Ireland as universally rosy for young people, telling listeners at the Carpenters’ Union building on Hudson Street in Manhattan that “these young people need to be treated as survivors of the conflict.”
But quiet and confident celebration was in order as union speakers joined Sen. Mitchell in praising the work of the Enright Foundation.
“There’s been tremendous change since I first went there,” Mitchell said. “There’s much to be concerned about, but it also must be said there’s been a lot of progress.
“I still say the agreement did not provide a guarantee for peace, it provided an opportunity for peace to happen.”
Carpenters’ Union Executive secretary treasurer Mike Forde hosted the evening along with Brian O’Dwyer of the law firm O’Dwyer and Bernstien.
Reminding listeners of the former senator’s role in the peace process, O’Dwyer said: “Because of George Mitchell, people can go to sleep at night and know they’ll wake up in the morning” without the fear of gunmen.
To emphasize that point, Enright Foundation members had brought photographs that were displayed on the walls of the union’s conference room. One image showed Irish teenagers grinning by a roadside, with camping equipment in front of them. Behind them a stone wall led up a green field to a ridge,
One observer remarked that in history books of the Troubles, photographs might show a similar group of youngsters — but they would be in army uniform or wearing balaclavas.
Mitchell said: “Do what you can in the memory of a really fine young man.”