"Bernadette found out when she visited the U.S. in the early 1970s that:

"I was not very long there until, like water, I found my own level. 'My people' — the people who know about oppression, discrimination, prejudice, poverty and the frustration and despair that they produce — were not Irish Americans. They were black, Puerto Rican, Chicano. And those who were supposed to be 'my people', the Irish Americans who know about English misrule and the Famine and supported the civil-rights movement at home, and knew that Partition and England were the cause of the problem, looked and sounded to me like Orangemen. They said exactly the same things about blacks that the loyalists said about us at home. In New York, I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers."


Bernadette has also worked diligently on the plight of political prisoners in Ireland. During the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, she was a member of the National Executive Committee of the National H-Block Committee.

In January 1981, Bernadette and her husband, Mickey McAliskey, were severely wounded by three pro-British assassins who shot them in their home. They were not deterred. Bernadette continues to work to this day for civil liberties and freedom in the North of Ireland, and on human rights issues worldwide.

http://www.irelandsown.net/bernadette.html

"Bernadette MacAlisky [née Devlin] was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone. She was educated at St.Patrick's Academy, Dungannon and at Queen's University, Belfast where she joined the University Republican Club and Students for Democracy. MacAlisky partook in the first Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches in 1968 and 1969 and was a founder member, with Michael Farrell, of People's Democracy who lobbied for 'One man one vote; fair electoral boundaries; freedom of speech and assembly; repeal of the Special Powers Act and fair allocation of jobs and houses' in Northern Ireland. In 1969 MacAlisky, a People's Democracy candidate, was elected for Mid-Ulster in the Westminster election and published a volume of autobiography The Price of My Soul. In August, 1969 she partook in the 'Battle of the Bogside' in Derry afterwhich she was arrested and charged with incitement to riot. She was sentenced to six months in gaol and served four months in Armagh Gaol in 1970.
In 1971 MacAlisky toured America, giving lectures and collecting funds for families whose homes and possessions had been destroyed in riots and sectarian house burnings. MacAlisky was invited to speak at an anti-internment march in Derry on January 30th, 1972 but the march was re-routed and 13 innocent civilians were shot dead and twelve others wounded [one fatally] by the 1st Parachute Regiment of the British Army in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.
The following week, during a Parliamentary debate at Westminster, MacAlisky called Reginald Maudling, then English Home Secretary, a 'Lying hypocrite' when he said that the soldiers in Derry had fired in self-defence. She then crossed the floor of the House of Commons and struck him. In February, 1974 MacAlisky contested the Westminster election as an independent socialist but lost her seat. In the same year she co-founded the Irish Republican Socialist Party from which she resigned in 1975. In January, 1981 MacAlisky was shot and seriously wounded by Loyalist paramilitaries. She was on the H-Block Hunger-Strike Committee of 1980-1981 since when she has continued to speak out about injustices and frequently addresses meetings on Irish political issues at home and abroad.

http://www.searcs-web.com/devlin2.html

To gain that which is worth
having, it may be necessary
to lose everything else.


Yesterday I dared to struggle.
Today I dare to win.


http://www.quotemeonit.com/devlin.html

It wasn't long before people discovered the final horrors of letting an urchin into Parliament.

http://www.creativequotations.com/one/2083.htm

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SpabSFW

I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers."

Gee, sounds like a real humanitarian. give it to marxist black supremacists.

The Bogside mural:

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/photos/derry/murdy5.htm

"Though she is tiny and drab her tongue lashes out like a yard of vinegar at her enemies"

(Ireland: A Terrible Beauty)

"GLASSBORO, N.J. -- Veteran Irish Republican leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, speaking Oct. 18 at Rowan State College, demanded that President Bill Clinton pardon 24 Irish prisoners held in American jails (as well as Native American freedom-fighter Leonard Peletier) or face large scale protests during Clinton's planned visit to Ireland this month.

Devlin challenged Sinn Fein to join the protest against Clinton, calling on Gerry Adams and other Sinn Fein leaders to "show which side they are on, the American President's or the Irish people's side."

Displaying the fire and sharp wit of her early days leading mass protests and street-fighting in Belfast and Derry, Devlin lambasted the Sinn Fein party leaders for their "undemocratic" actions in negotiating secretly with British, Loyalist and "Free State" leaders for years "without even telling their constituents and comrades in arms that negotiations were going on."

...

"She dismissed rumors the IRSP or Republican Sinn Fein or some outfit nobody's ever seen would resume the armed struggle.

