Vinnie Coyle - An Appreciation

IT WAS with a great sense of sadness that we in Derry heard of the sudden death of Vinnie Coyle, but through our sadness and tears we will also smile when we remember him.

We thought Vinnie would go on forever. He was that kind of human being. Larger than life, highly intelligent, a man who could and did turn his hand to anything - Vinnie was first in everything he did.

He came from a family which aspired to the unity of our country. They were republicans when republicans were scarce on the ground.

Vinnie's involvement in the Civil Rights struggle was as natural as breathing and he did in this what he did in everything. He was the man who took charge of the marches, the sit-downs, the protests. He calmed down many potentially dire situations.

Anyone who saw this large man, who stood out in a crowd of thousands, held him in respect and awe. Vinnie was the man who overshadowed James Callaghan during his visit to Derry City after the Battle of the Bogside.

When British soldiers came on the streets, Vinnie was at the forefront of resistance. The stories are endless. We all witnessed them. Vinnie opened his heart and his home, and he showed great strength in defence of the young people of this city.

He took on, at times, the might of the British Army - single-handedly tackling heavily-armed soldiers. In one instance, it took 20 British soldiers to hold Vinnie down while he was defending a young man who was being beaten.

Vinnie never accepted the British Army presence in Derry, nor in the rest of our country. Many young men and women owe their lives to Vinnie - his strength became their refuge.

When internment came, Vinnie was to the fore and this marked the beginning of his work on behalf of the prisoners. He worked tirelessly for the POWs, fund-raising and visiting prisons. Vinnie also became the chief steward at the annual Bloody Sunday commemoration marches.

The RUC and British Army were terrified of Vinnie. People will remember the sight of battle-equipped Brits running to their jeeps being pursued by Vinnie. All of us relate stories of Vinnie. He packed into his life what would take most of us ten lifetimes to achieve. There were no half measures with him.

He was passionate, courageous, and bigger than life and we all mourn for the loss of this man.

To Jane and to Vincent, John, Maria, Valerie, Aidan, Kieran, Luke, Melissa, Michael and Paul, the Republican Movement extends its deepest sympathy.

Yann Goulet

THE DEATH occurred on 22 August of famed sculptor and Breton nationalist Yann Goulet. He was 85.

Goulet, a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and of Aosdána, was best known in Ireland for his monumental republican sculptures, including those at Ballyseedy, County Kerry; Glasnevin Cemetery, County Dublin; and Crossmaglen, County Armagh. Before he literally carved his way into Irish history and culture, however, Goulet was already well-known for his strongly nationalist political views.

As a prominent member of the separatist movement in Brittany, he led a charmed existence during the Second World War, in which he ended up imprisoned, on hunger-strike, and then hunted by both the French and the Germans. He found himself forced to flee from his native land after that conflict when he was condemned by the French as a collaborator. He was sentenced to death in his absence.

Goulet later claimed involvement in a brief campaign in the 1960s organised by the Front de Libération de la Bretagne, which culminated in a series of bombings in 1967.

After the war, he settled with his family in Ireland and received his first big sculptural break in 1950, when he won the commission to design the Dublin Brigade Memorial for the Custom House in Dublin. He later designed a model of a monument to replace Nelson's Pillar which puts the pending sterile spike project deservedly to shame. He was particularly proud when he was made an honorary Kerryman in 1982, after he completed a statue of Padraig Pearse and he also designed the Ballyseedy Memorial in Tralee in memory of the eight men murdered in March 1923 by Free State forces.

Goulet in Ireland was a staunch republican and one of the recurring themes in his work was heroic images of freedom fighters. Perhaps chief among these and certainly most provocative to a certain besieged British Army garrison, was the now famous Glory memorial on a granite base in Crossmaglen, which was quietly erected in dead of night as a defiant surprise for the occupying forces!

A French newspaper has recalled, via an anecdote, the essential humanity of this talented and idealistic artist. As an old man, he intervened as a passer-by stopped children playing on bronze statues dedicated to Irish republican martyrs. ``Those men died so that children would have the right to play in parks,'' he said.

Goulet believed that art and revolution should not conflict but are a reflection of each other. He wanted his art to be remembered as a commemoration and celebration of the ongoing struggle for the freedom of small nations, Brittany and Ireland.

Go ndeana Dia trócaire ar a anam.