Reverend returns for secret meeting

Rev. David Armstrong was forced out of Limavady after exchanging Christmas greetings with his Catholic neighbours in 1984. In 2008, an SDLP motion to grant him and Fr. Kevin Mullan the Freedom of the Borough was defeated after six unionist councillors voted against it.

But last Thursday, Rev. Armstrong secretly returned to Limavady to meet a man desperate to see him, a person who "didn't agree with me when I was in Limavady. He simply said, 'Please, please, come and see me'," Rev. Armstrong said.

After the meeting and accompanied by his 11-year-old grandson, Malachy, Rev. Armstrong paid impromptu visits to neighbouring schools St. Mary's and Limavady High School.

Overwhelmed by the "warmest of greetings", the 60-year-old, now an Anglican minister, said he drove home to Carrigaline in Cork "with a feeling that I can walk down the streets of Limavady with my head held up and not look down at the ground".

Seeing both schools work together and share classes with other schools in the borough through the Roe Valley Learning Community (RVLC) gave him "high hopes for great things in Limavady", he said.

"Things have moved on and I like to think in some small way Fr. Kevin and I started something in Limavady," he said, adding staff at local schools "are taking the young people in the right direction".

"I thought the six unionists who rejected me were speaking for the community but now I know they were speaking for themselves. They seem to want to live a few hundred years back. I was overwhelmed by the warm greetings I received and I have high expectations of good things for the future in Limavady."

St. Mary's principal, Celine McKenna said: "Rev. Armstrong could see we are in a situation where the schools are all co-operating and working together. He was delighted with that and we were delighted to have him in the school."

Limavady High School principal, Glenn Riley added: "We shared with him the work of the RVLC in the promotion of shared education. We also talked about the future for this area and how education must play its part. To have him here was a lovely way to end the day and it was nice to hear his perspective on how things have changed in this area."