"Everyone knows that one shot fired by anyone on the Republican or Nationalist side would give the British the excuse they want to reintroduce internment and send out their death squads to kill off all our leaders in short order, all with the blessings of Sinn Fein's fine rich American supporters and their Irish pals!" Devlin said.


http://www.journalexchange.net/scathan/archive/1995/11_november/11.11.devlin.html

"Just to focus it: Rosemary had been central (1) to a United Nations investigation into, at a minimum level, police failure to protect human-rights activists, particularly human-rights lawyers, and at the highest level, threats by the police against human rights lawyers."

...

"Therefore, at four levels, Rosemary Nelson was consistently exposing the corruption of the RUC and consistently setting out a case, not that the RUC colluded with Loyalists, but that the RUC were the main actors. They got assistance from Loyalists but they were the main operators.

Then look at who had the means. Rosemary had been in Donegal [across the border]. She only drove into her own driveway at 7:00 on Sunday night. At some time during that night, somebody attached a sophisticated car bomb to the bottom of her car.

Now when you ask again, who could have had access given the area in which she lived, there was a police roadblock, there was a security presence, which is now not so frequent. She lived in what was quite an up-market area. The police were in the vicinity of her house on the night that somebody placed the bomb there. So, you would have to say that the RUC would have to come up with some very convincing proof that it wasn't them."

http://www.socialistaction.org/news/199904/mcaliskey.html

John Montague dedicated to her his "A New Siege" to Bernadette Devlin. The poem contains the lines, ‘the defiant face / of a young girl / campaigning against / memooy’s mortmain […]’ (Collected Poems, 1995, p.73).


http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/d/Devlin%2CB/life.htm

Amazon - Devlin's books:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394441249/inktomi-bkasin-20/ref%3Dnosim/104-4467726-3335949

Speeches:

Bernadette Devlin was one of the most electrifying figures in the movement for Irish unification in the late 20th century. Elected to the British Parliament from Northern Ireland in 1969, she was at age 21 the youngest-ever British MP. She was a stirring speaker, winning respect in Westminster despite her age and controversial politics. In August 1969, she was arrested during the ''Battle of the Bogside,'' a riot in Londonderry that marked the beginning of 30 years of armed resistance to the British occupation of Northern Ireland. Convicted of inciting a riot in 1970, she spent four months in prison while still an MP. After "Bloody Sunday" in 1972, in which 13 Catholic demonstrators in Londonderry were killed by British soldiers, she assaulted Reginald Maudling, the Home Secretary, in Parliament, calling him a "murdering hypocrite."

...

"They were justified in defending themselves and I believe I was justified in assisting that defense." (1970)

http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_530.html

"I remind the Hon. Member for Londonderry (Mr. Chichester Clark) that I, too, was in the Bogside area on the night that he was there. As the Hon. Gentleman rightly said, there never was born an Englishman who understands the Irish people. Thus a man who is alien to the ordinary working Irish people cannot understand them, and I therefore respectfully suggest that the Hon. Gentleman has no understanding of my people, because Catholics and Protestants are the ordinary people, the oppressed people from whom I come and whom I represent. I stand here as the youngest woman in Parliament in the same tradition as the first woman ever to be elected to this Parliament, Constance Markievicz, who was elected on behalf of the Irish people.

...


"These are the people the hon. Gentleman would claim do want to join society. Because they are equally poverty-stricken they are equally excluded from the society which the Unionist Party represents a the society of landlords who, by ancient charter of Charles II, still hold the right of the ordinary people of Northern Ireland over such things as fishing and as paying the most ridiculous and exorbitant rents, although families have lived for generations on their land. But this is the ruling minority of landlords who, for generations, have claimed to represent one section of the people and, in order to maintain their claim, divide the people into two sections and stand up in this House to say that there are those who do not wish to join society.

The people in my country who do not wish to join the society which is represented by the hon. Member for Londonderry are by far the majority. There is no place in society for us, the ordinary "peasants" of Northern Ireland. There is no place for us in the society of landlords because we are the "have nots" and they are the "haves".

http://www.univ-tours.fr/capaganglais/BDevlin.htm

Founding Statement of the IRSP,
13 December 1974
IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY
PAIRTI POBLACHTACH SOISIALACH NA hÉIREANN PRESS STATEMENT: 13.12.'74.

At a meeting held in Dublin on Sunday, 8.12.'74, a decision was made to form a new political party, to be known as THE IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY. The inaugural meeting was attended by approximately 80 delegates from Belfast, Armagh, Co. Derry, Derry City, Donegal, Dublin, Wicklow, Cork, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.

It was unanimously agreed that the objective of the Party would be to "END IMPERIALIST RULE IN IRELAND, and ESTABLISH A 32 COUNTY DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC WITH THE WORKING CLASS IN CONTROL OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE".

