Cumbria, memories are not made of this
There is comfort for the survivors of the Cumbrian shootings. that comfort is to be found in the West Berkshire town of Hungerford.
Twenty three years ago Michael Ryan went on a very similar shooting rampage to last week’s madness perpetrated by Derrick Bird.
Ryan, Like Bird, shot dead a close relative, in his case his mother. Like Bird, most of Ryan’s victims were shot at random – besides the courageous policeman who tried to apprehend him in Hungerford itself.
Soon after the Hungerford massacre, I began to rent a weekend cottage in a nearby hamlet.
Oddly, in moving into the area and depending upon the town for my supplies, I never remember specifically associating the town with the murders.
I do remember deliberately diverting to drive past the John of Gaunt School where Ryan met his end. I wanted to see where it happened and to see if there was any mark or memorial there – there wasn’t.
Since then, over two decades, until last week, I had never again thought ‘Hungerford – mass murder’.
On Friday I was in the Co-op in Hungerford buying milk. Nothing, no signal of awareness either in me or anyone else.
I have had to work hard to reconnect the town I know, and the area I spend so much time in, with the horror of August 1987.
Cumbria, you recover, it’s a fact. It’s hard to imagine it in the moment of your sorrow, but you do.
A few months back the Cumbrian Tourist Authority wrote to me to ask if I would paint a small water colour on a post card they enclosed.
The idea was for people to make art to encourage people to return after the appalling winter floods centred on Cockermouth.
I painted a water colour of an imagined scene thought the kitchen window of friends who live on the edge of the Pennine hills.
If I am honest, my memory of Cumbria, beyond staying with my friends there is of flying over the county is a light aircraft – seeing the smoke of funeral pyres spiralling into the upper atmosphere.
But I don’t really associate that memory specifically with Cumbria, I think only of a what seemed a crazed war against foot and mouth disease.
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There are 23 comments on this post
Last weeks shootings and murders at the hands of Mr. Bird are few are and far between and i agree. What i’m saying when I state that this country is becoming more like the U.S. as time goes by, is that due to current world affairs, a lot of people are finding it harder to cope with day to day life. That’s from more children behaving eratically right up the line to mature adults comitting hideous inhumane crimes. It’s a sign of the times in my view and how our environment affects us.
Humans are not born evil they become that way due to the political and social structure they live in & that is a fact.
adzmundo The Venus Project,Zeitgeist & CND
We know what you are saying adz, but I am personally not in favour of writing a negative discourse and simply will not accept the road of deterioration. I can see a possibility, but have always had a philosophy which my grandparents handed down, speak no evil,see no evil and hear no evil, for those aspects of life are self perpetuating. I know of the existence of violence and will rectify and work to counterbalance the runaway hype and longing for retaliation which accompanies it.
When so many local deaths are caused by the temporary insanity of a single man,we ask why. What must have been going on in this mans head ? What was it that made him want to reak such revenge? It may be that when you have slaughtered your nearest and dearest nothing else matters ,as nothing or no one is as dear, even your own life.
I strongly believe in the creative to overcome the destructive and feel that the painting on the card, the making of poetry, gardening, composition of music , writing and all other forms of art which generate healthy growth are a start. Music, for me ,certainly crosses emotional barriers and opens senses to something far greater than a need to destroy.
i do not agree it has anything to do with the political or social structure Adz .
Sometimes people crack for an obvious reason or just for something we will never know .Most end up at the doctors or in institutions .Occasionally they take it out on relatives then the innocent public. Who knows what drives them to it , but like other horrendous events or disasters it is soon cast into the distant memory for those other than the closest people affected.Next week the towns and villages will be going about their normal business and this horrendous crime will be just a memory
What i’m saying is above the tragedy in Cumbria. I’m talking about the level of violence & how it has been on the increase for the last 15years. Look at the levels of violence both national & global around those growing up in twenty ten. If i was growing up today, with my country at real war(s) and not cold war, I know for a fact it would have an significant effect on me. The invisible war did. Today we are talking young boys & grown men coming back in coffins fighting a visible war but mainly kept well secret and therefor invisble. Couple that with the constant high alert that people live with especially in london but it’s nationwide.
We the people are trapped by the system that keeps most important issues well out of sight out of mind.
Current world affairs are slowly ruining our lives and too many don’t realize. The global establishment has us right where they want us: House,car,yearly holiday and sorry to insist on this one but no more world famous british milkman who also had bread, eggs & ,juices. And what eggs they were!
adzmundo The Venus Project, ZM, CND
Don’t agree with all of your posting, Adz, but you’re spot on when you say human beings are not born evil nor, I would add, mad. We are made/driven so.
