A Methodist Minister, who had an important role to play within the Peace Process, has recalled how he was “dropped in at the deep end” as an unqualified teacher in Brookeborough Primary School.

Reverend Harold Good came to Brookeborough in 1955 just after he finished his own education in Methody College, Belfast while he had a year before doing his entrance examinations for the Methodist Ministry.

“My father was the Minister of Darling Street Methodist Church at that time,” explained Rev. Good.

“So there I was with a gap year and somebody told me that the Education Authority were always looking for people to do part time temporary work.

“I thought that would be washing buses or sweeping the school yard so I went down and offered my services and I was asked if I would go as an untrained temporary assistant teacher in Brookeborough,” he said during an interview with The Impartial Reporter.

He was told that his position would be until they found a trained teacher to fill the post which would hopefully be within a week or two.

However that was not the case and he was at the school for the entire school year.

“I started out the first day or two hoping a trained person could be found because I was feeling out of my depth but after a week I got to love it and I was hoping they wouldn’t find somebody because I enjoyed my year thoroughly.”

And it was to be a successful year for Rev. Good, and he was almost persuaded to pursue a career in teaching rather than his current vocation. But he is stuck to his original calling and has not regretted it.

And on June 25, 64 years later, Rev. Good returned to the school with his wife for its Prize Day.

“My wife and I both enjoyed our day and we were hugely impressed by the school. The happiness of the school is as I remembered but the breadth of what they do, everything about it, those children are so well cared for.

“Having had a very special day at Brookeborough I want to congratulate them and wish them well.

“Going down memory lane was very special.”

The curriculum has changed immeasurably since 1955 which impressed Rev.Good as well as the co-operation between the school and it’s Catholic counterpart, St. Mary’s Primary School.

“There is lots of very good working between the Catholic Primary School and the Controlled school. I found that wonderfully encouraging.

“It is a much more enlightened and open and inclusive place than we would have been in the past and we must build on that.

“Not everybody is there yet but the education and getting to know each other and working together in shared education, that encourages me greatly.”

The changes that Rev. Good has seen at Brookeborough Primary School could be put side by side with the changes he has seen throughout Northern Ireland in those same years.

An important part of the Peace Process, he was one of the two independent witnesses that oversaw IRA decommissioning following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

And although there is a political stalemate in Northern Ireland, he hopes that the new talks between the parties will be fruitful.

“I was very saddened when the Assembly came apart when it ceased its function, I was very grieved because a lot of people had put a lot of work in bringing us to that place and I have at least been encouraged by the fact they are back now at the table and talking.

“While we don’t know what’s going on in those closed rooms at least we are given to understand they seem to be listening to each other a bit more than they did in the past.

“And I certainly don’t give up hope of a restoration because I do know all parties including are very anxious to get back into Stormont and restore the Executive.

“That’s what the people are demanding from them.

“I was at the service in St. Anne’s Cathedral for Lyra McKee and the people in that Cathedral and the people standing outside, the thousands of people who were there left our politicians in no doubt that they expect more and want more and we have to hold them to that.

Rev. Good added: “I challenge them to get back and to do what the people in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland want of them. We have come a long way, people in Fermanagh in particular know the suffering, grief and pain of the past. There’s nowhere knows it more than the people of Enniskillen and Fermanagh and Border areas.

“For our young people that’s a distant memory so we have come along way, lets not forget that. To see where you are you have to look back to see where you were and we have come a long way and we mustn’t give up now we must reach on and reach out.”

Rev. Good says what he witnessed in Brookeborough Primary School has given him hope for the future and he hopes the next time he visits Fermanagh, the MLAs at Stormont will get back to working together for a better future.