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27 April 2000 Edition

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Back issue: Derry H-Block march

Keep heart, for you are our heart'' - was the blanketmen's plea for continued support, in smuggled communication, to several thousand people who thronged into Derry's Guildhall Square last Sunday for a rally organised by the National H-Block Committee.

Although protestors had travelled from throughout the occupied North, and from Dublin and Donegal, the most heartening support - and proof of the ever-widening suppor given to the broad-based National H-Block Committee - came from the variety of organisations and individuals from Derry itself.

On the march, as it moved off from Derry's Guildhall in an unusual circular route for nationalist marches, as well as the banners of Sinn Féin cumainn and Relatives Action Committees, there were banners and contingents from Christian Concern, Concerned Teachers of Derry, and the Youth and Community workers section of the ACTSS union, a branch secretary of which, Paddy Logue, was part of the platform party at the rally.

With renewed feelings of resolve and commitment - and with the Blanketmen's own appeal for continued unity and the building of broader and broader support still ringing in their ears - the crowd marched back into Free Derry, under the noses of the Brits, before dispersing.

An Phoblacht, Saturday 26 April 1980


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland