By Deirdre Porter, Melbourne Australia
Missing: Andrew Quigley.
As I observe the relentless, enduring pain suffered by Collette Quigley and her family from the tragic loss of her beloved son, Andrew, I see the effects reverberating throughout the hearts and lives of the people of Derry city.
Hundreds are writing and sharing their losses, grief and experiences with online support pages set up on social media sites.
Derry is a city held in a vice-like grip of a drug, alcohol and mental health crisis. These are the people, the victims, the ones left behind, united as one, asking for help.
Publicly and on the world stage, Derry is still beaming with pride from its historic achievement of being crowned the City of Culture 2013.
But the badge-wearers and bean-counters never stopped to look at what lurks underneath this great City of Walls.
Or should that be “City of Wails.” Wails of pain from those who have lost a mother, father, brother, sister or friend. Wails of tears that could over-flow the Thames and the River Foyle – river that attracts victims to its water like moths to a flame.
Foyle Search and Rescue.
The common denominator amongst the victims is the lack of a support, services and options for those in a desperate search of help and their families.
Funding was recently denied to two essential services in the city. HURT, an invaluable resource providing assistance to those with drug and alcohol-related issues, and Foyle Search and Rescue, the lifesaving operation with the grim task of recovering the bodies taken so mercilessly by the River Foyle.
Sitting here at my kitchen table in Melbourne, my heart hurts and my mind is in disbelief. Not at the lack of empathy shown by the leaders and politicians of Derry, but at the lack of basic human spirit, and the enormous loss of life occurring so often in a place that made me who I am today.
The world is watching Derry. Let’s show them how it’s done, how we can, through the power of a people, unite and bring change.
It’s time to show the world that our spirits are bruised not broken.
Deirdre Porter.
I can feel the winds of change beginning to blow ever so gently in the sweet Derry air.
Deirdre Porter is a freelance feature writer based in Melbourne, Australia, who has worked in corporate communications as a professional writer and magazine editor. She now writes freelance feature articles, blogs and has been published in a range of national newspapers, magazines and online.
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