Máire Drumm – Carrying the flame of freedom

IN HIS ORATION at the graveside of Sinn Féin Vice-President Máire Drumm, on the 40th anniversary of her assassination by loyalists on 28 October 1976, veteran Belfast republican Joe Austin accused her killers of “not only killing an inspirational leader but of trying to kill the dream of Irish freedom”.

Joe was addressing a large crowd of republicans who, led by members of the Drumm family, marched in a candlelight procession from the gates of Milltown Cemetery to the grave where both Máire and her husband Jimmy are buried.

● Seamy and Seán Drumm, Máire’s sons

Sinn Féin Belfast Deputy Mayor Mary Ellen Campbell described how, as a young republican woman growing up in Belfast, she was inspired by the name, reputation and leadership qualities of Máire Drumm who “always led from the front”.

Mary Ellen mentioned Drumm’s motivational role when, in July 1970, she organised women from across the city to break the British Army siege of the Falls and broke the curfew imposed on the lower Falls area.

● Bik McFarlane sings ‘The Foggy Dew’

After the ceremony, people gathered in the Felons’ Club for a night of story-telling, poetry and song. 

Speakers – including Seamy Drumm, Liz Maskey, Danny Morrison and Patricia Davidson – recounted their experiences of Máire as a mother, an activist, a leader and, in Joe Austin’s words, “a patriot motivated by the love of her country and its people”.

● Danny Morrison, Liz Maskey, Joe Austin, Patricia Davidson and Seamy Drumm take part in the panel discussion on the life of Máire Drumm 

All the speakers were at pains to debunk the caricature of Drumm promoted by the British press as a “grandmother of hate”. Their recollections tracked her life from the onset of the conflict and through the resurgence of republicanism.

In a booklet produced by the Máire Drumm Commemoration Committee, one contributor described how she thought more clearly about what feminism meant in Ireland:

“Women’s politics in Ireland – as part of our revolutionary politics – had to come out of the historical conditions within which we were living.”

● Patricia Davidson, a friend and comrade of Máire Drumm, sings ‘A Rebel Heart’ 

Máire Drumm was also very much associated with the fledgling Republican News. 

She was always mindful of the importance of publicising the republican cause. Patricia Davidson, who as a PRO worked with Máire, recalled getting a phone call commending her for getting a number of stories highlighting British Army brutality into the newspapers.

“‘Well done, Patricia, well done’, she said,” Patricia recalled. “It was the last time I spoke to her.” 

Paraphrasing the lyrics from the tribute to US trade union and political activist Joe Hill, Joe Austin concluded:

“It takes more than guns to kill a woman; says Máire, I never died.”

The spirit of Máire Drumm lives on.