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10 December 2014

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December 1984: Dark month for Derry republicans remembered

Lowering the Flag at the ommemoration for Volunteers Danny Doherty and Willie Fleming

IT WAS A WEEKEND of remembrance as republicans from across Derry gathered on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 December to honour four IRA Volunteers who died on active service in the course of the struggle.

Despite the rain whipping across the city, a large crowd assembled at the Republican Plot in the city cemetery to remember Volunteers Danny Doherty and Willie Fleming who were ambushed and assassinated by the British SAS in 1984.

Among the crowd were veterans from years gone by and young people who wouldn’t have known the dead men but knew their reputations from their contemporaries.

Danielle Moore, who chaired the event, was named after Danny Doherty and she spoke of her pride in that connection.

But it was one of the ‘veterans’ who delivered the main address.

William ‘Willie’ McGuinness spoke of the commitment and determination of Volunteers like Danny and Willie who accepted the risks that faced them and went out on operations undaunted by the fact that they faced execution as Britain’s ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy was in full flow.

It is as fathers, brothers, sons, uncles, cousins and friends and comrades that we remember our dead. Republican commemorations ensure that, despite our enemies’ attempts to criminalise their memory and the struggle, they will fail.

And so it was on Sunday 7 December, the 40th anniversary of Volunteers Ethel Lynch and John McDaid.

Ethel was injured in a premature explosion a number of days prior to her death on 7 December 1974; John McDaid died in a separate incident when a bomb he was handling exploded prematurely close to Derry City centre.

At a wreath-laying ceremony held at the Garden of Remembrance in Creggan on the anniversary of her death, a colour party from Derry’s republican youth stood as a guard of honour.

Rosemary Fisher, widow of Volunteer George McBrearty, read a tribute to Ethel before the crowd went back to the Creggan Sports Hall to view a DVD.

Speaking on a DVD, launched in memory of the two Volunteers, their friends and families remembered them as people they loved and who loved them.

They were also remembered for the characteristics that marked them out as trustworthy and dedicated Volunteers.

At a ceremony to remember Volunteer John McDaid at the Bogside and Brandywell Memorial on Leckey Road that night, Martin Gallagher read a tribute to John while Tommy Gallagher of the commemoration committee made a presentation to John’s brother, Paul.

As well as the four Volunteers remembered over the weekend of 6 and 7 December, Volunteers Kieran Fleming, Joe Walker, Pól Kinsella and James McDaid died on active  service while Volunteers Hugh Duffy, Phil O’Donnell and Barney McFadden died of natural causes.

I measc na loachra Gael a tá siad.

Derry – tribute

Former POWS Lynn O'Connell and Sadie McGilloway make a presentation to a member of the Lynch family

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Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

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