In Good Time: A Memoir

‘Rev. Harold Good’s story is one of faith, reconciliation, charity, and hope, and the story of his life is inspirational.’

– Senator George Mitchell

‘If you want to know the price of peace and the pathway out of conflict to peace then Harold Good’s memoir is as sure and true a guide as there is.’

– Mary McAleese

Rev. Harold Good, ’Derry-born Methodist minister, retired Church leader and one of the oldest surviving actors in the Irish peace process, lifts the curtain on his remarkable life in this enthralling memoir. From Ian Paisley’s turbulent arrival in the early fifties to the burning of Bombay Street and internment; from searching for bomb victims with his bare hands on the Shankill to verifying the destruction of IRA weapons with Fr Alec Reid, Good has seen it all. Helped by recently excavated phone texts, he reveals his role as a back channel between the DUP and Sinn Féin, when he facilitated secret meetings in his home between Martin McGuinness and Jeffrey Donaldson that helped create the historic partnership government co-led by Paisley and McGuinness.

Good couldn’t have imagined that one day he would help change the course of Irish history, play a hitherto undocumented role in weapons disposal by FARC and ETA in Colombia and the Basque Country, and be asked by Queen Elizabeth II over lunch in Buckingham Palace for advice about her visit to Ireland.

This compelling page-turner is an important contribution to the post-Brexit debate about the future of Ireland.

Harold Good, OBE, is a retired Methodist minister, former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and director of the Corrymeela Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. One of two independent eyewitnesses to the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005, he has received numerous awards for his peace work in Northern Ireland and also contributed to conflict resolution in the Basque Country and Colombia.

Martin O’Brien is a multi-award-winning journalist,  former senior producer with the BBC and past editor of The Irish News. A native of Fermanagh, he lives in Belfast.