VAL CARDWELL

A committed and dedicated republican and socialist

Former husband Gerry MacLochlainn (right) and relatives of Val Cardwell carry her coffin, draped in the Irish National Flag

LIFELONG socialist and Irish republican activist Val Cardwell died on Tuesday 14th June in Britain.
She was very well known by an entire generation of those in Britain supporting Ireland’s struggle for independence and freedom. This was inevitable, given that she was once married to Gerry Mac Lochlainn, who was Sinn Féin’s representative in Britain throughout some of the darkest and most difficult days of the struggle, and deeply involved in the early stages of the Peace Process. That aside, all who got to know Val became aware that she was very, very much a personality in her own right, someone of unique kindness, compassion and good humour.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD, who many times met and spoke with Val, sent a message to the funeral in which he said:
“Ba mhaith liom mo combhrón a dhéanamh ar chailliúint Val Cardwell lena clann agus lena cáirde. Ba mhaith liom mo thacaíocht a thabhairt don Comhairleoir Gerry MacLoch-lainn, iar fhear céile Val agus dá cáirde.
“Val,” recalled the Sinn Féin leader, “was from the valleys of South Wales. She had strong working-class roots. Her grandfather was a miner and a founding member of the Communist Party. Val also joined that party. She was a committed and dedicated republican and socialist. It was this and her anti-imperialist instincts which brought her to invite Gerry Mac Lochlainn to speak to her branch of the Communist Party in South Wales. As a result, she was expelled from the CP.
“In 1982, she joined Sinn Féin in Britain and was an enthusiastic, hard-working activist. She also married Gerry and when he was imprisoned in England Val suffered severe harassment, had her home broken into, and was badly assaulted on a number of occasions.
“Val’s anti-imperialist stance also saw her active on other struggles around the world. She had a particular fondness for the people and struggles in Cuba and Vietnam. Val’s death is obviously a huge blow to her family and friends but the republican struggle has also lost a courageous and committed activist.”
Among the mourners at her funeral was Jeremy Corbyn MP and a message was received from John McDonnell MP.
Val’s former husband, Gerry Mac Lochlainn, now a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry, addressed Val’s funeral ceremony, recalling her political and personal life in her native Wales and in London in detail. He recounted her contributions to Ireland’s struggle and to international solidarity and the socialist cause. He recalled her passion for someone who, he remarked “could have stolen her away at any time I fear” — this was another Irishman, Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch.
“Che”, said Gerry, “you should be proud of such an acolyte.”
He concluded:
“The world is a little duller today. But you will never really die - you will live on in every act of kindness, in every act of compassion and in every act of resistance against oppression. Val, thanks to people like you, we will see the Rising of the Moon! Tiocfaidh ar La! Venceremos!”
Val chose her own music for her funeral, which concluded with the song ‘Something Inside So Strong’, by Labi Siffre, ending with the words of defiance to all oppression: “You thought that my pride was gone; Oh, no, there’s something inside so strong.”
The ceremony’s programme, designed by Gerry, concluded with the words from the poem ‘The Rhythm of Time’ by Bobby Sands, and the words of Val’s beloved Che Guevara:
“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.”