1 March 2001 Edition
Carrickmacross hears former Hunger Striker
Around 80 people from the Carrickmacross area attended a public meeting in the Shirley Arms Hotel last Wednesday, 21 February, organised as part of the local commemorative projects to mark the 20th anniversary year of the 1981 Hunger Strikes. An impressive exhibition containing memorabilia from the period collected by locals was also on display.
The meeting was organised by the local Ógra Shinn Féin group in conection with the Monaghan 1981 Committee, which has a great deal of activities organised for throughout this anniversary year.
When tens of thousands of ordinary people of all political persuasions took to the streets of Ireland, South Monaghan played its part. Sean McCoy, who was involved in the local H-Block/ Armagh committee at the time, explained the highs and deep lows of the time. The Cavan/Monaghan constituency elected Kieran Doherty, a young prisoner who finally died on Hunger Strike in August 1981.
Local councillor and Ógra Shinn Féin national organiser Matt Carthy introduced Daithí Mhac An Bhaird to chair the meeting and issued an invitation to everybody in county Monaghan, regardless of their political affiliations, to involve themselves in the campaign to commemorate the ten who gave their lives.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was Kieran Doherty's director of elections in 1981 and told the meeting that the political consequences continue to have an impact on Irish politics. His election to Leinster House in 1997, he said, was the culmination of work that began in `81 and although it took 16 years to elect another republican TD after Doherty, the prize was worth waiting for. These sentiments were echoed by Northern Assembly member Michelle Gildernew, who told the gathering that the ultimate commemoration we can give the Hunger Strikers will be peace with justice in a United Ireland.
Laurence McKeown from Belfast was the main speaker. He was on hunger strike for 70 days in 1981, which was longer than most of those who died, before he was taken off by his family at the end of the strike. McKeown informed listeners of his belief that the current peace process was first initiated during the prison protests of 1976-1981. It was here that this generation of republicans first developed an electoral strategy and learned to negotiate with a British government that could never be trusted, he said.
When he spoke of his personal feelings about the deaths of ten of his friends and comrades and his sense of confusion and guilt when the realisation that he was going to live hit home, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. Laurence told the crowd that he wanted to thank, on behalf of those incarcerated in Long Kesh at the time, all those in South Monaghan who campaigned for them in 1981. They should be proud, he said, for continuing to this present day to ensure that the memory of the hunger strikers lives on.
The meeting was organised by the local Ógra Shinn Féin group in conection with the Monaghan 1981 Committee, which has a great deal of activities organised for throughout this anniversary year.
When tens of thousands of ordinary people of all political persuasions took to the streets of Ireland, South Monaghan played its part. Sean McCoy, who was involved in the local H-Block/ Armagh committee at the time, explained the highs and deep lows of the time. The Cavan/Monaghan constituency elected Kieran Doherty, a young prisoner who finally died on Hunger Strike in August 1981.
Local councillor and Ógra Shinn Féin national organiser Matt Carthy introduced Daithí Mhac An Bhaird to chair the meeting and issued an invitation to everybody in county Monaghan, regardless of their political affiliations, to involve themselves in the campaign to commemorate the ten who gave their lives.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was Kieran Doherty's director of elections in 1981 and told the meeting that the political consequences continue to have an impact on Irish politics. His election to Leinster House in 1997, he said, was the culmination of work that began in `81 and although it took 16 years to elect another republican TD after Doherty, the prize was worth waiting for. These sentiments were echoed by Northern Assembly member Michelle Gildernew, who told the gathering that the ultimate commemoration we can give the Hunger Strikers will be peace with justice in a United Ireland.
Laurence McKeown from Belfast was the main speaker. He was on hunger strike for 70 days in 1981, which was longer than most of those who died, before he was taken off by his family at the end of the strike. McKeown informed listeners of his belief that the current peace process was first initiated during the prison protests of 1976-1981. It was here that this generation of republicans first developed an electoral strategy and learned to negotiate with a British government that could never be trusted, he said.
When he spoke of his personal feelings about the deaths of ten of his friends and comrades and his sense of confusion and guilt when the realisation that he was going to live hit home, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. Laurence told the crowd that he wanted to thank, on behalf of those incarcerated in Long Kesh at the time, all those in South Monaghan who campaigned for them in 1981. They should be proud, he said, for continuing to this present day to ensure that the memory of the hunger strikers lives on.