Mary Crofton

Mary Crofton - affectionately known as Mary Troops Out - a passionate campaigner for a united Ireland and a leading figure in the British Troops Out Movement, died at the Royal Gwent Hospital , Newport, Wales on 4 May at the age of 83. Even on her deathbed, Mary was planning the Hunger Strike commemoration in Cardiff.

Mary arrived in Newport, South Wales, from Limerick in the late 1960s and she raised her young family singlehanded under very difficult circumstances. Her campaigning for justice in Ireland was tireless and fearless. She never missed a Troops Out march and she organised every Welsh Troops Out delegation to the annual Belfast Anti-Internment marches.

When it was very difficult - even frightening - to campaign on the Irish question, she led us in the demonstration against plastic bullets, strip

searches, Diplock courts, and for and political status for prisoners.

Her passion was for Irish freedom, but she campaigned on behalf of justice and equality all over the world. As a nurse in Newport hospitals, she led the fight agaiinst Thatcher's health service cuts. She helped organise the historic peace march to Greenham Common from Cardiff in 1981. Her house was used to organise the fight back for jobs in the Welsh steel industry. As secretary of the Newport Miners' Support Group, she helped raise thousands of pounds, and tons of food, during the 1984/5 Miners' Strike.

To the right wing British establishment, Mary Troops Out was a mad Irish witch. To those of us who love truth and justice she was an angel; and when we stood proudly commemorating the 1981 hunger strikers we cried for her loss too. The self sacrificing ideals that motivated Mary Crofton are badly needed in a world ravaged by war and threatened by a new arms race.

We will miss her terribly, but wherever there is a fightback for jobs, a struggle for freedom, people fighting racism, the spirit of Mary Troops Out will carry on.

BY RAY DAVIES (Caerphilly Borough Councillor)

Tommy Hickey

Following a protracted illness the death ocurred last month of Dublin republican Tommy Hickey. He was aged 53.

Tommy became actively involved in the republican struggle in the early 1970s with the outbreak of open conflict in the Six Counties and after witnessing the assault on the nationalist community there from loyalists and British state forces.

As a Volunteer with Óglaigh na hÉireann, Tommy was imprisoned twice in Portlaoise Jail in the 1970s. He was active in the H-Block/Armagh campaign and demonstrations in support of the hunger-strikers in the early 1980s.

Tommy was very much a socialist and an internationalist and was as passionate about the need to emancipate the Irish working class and to confront all forms of imperialism across the globe as he was in his commitment to a united Ireland. The passion with which he held such views led to his being nicknamed 'Red Tommy'.

He was an active member of Sinn Féin in Dublin in the 1990s and was often at the centre of heated arguments with Dublin comrades regarding the pros and cons of republican strategy. Although his views were often at variance with the strategic position of the Movement at any given time, he was a good and genuine comrade and a well-liked republican.

A republican honour guard flanked Tommy's coffin as it left the Church on Meath Street in the Liberties area for the funeral to Bohernabreena at the foot of the Dublin Mountains on 4 April.

A graveside oration was delivered by Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Nicky Kehoe, who described how he first met Tommy when he arrived on E-Wing at Portlaoise Jail during the 1970s. He said Tommy was a man small in stature but big in heart. He always stood up for the poor and the oppressed and his spirit also represented the true spirit of what the republican struggle was about. As a Dubliner, Tommy did not have to get involved in the struggle but he refused to ignore what was ocurring in the North.

Kehoe urged those in attendance to carry on the struggle in which Tommy had served and to help improve the lives of ordinary people and achieve the ideals for which Tommy Hickey and so many others had fought for.

To Tommy's family and friends the Republican Movement extends heartfelt sympathy.

Pat 'The Bard' Mullin

It was with deep sadness that I learned of the death of my good friend and comrade, Patrick 'The Bard' Mullin from Foremass, Sixmilecross in the hills of West Tyrone.

Pat and I first met in 1970 in Dungannon where, as a 17-year-old, he was attending the local technical college and I, along with my peers, were heavily involved in the civil rights campaign. My first and lasting impression of Pat was of a very intense young man with a clear understanding of the injustices which he saw being meted out to the nationalists in the Six Counties. He saw the civil rights marchers being beaten off the streets, he saw the B Specials run amok through nationalist areas and estates of Dungannon. He saw all this and, at the age of 17, he became a republican soldier, a role to which he gave his whole time.

There were very few soldiers who were as active as him during those early years. He engaged the British Army and RUC through the towns and hills all over Tyrone. In one shoot out with the British Army he was shot and pretty badly wounded. He made good his escape and reported back for active service three days later. That was the measure of the boy/man.

He spent most of his adult life in prison, but he toughed it out like he did with all the setbacks in his life. But there was more to Pat than being a soldier. He had a good political brain and was a very able debater. He loved his country and was fiercely proud of his native Tyrone and its people. Anyone who ever met and got to know him was impressed by his bearing. He had a quiet sense of humour and was a great defender of the underdog in our society.

While in prison he made a good use of the time by furthering his education and when the ceasefire came, started to build a life for himself in Dublin. However, this too was cut short by an illness which was to prove terminal. Throughout his sickness and between spells in hospital he worked away, almost to the end.

A week before he died, I, along with two friends of his, visited him in Omagh Hospital, where we found him to be near death. But he lit up when he saw us, the handshake was firm and that intensity was still there. We both knew that we would not see each other again.

His mother and family took him home to Foremass for his last few days and it's in the family home that he will be sorely missed by his caring mother, brothers and sisters.

The huge turnout to the family home and to his funeral by neighbours and friends from all over Ireland was a mark of the esteem in which he and his family were and are held.

I had the honour of being asked to say a few brief words on behalf of his former comrades and friends as his remains left his home for the funeral mass. They could have been spoken with more eloquence, but not with more feeling. I was very proud to have done it. I will miss 'The Bard' - he was my friend.

BY GERRY LOUGHRAN, 'THE CROW'