the blood of the martyrs..

I was at an exhibition on our local museum when I was stopped in my tracks by this exhibit - a bloodied shirt.
on 5 October 1968 the National TV stations broadcast an attack on civil rights' campaigners by the NI Police service - the RUC. One of my lasting memories of that period was a local MP, a nationalist, Gerry Fitt, talking to camera wearing this same bloodied shirt.
All my repressed memories emerged when I was re-united with this image.
All of us have pain in our past, sometimes these are memories that need to be put to rest.  Sometimes a random word, thing or event can reignite those times in our lives. They remind me that the past lives on in our present and we need to learn its lessons or we may be doomed to repeat our failures!