As a young man about to embark on training for his vocation as a Methodist minister, Harold Good entered the premise of Gordon Wilson’s drapery shop on the High Street in Enniskillen to be fitted for his first overcoat before departing for his studies.

Speaking via video call from his home in Belfast, Rev. Good reflected: “Could he and I have ever thought when he put that coat on me where his journey and my journey would have taken us.”

This was one of a series of anecdotes shared by the former Methodist President of Ireland as he spoke to The Impartial Reporter about his memoir, ‘In Good Time’ where Fermanagh plays a formative role.

Rev. Good’s father served as a Minister in Darling Street Methodist Church twice, returning to the Enniskillen circuit as Superintendent in 1955 when a young Rev. Good has just finished school.

His life’s journey saw Rev. Good working as an ‘unqualified temporary assistant teacher’ in Brookeborough Primary School, ministering in the United States, serving on the Shankhill Road, serving as a director with the Corrymeela Community Centre, hosting talks between Jeffrey Donaldson and Martin McGuiness in his home and witnessing the decommissioning of IRA arms.

After returning from America he was seeking a quiet life with his wife and young family.

He said: “The word came back, ‘You're going to the Shankill road, and that was 1968, I was in the middle of the Shankill and that part of Belfast when all this began to surface and really the rest is history.

“I just felt there was a challenge here, others felt that and asked me to stay."

Did he feel a responsibility?

The 87-year-old reflected: “I think I was just so busy doing whatever had to be done each day. I didn't get into the kind of mystery of it all. There’s a job to do.

Reflecting on the dark days of the Troubles, he said: “I saw so much that, to me, was contrary to all that I understood and believed about the Gospel. Things being done in the name of the Gospel that I felt we need to challenge that and not just challenge it by words."

He acknowledged there have been some recent headlines generated from his book on ‘secret’ talks between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin.

“Something people may be critical of in the book is how we got people round a table discreetly and privately and secretly if you want to use that word. But there's no other way of getting out of the mess we were in.

“People will be critical of all that, but I make no apology."

Pondering, he said: “Is there any other way of getting peace, wherever it may be, than sitting together, ideally around the table? I talk about tea-making and peace-making and the two are intertwined.”

He emphasised the importance of conversation in conflict resolution outside of Northern Ireland and the role he played in conflict resolution around the globe.

Rev. Good added: “We all know what history tells us, that there comes a time in every conflict, in every awful conflict when people have to sit down together and find a new way forward.

“I make no apology whatsoever for that. And if it has to be done behind the curtains, so be it.

“Let's hope that from now on, people won't have to talk behind curtains and sit at other people's kitchen tables. Let's dare to hope that people can sit wherever and talk openly. There's no other way.”

The memoir chiefly began as something for Rev. Good to document his family history for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

So, why release a memoir now?

"I think we're at a stage in our journey, I say journey rather than search. I think we now know the route we must take to find a lasting peace, and we're well on that journey.”

His voice drops low and he speaks at a volume just above a whisper: “I think another generation needs to know, I think we need to leave a record. First of all, how terrible it was, how awful it was.

“So we never, ever want our children or their children, or anybody's children to go back to that. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, a record as to how, in spite of all the odds, the denials, the obstacles, the unwillingness, we were able, between lots and lots of people to bring us to a new place.”

Continuing: “I keep saying, as we look at a very troubled, troubled world at the moment, I think we have an opportunity. But even more importantly, we have a responsibility to share something of our story as a wider world.”

He is joined in his efforts by his co-author, Martin O’Brien, a Fermanagh native who grew up at Oakfield, Enniskillen.

With an illustrious career in journalism, he was a former Northern Correspondent for the Irish Catholic but previously worked for the BBC for 28 years and was the editor of The Irish News from 1982 to 1984.

He now has his own business Martin O’Brien Media and is based in Belfast.

Mr. O’Brien said that working alongside Rev. Good was “one of the privileges of my life”.

The book is constructed from notes made by Rev. Good and 20 in-depth follow-up interviews conducted by Mr. O’Brien.

Rev. Good approached Mr. O’Brien and the collaboration began from there.

Mr. O'Brien said: “Harold supplied the early drafts of individual chapters. We certainly agreed on a structure for the book. It has taken over five years for it to come to fruition because we were interrupted by Covid.

“It was certainly the most intense, most in-depth, most focused, personal and professional engagement I have had with any individual in my life, and it has been a great privilege to be invited by Harold to do that and to have this story.”

With a background in journalism focused on religious affairs, Mr. O'Brien noted that he learnt a great deal about Methodism, its values and its key figures while researching the book: “As a Christian from the Roman Catholic tradition, I found it very enriching to be involved in this project because it told me so much more about Methodism.”

The book is a meditation on the unfinished journey of peace in Northern Ireland. Rev. Good emphasises the importance of bold leadership, both in the church and state, and highlights the often-overlooked contributions of lesser-known individuals who paved the way for political progress.

Throughout the book, Rev. Good underscores the crucial need for three key elements in conflict resolution: Talk, Truth, and Trust.

In Good Time: A Memoir by Rev. Harold Good with Martin O’Brien published by Red Stripe Press is now available in all good bookshops and online via Amazon.