March for Jesus Belfast 2025: Kerry man believes faith holds key to resolving Irish conflict
A Kerry man has explained why he made a round trip of 12 hours driving to attend the March for Jesus in Belfast.
Dermot Landy set out for Belfast at 5:50am on Saturday to walk from Ormeau Park to Belfast City Hall. It is a round trip of some 560 miles, but for him it was worth it. "Why? Because we want to celebrate Jesus around the nation," he said.
He was addicted to drink and drugs and suffered with mental health and suicidal thoughts.
“But the day I accepted Jesus 19 years ago I had a miracle in my life and lost all desire for drink and drugs and all my mental health problems left me."
He is now happily married with his own business and travels the world to share his story.
Brought up as a Catholic, he now describes himself as "a believer in Jesus and the bible" and says his faith holds the key to political conflict on the island.
"Jesus came with the kingdom of God," he said. "It was not the kingdom of a denomination or politics. With politics you're always going to have division, because men are going to be divided without Christ."
He has seen sworn enemies transformed by faith.
For one loyalist his conversion meant he lost his hatred of Catholicism. “When Christ got a hold of his heart, there was that change."
He has seen similar changes in republicans.
"I've seen that personally - people who have been in that movement having an encounter with Christ. And it changed their view of the person that they thought they were hating, or an ideology that they thought they were hating.
"But in fact they got the eyes of Christ. Unless you're born again, you can't see God's kingdom."