This newspaper’s Christmas story of Olympic legend Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s use of community football to boost peace and harmony in her native Waterhouse has triggered golden memories.

We beg our readers’ indulgence for taking them down a memory lane which we consider to be very special.

For us the most dramatic example of football bringing lasting, positive, and peaceful change came in the 1990s in the troubled constituencies of St Andrew Southern and Kingston Western.

Young, even not so young Jamaicans have only second-hand, hearsay knowledge of long-running political violence which reached crescendo and open warfare between loyalists of our two major political parties in the build-up to the 1980 election.

Much blood was shed and damage done as Jamaica teetered on the edge of full-blown civil war.

Even after the 1980 election, which decisively gave victory to the centre-right Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over the left-leaning People’s National Party (PNP), bringing a gradual end to a toxic ideological divide, political tensions remained.

Hostilities continued to such an extent that for the safety of players and fans, football matches involving two of our top clubs, Arnett Gardens FC and Tivoli Gardens FC, were routinely played at Up Park Camp, headquarters of the Jamaican army.

Then came the 1990s and a transformation of seismic proportions. Urged on by their constituents and community leadership, Members of Parliament Mr Edward Seaga (Kingston Western) and Dr Omar Davies (St Andrew Southern) joined hands in pursuit of peace, using football as a principal tool.

It undoubtedly helped that both politicians — Mr Seaga, leader of the then Opposition JLP, and Dr Davies, finance minister in the PNP Government— shared birthdays and a solid friendship.

Those who were there won’t easily forget the formal opening of the football mini-stadium in Arnett Gardens, featuring a football contest between Tivoli and Arnett.

Mr Seaga — on his first ever visit to Arnett Gardens — sat in the stands as special guest. Beside him sat his host, Dr Davies.

In a real sense that afternoon of football, with Mr Seaga and Dr Davies sitting beside each other, became a symbol of lasting political peace for ordinary people, not just in St Andrew Southern and Kingston Western, but across Jamaica.

Today, after nine editions of the six-a-side competition across 12 years, Mrs Fraser-Pryce tells us that lives have been changed for the better and harmony thrives as a result of her Pocket Rocket Foundation’s community football initiative in Waterhouse.

Says she: “We’ve …had, for the last nine editions, teams coming together and having discipline, following rules and learning to coexist with each other and understanding [that] when it comes to football, we play it on the field and whatever happens on the field, stays on the field…

“We’ve had friendships, we’ve had players changing teams and corporate merging with the community — which speaks a lot…”

Mrs Fraser-Pryce says further that “Growing up in Waterhouse, I’ve been privileged to be tough, have grit and perseverance…What I’ve also learnt is a lot of us just need a chance. We need the platform, we need the help and we need persons to believe in us”.

Long may Jamaicans and their leaders embrace sport as an agent for positive change involving peace, harmony, friendship as well as well-rounded growth for individual and community.