Rev Harold Good 'certain, totally certain' of IRA disarmament
Methodist minister Harold Good has has said he is "certain, totally certain" that the IRA has disarmed.
Rev Good has just delivered a statement, following an opening statement by General John de Chastelain that the IRA's decommissioning was complete.
He said: “We have spent many long days watching the meticulous and painstaking way in which General de Chastelain went about his task of decommissioning huge amounts of explosives, arms and ammunition.”
He said witnessing the process on a minute-by-minute basis gave them clear and incontrovertible evidence “that beyond any shadow of doubt the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned”.
For many, the words on decommissioning of the Rev Harold Good are more important than anyone else.
Unionists sceptical about IRA decommissioning are more likely to believe what the former president of the Methodist Church tells them.
Together with Catholic priest Fr Alex Reid, he was called in as an independent witness to acts of decommissioning.
He was president in 2001/02, during which time he joined Northern Ireland’s three other main church leaders in pressing for peace – and in engaging in talks with Tony Blair.
He has also met with the Loyalist Commission, the group of loyalist paramilitaries, community representatives and local churchmen and politicians drawn together in Belfast to try to prevent loyalist feuding and loyalist attacks on nationalists.
Mr Good was also a member of the first board of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission from 1999.
Born in Derry in 1937 he has lived and served congregations in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and the United States.
After schooling in Belfast, he went to Theological College in both Belfast and Indianapolis in the United States.
After spells ministering outside Northern Ireland, he returned to the province in the late 1960s and was appointed by the church to serve in the Shankill Road. He was also part-time chaplain to Crumlin Road Prison.
From 1973, for six years, he held the position of director of the Corrymeela Community Centre for Reconciliation on Northern Ireland’s Antrim coast.
Returning to full-time church ministry in 1979, he served various parts of Belfast and Co Down before being elected to serve as president of the Methodist Church in 2001. He returned from full-time ministry the following year.
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