A tribute to Noel Ferguson 

Derry Republicans this week buried a great friend to the republican struggle - Noel Ferguson.
Noel joined the Republican movement in the early seventies. As well as his role in Sinn Féin he also, in those early days, was a very loyal, trusted and dedicated friend and comrade to those engaged in armed struggle on the streets of Derry.
He was a dedicated republican for whom no task was too great or too small. Travelling the length and breadth of County Derry Noel became a popular but discreet and unassuming activist.
So when he was arrested in December 1976, with weapons and explosives which he was transporting, his family was shocked.
However no less shocked were his wide circle of friends in the Republican Movement who thought that Noel’s travelling up and down the country was to do with him running the Local Sinn Féin Shop “Siopa an Phobal” (affectionately know as ‘the soapy bubble’).
Noel was arrested with his good friend, the late Tony Quigley and a local woman on the Glenshane Road, just outside Dungiven, and at all times claimed responsibility for any materials that were found in the car they were travelling in.
Noel’s main goal was to try and get the other two people acquited, at the cost of him being imprisoned for a long period of time but the Judge hearing the case would hear none of it and found them all guilty.
Noel was imprisoned for 12 years and served out his sentence in the H Blocks of Long Kesh, where he served much of his time on the blanket.
After coming out of prison in the 1980’s Noel’s commitment to the struggle stayed steadfast but due to ill-health he was unable to be as active as he would have liked, especially during last year’s 25th anniversary commemorations of the 1981 Hunger Strike.
Noel attended many of the commemorative ceremonies and functions maintaining that he had been very proud of the time he had served in prison and the good friendships he had made there.
Noel passed away on Saturday, 24 March 2007 at the age of 67 and will be sadly missed by his friends in Derry.
A guard of honour of former republican H-Block prisoners escorted Noel’s remains to his final resting place.
Ár lamh dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.