Uncomfortable though it may be to say so, the family is often not the innocent party in our emotional/mental health that Adrian’s response assumes (he speaks of ‘relatives’ versus ‘innocent public’), any more than mothers are necessarily the better parent, women the kinder/nicer etc of the two genders. Everything depends on the emotional health of the parent(s), to wit the biblical ‘sins of the fathers are visited on the third and fourth generations’.
The increased political emphasis on the family amongst all political parties – and the Daily Mail – is a dangerous path. The family is, in my experience, often the cause of emotional problems. We idolise/mytholgise it at our peril. Both Hitler and Stalin had two parents, in the former case with a mother complicit in her husband’s beatings of his son while not herself violent. Stalin’s was a similar experience.
This is not to accept Margaret’s ‘road of deterioration’, rather to suggest that in order to change things we need to understand and change ourselves.
Meg, I completely agree with you when you say parents are not the innocent party in most cases of derranged behaviour. What I will ask, is what drove these parents to act the way they did/do against their own siblings? Whether it is abuse(of any kind) or ignoring their childs needs. My answer is the way those parents were brought up themselves or victims of the system most of us are fighting against day in day out.
It’s interesting how almost ALL of these people who are complicit in acts of inhumane behaviour come from middle to lower class families.
Most of us are fighting an establishment which is making itself stronger by the second.
adzmundo TVP, ZM, CND
First – wahts with the crazed war against Foot and Mouth – that is a very infectious disease – and had to be stopped – altho – yes maybe u are right – some of the measures used here [ roi ] at the time were over the top . Re mass murders – IMO there is a good / bad reason why these happen . I agree with ADZ that humans are born pretty muck ok – but society/ parents in Larkins words ” can f### you up ”.. The reasons for these mass muredrs are rarey ever thoroughly investigated – as I think society might be uncomfortable with the real answers . Instead we are fed the usual tripe – loner , depression – in this case tax probs have been mentioned – why then did he not wait and go for the tax people . These people [ mass murderers ]have some grudge against society – and as violence and noise are some of main things society undestnds – thats what happens – in the case of the mass muderes – Violence . I rather doubt we will ever know the full story .
Jim,do we ever try to see what makes people act the way they do.Well yes we do , there are whole armies of criminologists , psychiatrists,social workers and the rest .It is an industry that revels in death,mental afflictions and disfunctional familes .Do any of them do any good? I see little effect from it.A trainee criminologist is locked up for the murder of prostitutes in Bradford. Psychiatrists say a person in prison is ok to be freed and they go on to commit further vicious crimes on release .I have no time whatever for Social Workers.
Part of the problem is there is no true deterrents now .The “do gooding ” Liberals have made sure of that.
I am not saying that a deterrent would have stopped this case but it could stop many of the normal gun/knife crimes
Adrian ,I dont think it has anything to do with ” do – gooding liberals ” or deterrents . Someone who does this has alraedy written off their own life – so deterrents just dont come into it . I agee with you in part re Social workers and Pschyatrists – USELESS especailly the latter – maybe there are some who are ok but the majority live the ” goodd life – golf clubs , wines , operas etc – how can they have the remotest idea of someone in dire need . All they have is book learning – which is necessary – but if they dont seem to be getting results – one is an annoyance to them .
I don’t agree that because some temporarily deranged individual ran amok in a particular place that that place should bear some grim apellation for eternity. Obviously the denizens of such a place will be traumatised but the hurt will subside to a bearable level at different times for different folk. Cumbria will still retain its physical beauty and that’s what counts. That and the enduring warm welcome visitors will receive. Ghouls not welcome.
I would be grateful if you could give your definition of Ghoul please . Thanks .
Tragic incidents can certainly scar places for some time. Fortunately – the culprit was clearly identified and the victims families can get on rebuilding their lives. It’s a very sad thing that this can happen in 2010.
The people of Cumbria seem to have been given one tragedy after another recently – floods, school bus crash, and now this. I can only offer my sympathy.
Dear C4 News.
I appreciate very much that it is Channel 4 News’ duty to ask searching questions of figures in civic authority at all times. I also doubt very much that what I am writing now will be read by those in the editorial team with sway, indeed if by anyone other than persons posting subsequent to this. However, I respectfully offer my observations on tonights’ coverage of the Bird shootings in Cumbria:
Bird was an armed suspect, shooting to kill, and with scant regard for his own life, let alone anothers- Is is really pragmatic to ask (as Simon Israel did, indirectly, in the “some might ask” way), whether the unarmed police officers reporting his movements might have intervened in some way? Or if not, whether in Cumbria in 2010, the situation of Neighbourhood Officers carrying firearms routinely, in case an armed taxi driver goes on the rampage? Likewise, whilst conceding due credit to Jon in the tone with which the question was asked- asking if the taxi driver who ferried officers should have been “allowed” to show civic duty seems disingenuous. Is police activity ever “acceptable” to Simon Israel and C4 News? I would like to see SI try policing!
