IT IS FINISHED

More than once, Tom Murray held someone as that person died in his arms in N. Ireland during the conflict between the Irish Republican Army factions and the British Army during the troubles from the '70s. One of those times was an undercover Captain of the British intelligence who was shot several times by the PIRA at point-blank range, during a PIRA Easter parade.

Born a Catholic in Derry in the heart of the Bogside on the 12th of July. The very day the Protestant Orangemen march throughout the province but especially on the Derry walls looking over into the Bogside with a shout of "no surrender". While many joined the IRA various factions against British rule became a volunteer as a medic, at the First Aid post in the language of the time and location. He didn't care who was wounded, he only wanted to help those in great need of first aid before medical aid was available.

Being born into a Catholic family does not make a person a Christian, as Murray would learn. When US President John Kennedy was assassinated, Murray took a major step in following the Catholic teaching but it was not the full journey that he'd make later in life.

This is most decidedly not a story about the fighting. This kind of story is played out across the world every day in conflicts that make international news and violent disputes that barely make the local media. As Murray says in the introduction, "This book is about a conflict that goes far deeper then the history of Ireland, or any other place the conflict within the soul, which has expressed itself in a myriad form of ways since man first rebelled against God at the dawn of creation."

It is the story of one man trying to come to grips with his fellow man and the inhumanity displayed toward each other. The time and the setting are real, the Northern Ireland conflicts and the people are equally real. It is the IRA factions' war against the British forces.

In these very real battles that are also a metaphor, Murray sometimes identifies the people by name and rank. The atrocities of conflict are very real, but Murray does not dwell on the horrors of that. In other words, this is not a story of fighting, blood, and gore in the physical realm. The fighting Murray goes through is just real but is on the spiritual battlefield.

Murray signing up as a cadet as a First Aider, brought his journey into the horrors of the conflict which was an unforgettable one.

He saw the Battle of Bogside, a three-day fight that ended with the British Army coming in. He was also there at the infamous Bloody Sunday. The band U2 in 1983 had the song Sunday Bloody Sunday that became famous and much more.

Read about his own conflict with the disinfected Catholics and the IRA. The PIRA's the quest to find out did he ever work for the British Intelligence while he lived in the Bogside of Derry and read how he replied to their question in the Maze prison directly and indirectly many times.

Charity and caring for others is a central tenet of Christianity. The story of the Good Samaritan caring for the man injured at the side of the road while others walked by certainly played a major role in the author's decision to help in the conflict as he did. He started with the Knights of Malta and later moved into the Knights of Lazarus. The Knights of Malta is an aid society formed in 1099. The Knights of Lazarus is a similar group formed in 1142. Both are dedicating to helping the sick and injured.

Despite that, he was finally arrested and jailed on terrorism charges. "I was arrested because I became a carrier for a package to be planted in a government building that went off. The PIRA used me to do it. I tried to get out of it but really had no choice. If I didn't carry out their act of terrorism, a PIRA cell would plant a bomb under my parents' car."

His personal transformation came about at the Lord Kesh, Maze Prison, where he put his trust in the Lord Jes

Dettagli