At a time when there seems to be a headlong rush towards yet another war, we are this evening here in St .Patrick’s Cathedral given a moment to pause and consider the effects of a war that is past, and yet still with us. As one who had the doubtful privilege of actually seeing the victims of the war in Bosnia in transit camps escaping from some of the appalling experiences of that gruesome bloodbath, I can say that it was hard enough to see at first hand what men and women do to one another in conflict. It is even more horrific to consider the continuing legacy of warfare. The use of land mines is an obscenity – the indiscriminate killing and maiming of ordinary men, women and children going about their daily lives – and these land mines remain an ever present danger for years to come UNLESS these areas are totally cleared of such instruments of death and destruction.

The fact that so many gifted musicians, and that so many of you here tonight, wish to be identified with this campaign is an encouragement, and sends its message loud and clear. War has a terrible aftermath – and these land mines stand perhaps as one of the most potent symbols of the aftermath of war, as well as one of the most horrific instruments of continued suffering. We are not here so much to welcome one another, as to express together our hope for something better – our hope for something better for the people in one village in the middle of Bosnia, and our hope too that men and women who rush to war would contemplate a little of the legacy that this leaves behind.

We are being treated to a wonderful concert this evening by a wide variety of choirs, and musicians – they are offering to us something of the beauty of music, something of the highest of human aspirations – and in so doing, they are telling us of a better way than the way of strife and the planting of instruments of death.