Well this man seemed to be ” well adjusted ” or theabouts – until he went berserk . What is needed if possible – what was the trigger that sent him over the edge . Could have been a straw that broke the camels back – something small . IMO – these things build up in an individual – then some ” trigger event” happens – and there is a disaster . We are born ok – but society wants us to conform – and more so – or was it some personal presure that drove him over the edge . I knew a very well adjusted guy 15 years ago – he drilled my well [ water ] , very helpful , well balanced , in ever way seemd at peace with the world . Yet two years ago this nice guy shot his wife , then his two kids , then himself – no real anwers as to why were ever found / put forward . It can be personal things – but as i said I think Society puts too much pressure on people to conform / be a’;’ success ” etc . Look at kids – how they enjoy life – every step a new adventure – yet at work in my expierince – which is a big part of life – too often the main thing is ” how do I please the boss ”.
The ‘trigger’ in the Cumbria case, Jim, might well have been the gunman’s apparently recent discovery of the discrepancy in the way the mother treated her two sons in regards to their father’s will. It seems one was given an advance of £20,000 while the gunman was given nothing. This could quite easily have played on underlying emotional tensions. Dishonesty in immediate families can undermine not only trust but mental and emotional health.
None of the above contradicts the impression the gunman’s children have of their father as a loving, amiable man.
@ Meg Howarth
I’m in total agreement with you, Meg; you’ve said exactly what has been my own experience. “The Family” is as responsible for mental/physical damage as it is for good. I know pretty well what damaged my own parents and made them what they were, and I know too how long it’s taken me to recover. Cameron is far too simplistic in his judgement. Sometimes the worst environment for a child is its own family, and probably that’s more often the case than anyone’s prepared to acknowledge.
Thank you, Ann, for your moving response.
Recovery can indeed take a long time, and some – maybe most – never make it. Forgiveness may be essential but it’s not always easy. Meantime, we damage our children. For that reason alone, not to mention that of our own emotional/mental health, we need urgently to stop mythologising the family.
And, as I think you’ll agree, it isn’t necessarily the most obviously dysfunctional families that do the most harm – which is what I believe Adz is saying above. The cloak of outward ‘respectability’ can mask much harm.
Meg and Ann,
Where i agree with you that the family is not always the best place for a child to be bought up in,i despair at the alternative.The state is just as disfunctional in caring for children .You only have to look at how many are abused in state control,how little discipline there is and probably no love whatsoever.I certainly do not know the answer for i fear with each passing generation , everything gets worse . Children are plonked infront of the tv or left to relatives or nurseries .There is little parental interaction.It is a consumer led,designer label,possessions are a must. family now
It is time that parenting,discipline and living skills were taught during the educative years.I am afraid too , that sibling rivalry will always be a potential for conflict
I dont think people like Cameron want any complicated answers . Parents may mean well – but they can as I / larkin said earlier make a mess of your life – and it can take many years – if ever to recover . one has only one life – and if that is messsed [ in opinion of victim anyway ] up by others – then there is going to be trouble .
One thing I forgot to say in earlier note – what cahnges inquisitive kids who enjoy every moment of life into basically just part of a herd – non questioning , all inquistivemess gone – main thing then is to OBEY . surely ?? it is pressures put on by society / peers etc to conform to what society wants – basically non questionong , obedient people ??[ things ??].
@ Meg: Remember how many of Josef Fritzl’s neighbours commented that he seemed “a nice man”? I’m afraid that’s about the level of knowledge most people have about their neighbours -and even their relatives. What goes on in the mind, behind the facade, is knowable only by the perpetrator and to a greater or lesser degree by the victim.
Maybe we’ve learned to factor-these-incidents-in (compare the activity on the Gaza thread with the activity on this one). For people of a certain age (I’m 50), Hungerford is still a bleakly-vivid memory, and Dunblane one of the most dismal weeks of our lives.
Maybe as the last of those generations who suffered dispatches informing them of losses on a huge scale, maybe as they wither, maybe the rest of us aren’t shocked by the random – maybe we don’t assume there’s a rationalising focus. Maybe that’s right; maybe Cameron and May are right not to take knee-jerk action.
But our loss of horror (that these outrages have become virtual-reality abstractions) may be taking us somewhere more deadly.
Meg ,as we have probably observed , not only taking didactic biblical teachings as our knowledge base, is that emotional violence is at the root of many acts of much physical violence.This is revisted down generations as it is held in memories psychology .
Hurt from those we have deeply loved, particularly maternal and paternal, which has not been reciprocated or used and abused in the case of the Birds’ not treating siblings equally and symbolically demonstrating this, must have caused inner turmoil for years.We all need to be loved.
Unfortunately psychological / emotional violence continues in the workplace and for those who are open to its effects can be disastrous. Emotional intelligence is not just an ability to twist to the jibes of life , but also an ability to understand motive and protect oneself.