To this end, it was agreed that the Party would launch a vigorous campaign of political agitation and education, North and South, on the following issues:

http://irelandsown.net/irpsfound.html

"How do you feel about people like Norman Boyd using some historical marches that happened in Ireland and trying to equate it to their own march which has ended up on the Garvaghy road tonight?

Bernadette: Nobody here except the loyalists themselves, and even most of them to do not take seriously the issue of theirs being a civil rights march, except in the context where for example, white supremacists believe it is part of their civil rights to be racist. White supremacists believe that it is apart of their inalienable right and social right to prevent black people from having equal citizenship. That is the context in which these people think their civil rights are being abused. They don’t believe that people who are no t white, and Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, have rights unless people who are white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, donate them to them as concessions in return for which other people be they Blacks Catholics Jews Gays whatever, must concede something.and in their mentality they usually concede their inferiority to Unionists.

Sandy Boyer: Bernadette we now have a prospect that in a few weeks members of Shinn Fein will be helping to run Northern Ireland under British rule. Will they actually be able to accomplish anything? Will they actually be able to make Northern Ireland a different, better, and more equal place?

Bernadette: No, and these are the real issues Sandy. Uh, the issues aren’t about who’s marching where, except that it demonstrates the stark reality of the problem here. The stark reality of the racism of the majority community and the inability of any government within the confines of Northern Ireland to do anything about it. This state was built to accommodate that mentality. That mentality cannot be challenged without destroying the mechanisms that hold it up, without radically changing and taking away the structures of the six county state. We are in a process of putting it back together again. The British State is intact, while returning to authority a Northern Ireland administration, we will administer British government policy.

This is not an independent administration, it will at local regional Northern Ireland level administer British government policy in this state. It will be a collective administration in which Shinn Fein will have two ministers. On any radical, social, and economic position they will vote two voices-assuming they have something radical and progressive to say-they will not be supported in issues like equal rights for Gay and Lesbian citizens by anybody else. They are unlikely to be supported in any radical shift on issues like minimum wage by anybody else; and being unable to move socially and economically forward to meet the needs of the working class people, they will be collectively responsible for the running of the state. Therefore Shinn Fein will be sitting in the government that gives the orders to the RUC, and Shinn Fein will only have two voices. So when the SDLP and the Official Unionists and the DUP vote to abandon the Garvaghy Road, Shinn Fein can stand with the Garvaghy Road or against them, but unless they walk away from government at that point they will be collectively responsible for what the government does to those people. That’s the reality of life, the responsibility of government, and Shinn Fein as republicans have taken on to assist, delivered British government policy to the nationalist and republican population and in order to do that, in order to be allowed to administer British Government Policy in the north; they have conceded the Irish constitution, partition, their opposition to British rule, and now they have conceded the weapons of the IRA..

http://free.freespeech.org/IRWAC/Newspaper/Bernadette_McAliskey_analysis.htm

Irish National Liberation Front (INLF, INLA): Although some sources claim it is an IRA splinter group, most reliable sources say this communist guerrilla army appeared on its own, much the same as Italy's Red Brigades and Germany's Baader-Meinhoff Gang. Apparently, it was another split from the Official IRA in late 1974 when the Provos wouldn't have them. It's political group is the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).
Although this group is well armed and had a good start, (as far as paramilitaries go, and the IRSP actually was doing some initial good), but they are reckless and as deadly to nationalists as they are to the British. The British, and most others, reguard the INLA as a bunch of armed amateurs. This group has been racked with corruption, (Racketteering, extortion, and drugs), to the point of embarrassment. It was easily infiltrated by the British. The IRSP melted away by such activities.

It got so bad that another group split away during their internal fued of 1986. The break away group called itself the Irish Peoples Liberation Organization, (IPLO). The IPLO was suppost to be a reformed INLA and had a typical paramilitary begining, but soon fell into the same corruption habits of the old ILNA. Finally, the people had enough and pressured the Provos to act. And act they did, in October 1992, the Provos moved to shut down the IPLO, forcing them to surrender their arms caches.

In 1993, the INLA reformed itself. It has returned to anti-British paramilitary actions. So far, no corruption.
The INLA does not support the peace process. However, they also know they do not have the clout to do much about it and so they are standing on the sidelines waiting to see what developes.

http://www.net-gate.com/~pdkenny/ni_pos1.html

http://www.discussanything.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=475216#post475216

I had a crush on her when I was in Jr. High School [early 70's] ,that was at the time I was becoming radicalized myself.

I think she's fantastic, absolutely devoted to her cause.

