Upper Springfield honours republican dead

Sunday 26 November will be a day many republicans from the Upper Springfield area of West Belfast will not forget.

The opening of the magnificent Garden of Remembrance, in honour of the men and women of the Ballymurphy, Springhill, New Barnsley, Moyard, Dermothill and Turf Lodge areas which make up the Upper Springfield was a memorable occasion.

Up to 1,000 people were present as republican stalwart Brian Keenan unveiled the memorial stones that hold the names of the men and women from the area who lost their lives in the course of the past four decades of conflict.

Set in a granite wall, that forms the centrepiece of the Garden, the marble stones will, over the years, become a symbol of the respect in which republicans hold the patriot dead.

It was people from this area of Belfast who fought the British Army to a standstill in 1971 at the introduction of Internment. They suffered the massacre at Springhill, when British paratroopers and unionist gangs attacked the area, killing six people. The area saw the loss of some of the IRA's most fearless fighters.

The driving force behind the work to build the Garden of Remembrance was the many former POWs from the areas whose work ensured that the finished Garden would be a fitting tribute to their dead friends and comrades.

Addressing the huge crowd Brian Keenan acknowledged their years of struggle and told them to be proud of their achievements. He said the unionist political establishment and the British Government thought that they could break them by putting them in poor housing, refusing to employ them and sending in their armed thugs to put them down: "But it didn't work and it won't work," he said.

Sunday 26 November will be a day many republicans from the Upper Springfield area of West Belfast will not forget.

The opening of the magnificent Garden of Remembrance, in honour of the men and women of the Ballymurphy, Springhill, New Barnsley, Moyard, Dermothill and Turf Lodge areas which make up the Upper Springfield was a memorable occasion.

Up to 1,000 people were present as republican stalwart Brian Keenan unveiled the memorial stones that hold the names of the men and women from the area who lost their lives in the course of the past four decades of conflict.

Set in a granite wall, that forms the centrepiece of the Garden, the marble stones will, over the years, become a symbol of the respect in which republicans hold the patriot dead.

It was people from this area of Belfast who fought the British Army to a standstill in 1971 at the introduction of Internment. They suffered the massacre at Springhill, when British paratroopers and unionist gangs attacked the area, killing six people. The area saw the loss of some of the IRA's most fearless fighters.

The driving force behind the work to build the Garden of Remembrance was the many former POWs from the areas whose work ensured that the finished Garden would be a fitting tribute to their dead friends and comrades.

Addressing the huge crowd Brian Keenan acknowledged their years of struggle and told them to be proud of their achievements. He said the unionist political establishment and the British Government thought that they could break them by putting them in poor housing, refusing to employ them and sending in their armed thugs to put them down: "But it didn't work and it won't work," he said.