Re: Extra on Award -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Mon, Apr 30 2007, 14:43:40 PDT
Author: Civil Rights Veterans
Subject: Re: Extra on Award
In reply to: Derry News report 's message, "US honour for rights veteran" on Sun, Apr 22 2007, 12:38:08 PDT

>From rights.civil@googlemail.com
To STORMONT-WATCH via www.ia-pl.org

>An e-mail this week to the civil rights veterans

>network from the Boston-based Celtic Cross Awards

>Society indicated that a veteran Derry activist is to

>receive its 2007 award. Mary Ellen, who will celebrate

>her 99th birthday on April 28th gave an 'exclusive'

>interview to The Derry News this afternoon.

>

>She spoke almost exclusively on many women whom she

>had befriended who made significant contributions to

>the struggles for civil liberties, equality and

>national independence. The following rough notes were

>penned by a civil rights veteran who was present, and

>hopefully these points will be published by the

>newspaper in question, in two days time

[Thursday, April 19th, 2007]

.

>

>Some background notes:

>

>1.E-mail sent by a Boston priest, who for many years

>was (or is still) the chaplain to the influential

>Irish-American Centre in Boston

>

>2. VINNY COYLE � 1st man resident in Ireland to be

>similarly honoured. Following his death, the award

>was made to the his family, basically in recognition

>of his obvious bravery associated with his role as

>Chief Marshall of around 700 stewards during the

>agitations for basic civil rights. At a special

>reception held at the Guildhall, his family donated

>the Award to the City Council. In 2003 it formed part

>of the "Sons and Daughters of Derry Exhibition" at the

>Tower Museum. Its unveiling was attended by Bishop

>Edward Daly, Cllor. Pat Ramsey then Mayor of Derry,

>Vinny's widow, Jean, and several members of his

>immediate and extended family.

>

>3. In the late 1990s the prominent Irish-American

>politician, Raymond L. Flynn a former Mayor of Boston

>and U.S. Ambassador to Vatican City was presented with

>the Award during a week-long programme of events which

>commemorated An Ghorta Mhor, the Great Hunger in

>Ireland (1845-53).

>

>JUST SOME WOMEN MENTIONED AS FRIENDS, WITH WHOM SHE

>MUTUALLY COLLABORATED ON DIVERSE SOCIAL PROJECTS:

>

>DERRY: the Late Kathy Harkin, a socialist and feminist

>who established the first Women's Aid Shelter in the

>city which at the time was viewed by some as

>'UNNECESSARY' or "VERY CONTROVERSIAL". Mary's initial

>contribution consisted of beds, blankets, cutlery and

>such-like.

>

>Mrs. Patricia McCloskey, who with her husband, Dr.

>Conn McCloskey of Dungannon, established the Committee

>for Social Justice in N. Ireland. This campaign had

>the backing of several prominent MPs, and was

>spearheaded in the House of Common by the late Gerry

>Fitt, Stanley Orme and Paul Rose.

>

>Betty Sinclair, a Protestant former mill worker who

>became secretary of the Belfast Trades Council. She

>was a frequent visitor and one of the best known

>leaders of the Communist Party of Ireland. She became

>a co-founder of the civil rights movement in January

>1967. Betty sent many foreign journalists to Mary as

>"a contact person". Even Pravda staff sampled her

>home-made scones and buns, and some took her recipes

>back to Moscow and to only God knows where?

>

>JOURNALIST: the Late Mary Holland, when she came to

>Derry in the early stages of the civil rights struggle

>to report for the Observer, made contact. Mary

>referred to Mrs. Holland in the highest of regard and

>to this day believes this English journalist's work

>was a real eye-opener for many politicians in England

>and wider sections of the general public in Britain.

>

>

>Others included: Dr. Nora O'Brien, a daughter of the

>executed 1916 leader, James Connolly. A picture taken

>during a 1977 visit by Nora was requested by the

>Derry News. It had been hanging under Mary's late

>husband's decorations for services to the Irish

>Volunteers. Nora's late brother Roddy also stayed at Mary's

home in the 1960s. On one occasion he was there to defy a ban, placed on Mary's son and others, imposed by Stormont's Minister of Home Affairs on a James Connolly Centenary Commemoration..

>

>Mrs. Miriam Daly of the Armagh/H-Block campaign who

>was assassinated in her Andersontown home. She had

>stepped into the shoes of Seamus Costello, as

>chairman of the IRSP after he was assassinated in

>October 1977. Seamus was a regular visitor to Mary's

>home throughout the 60s and 70s.

>

>

>One of the memorable compliments she recalled was

>linked to a public meeting. It was made by Ivan Cooper

>who was speaking on behalf of the leaders and general

>rank and file of the civil rights era � He said, "Mary

>was a mother to us all".

>

>Footnote: Mary had 11 children, nine survive. One of her daughters is an Independent Senator in the Parliament of Trinidad & Tobago. Her late husband Harry, (1899-1989) a master-butcher, founded the Butchers' & Allied Workers Union, which affiliated to the T&GWU in later years. He served as an elected official of the N. Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU). He rose through the ranks of the Irish Volunteers (after 1916 referred to as the Irish Republican Army) to the position of a staff officer of the Derry Brigade, serving up to two decades after the Civil War ended. He served alongside legendary figures such as Generals McGlinchey and Boyle, fellow Brigade Staff Officer Sean Dolan, who died quite young as a result of ill-treatment in prison, and the 1916 veteran Neil Gillespie. Harry died a few days short of 90, the second last of Derry's "Old Brigade".

Mary was at all the major civil rights

>marches (1968-72) Dungannon to Coalisland, Duke

>Street, Burntollet and Bloody Sunday.

>

>The Civil Rights Vets extend "Many Happy Returns and

>may this comrade of several decades of struggle reach

>the big ONE, this time next year."

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Replies:

O'Doherty-Spanish Links -- rights.civil@googlemail.com, Tue, May 01 2007, 19:32:42 PDT