Strong woman~

This thread is overwhelming. I am going to start reading it now ;) I just thought I'd post first to convey the initial impression of it being so chocked full of interesting new stuff I've never heard of before that I'm kind of just sitting here thinking: ok, here we go !

M.

Originally posted by Johnson
[QUOTE]Originally posted by SpabSFW

I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers."

Gee, sounds like a real humanitarian. give it to marxist black supremacists.

Black supremacists? Sorry, that's just plain wrong.

I don't want to make this thread about the panthers though: just had to set the record straight.

M.

Originally posted by Malcolm Wright
This thread is overwhelming. I am going to start reading it now ;) I just thought I'd post first to convey the initial impression of it being so chocked full of interesting new stuff I've never heard of before that I'm kind of just sitting here thinking: ok, here we go !

M.

M, it's fascinating. On surface it looks sectarian, but it's not. The situation is very similar to the Civil Rights struggle of the U.S. and they've made far less progress even to this date.

You might be interested in the thread on 'marching season' as well. They have a situation there that is the same as if the south in the U.S. set aside days for old Klansmen to get drunk and parade through black neighborhoodz bragging about how their ancestors lynched people.

It amazes me 'marching season' is still allowed.

Of course, here nobody could ensure the safety of such 'historical buffs', but there the PSNI protects them, year after year, month after month during the season, march after march.

They have a committee that supposedly has the power to stop contentious marches, but apart from a few "show" efforts at re-directing some of them (met with violence by the Orangemen) they don't use that power to do anything.

The current PIRA began as ghetto defense for these pogroms.

Originally posted by SpabSFW


M, it's fascinating. On surface it looks sectarian, but it's not. The situation is very similar to the Civil Rights struggle of the U.S. and they've made far less progress even to this date.

You might be interested in the thread on 'marching season' as well. They have a situation there that is the same as if the south in the U.S. set aside days for old Klansmen to get drunk and parade through black neighborhoodz bragging about how their ancestors lynched people.

It amazes me 'marching season' is still allowed.

Of course, here nobody could ensure the safety of such 'historical buffs', but there the PSNI protects them, year after year, month after month during the season, march after march.

They have a committee that supposedly has the power to stop contentious marches, but apart from a few "show" efforts at re-directing some of them (met with violence by the Orangemen) they don't use that power to do anything.

The current PIRA began as ghetto defense for these pogroms.

I'll check out that thread tomorrow: I've been whacked over the head with a ton of work ;)

Thanks!

M.

Wasn't she invovled in the Booby Sands case?

AGHHHHHH.

That's Bobby Sands [sorry ,an honest typo].

Originally posted by Truth Teller
Wasn't she invovled in the Booby Sands case?

She was on the Hunger-Strike Committee and worked to stop the abuses of political prisoners.

:)

Originally posted by SpabSFW


She was on the Hunger-Strike Committee and worked to stop the abuses of political prisoners.

:)

I thought so.

Margret Thatcher murdered Bobby Sands ,there's just no other way to say it.

Originally posted by Truth Teller


I thought so.

Margret Thatcher murdered Bobby Sands ,there's just no other way to say it.

And of course Bobby Sands was one of ten young men who sacrificed their lives for their ideals during that hunger strike.

In tribute to the ten men
who gave their lives on hungerstrike:

Vol. Bobby Sands, IRA
Vol. Francis Hughes, IRA
Vol. Patsy O'Hara, INLA
Vol. Raymond McCreesh, IRA
Vol. Joe McDonnell, IRA
Vol. Martin Hurson, IRA
Vol. Kevin Lynch, INLA
Vol. Kieran Doherty, IRA
Vol. Thomas McElwee, IRA
Vol. Michael Devine, INLA


http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/

http://irsm.org/history/starryplough/why_it_is_murder.html

Since they were teenagers Bobby, Francie, Ray and Patsy experienced what it was like to be a second-class citizen in their own country. That because they were Catholics, they were the last in line for any jobs going - and the last in line for housing. And they knew that if they opened their mouths in protest they would be kicked back into place by the RUC and B Specials.

...


All four took-up arms to end all of this. Bobby, Francie and Ray in the Provisional IRA, Patsy in the Irish National Liberation Army.

They had seen the peaceful protests, pickets, marches, demonstrations and rent strikes. All of them had failed. For the struggle for civil rights was answered by military might.The first 6 people who died in the Six Counties troubles were Catholics killed by the RUC and B Specials. And when more people joined the protests Britain responded by murdering 14 civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday.

...

Thatcher maintains that all who oppose British mis-rule in Ireland are criminals. Irish people know differently. We know that the prisoners are motivated by political reasons ‹ and are engaged in that struggle not from evil but against evil.

And that despite Thatchers murders they will triumph.