DYING BY THE SWORD .......
By Emer Woodful .
The murder of LVF leader BILLY WRIGHT has ignited the most violent spell in the North's recent history and threatened the peace process . He may well have considered it an appropriate legacy .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 , pages 30,31,34 and 35 .
Re-published here in 17 parts .
(8 of 17).
The S.D.L.P. accused David Trimble of ".. breathtaking hypocrisy .. " , and Bob McCartney of the 'UK Unionists' said the meeting was " ...questionable.. " . Wright himself said David Trimble had asked him to intervene to prevent any violence .
When asked why he was at Drumcree if he was'nt even a member of the Orange Order , Billy Wright replied - " How dare you , dear , how dare you ! My family's buried at Drumcree . I will not let you tell me where I can or cannot go , or that I cannot speak to my MP at a time when your government is speaking to the IRA . "
It was difficult to try and figure out Billy Wright , the man who described the ceasefire as "... the happiest day of my life .. " , who had worked in the past as a religious preacher , but who had abandoned practising his beloved religion because of the dilemma he saw in his support for violence . He told me -
- " I believe that true Protestantism is about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ . You're quite right to say that if you were practising that faith then you could'nt align it to your other beliefs ....... "
(MORE LATER).
WOMEN IN IRELAND'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM .......
By the late Cork Republican , Gearoid MacCarthaigh .
" In 1939 , when the English bombing campaign started , women again played an active part ; the late Mrs. Charlie Woods , Miss Rita McSwiney (now Mrs. Paddy McGlynn ) and Miss Mary Glynn (now Mrs. Dick Mullready ) served long years in English prisons for their part in the Campaign . Many other Irish women were deported from England for the same reason .
In the 1940's , the women of Cumann na mBan and the girls of Clann na Gael were the ones not in gaol or internment camps and managed to keep the Republican position before the public . They held regular protest marches and meetings in Dublin , and were often battoned by the Free State Guards . On one such occasion the late Commandant Katie O'Connor of Clann na Gael was knocked unconscious in the middle of O'Connell Street , Dublin , by the blow of a baton welded by one of the so-called 'Guardians of the Peace' .
On many occasions during the 1940's the women provided Guards of Honour at funerals of dead Republicans ; many women were interned in Mountjoy Gaol in the 1940's and I know of no case of any of them 'signing out' .
It had always been the practice that only flags and banners of Republican organisations be allowed to be carried in the Parade at Bodenstown but , in 1968 , it had been widely rumoured beforehand that the Communist Party of Ireland proposed to march behind their own flag in Bodenstown ....... "
(MORE LATER).
SURVIVORS , SERVERS , AND SAVIOURS.......
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper , Aibrean [April] 1957 , page 2.
(IML. IX. UIMHIR 4 - price Tri Pingin [Three Pennies].
Thanks to my late friends Christy and Theresa L. for giving me this 48-year-old newspaper ; this thread published in memory of those two old Fenians ! - John.
' At present , outside agencies artifically alter the value of money by regulating the supply of credit so that the Irish farming community , for example , is doomed to experience a period of depression after every period of prosperity . But a farm cannot flourish under such a system ; we require a monetary system designed to maintain a state of equilibrium within our country , and not a fixed relationship between an Irish pound and an external unit of currency .
There is not lacking in Ireland sufficient intelligence to solve our problems : what is wanting lies in the sphere of the will . We are are a Nation of survivors and have been deficient in the use of our will-power . But that weakness , thanks be to God , appears to be leaving us now .
Ireland's survivors are becoming her servers ; and Ireland's servers shall be her saviours . '
[END of ' SURVIVORS , SERVERS , AND SAVIOURS....... '].
(Tomorrow - ' SINN FEIN RALLY IN DUBLIN ' ; from the same 1957 source.)
