'It's a reminder of the example set by previous generations of republicans'

AS the 25^th Seanad met for the first time, many media commentators made the point that it is one of the most diverse in the history of the upper house. One of those taking his seat for the first time is Short Strand's Niall Ó Donnghaile, the former Mayor of Belfast, and a fluent Irish speaker.

As he leaves the chamber, An Phoblacht asks him about the gold fáinne he wears on his lapel. A symbol used by Irish-language speakers to indicate fluency:

“This is about our only family heirloom,” he smiles, “it may not have much monetary worth but for us it is priceless. It's made from copper-piping from the Al Rawdah prison ship. My grandfather Jim (pictured) was interned there in the 1940s, both on the Al Rawdah and in Crumlin Road Gaol for a period of time. He was actually interned at the time of Tom Williams' execution.”

Niall's grandfather Jim had been one of the thousands of republicans interned without charge or trial by the British government in the 1940s. 

Amongst those in Crumlin Road Gaol with him was IRA Volunteer Tom Williams. Tom was hanged in Crumlin Road Gaol in 1942 following a shoot-out with the RUC in Belfast which left one RUC officer dead. Tom's body was only returned to his family for burial in 2000.

“My grandfather achieved his gold fáinne standard along with other prisoners, but obviously they were devoid of gold,” laughs Niall.

“And in those days it wasn't as simple as sitting an exam and posting off for it. So they did this symbolically as a manifestation of their sense of Irishness, of the importance of the language and of bettering themselves as republican prisoners.”

“This was presented to my granddad when he achieved that standard of Irish, and it's something he's worn and was very proud of. My uncles have worn and I wore it when I first entered Belfast City Hall as Mayor,” he says.

Niall says symbolically it's very important to him:

“It's a reminder to me on a personal and human level of where I am coming from. I hope it will be a wee bit of a reminder to some of those in the institutions we enter that we are very, very proud of our history and the achievements we have now in a much changed Ireland. But there is still a lot of work to do and we are following the example set by those previous generations.”