Anniversary of Internment 2013

Posted by Jim on August 3, 2013

 By Ardoyne Republican

 

 Internment or Detention Without Trial is nothing new to Irish people and

has been used every few decades throughout our Nation’s occupation.

Whenever Westminster chose to imprison and/or exile entire communities

throughout the country. The Twentieth Century witnessed a number of

phases of Internment in attempts to quell resistance to British Rule

beginning after the 1916 Rising and ending in 1975. Internment conjurs

up a collective legacy of a denial of justice, violence and brutality

inflicted upon fellow citizens and communities. And so it was again on

August 9th 1971, when hundreds of Republicans, Nationalists and

Socialists were brutally dragged from their beds in dawn swoops by

heavily-armed British soldiers and thrown into armoured vehicles and

driven away to the cries of the mothers, wives and children.

 

In Ardoyne alone, riots took place across the district as news of mass

arrests spread from home to home. The Provisional & Official sections of

the IRA in the area mounted a number of military operations to keep the

troops out. Gun battles between Republicans & the British were

commonplace throughout the day and the Woodvale Defence Association

(WDA), forerunner of the UDA used Internment to force Catholic families

from a dozens of homes in the Woodvale, Glenbryn and Ballysillan areas.

They also wrecked and burnt hundreds of other homes that Protestants

lived in Cranbrook, Farringdon Gardens and Velsheda to ensure Catholic

families could not move into them. The British Army also went on the

rampage in and around Ardoyne killing a Protestant householder, Sarah

Worthington in Velsheda, claiming she had a rifle? To date, no member of

the British Crown Forces has been made accountable for her murder. They

were also firing wrecklessly into Etna Drive and Jamaica Street for

hours from Glenbryn, until the IRA returned fire. During the ensuing

battle, dedicated Volunteer, Paddy McAdorey was killed defending his

community.

 

Internment had a massive impact on Nationalist Belfast and communities

including Ardoyne responded in the only way they knew how, with riots,

burnings and trouble. Political representation in the Six Counties

during the Seventies was pretty grim and the SDLP, encouraged a general

boycott of the Unionist and British Authorities. Although, they later,

failing the electorate by embracing the system and helped criminalise

those who supported the Civil Disobeience campaign. Over the next five

years, many who believed in human rights campaigned for the prisoners,

took to the streets, protested, refused to pay rent for council houses

and marched. The British criminalised entire communities due to their

support for the Internees to the extent that they gunned-down 14

marchers in Derry during an Anti-Internment Rally on January 31st, 1972.

Branding them gunmen and bombers, a final act of injustice.

 

Throughout the remainder of the Seventies, most potential voters

continued distrusting Political Parties and felt the only way to be

heard was through violence. As such, young people in Ardoyne and other

Nationalist areas marked the anniversary of Internment with Bonfires

that always resulted in riots between youths and British Troops.

Throughout the summer months, young people collected and gathered wood

for a number of bonfires to be lit at Midnight on August 9. After the

1980 & 1981 Hunger-Strikes, both the Provisional IRA and INLA used riots

as opportunities to cunduct operations against the British and RUC. A

deadly mix of emotions that almost always left many within the district,

shot and wounded by live rounds, Plastic Bullets and heavy batons. In

one such riot, the RUC shot and killed young Bone resident, Seamus Duffy

(15) in Dawson Street, off the New Lodge Road on August 8th, 1989.

 

On the afternoon of August 8th 1988, a few comrades and I had been

standing in the garden of 100 Brompton Park, the Sinn Fein Centre in

Ardoyne. Enjoying the summer’s weather, when we noticed a car slowing

down and a man in the back looking suspiciously at us as it sped away. A

short distance away, a lorry had just delivered drinks to the Highfield

Social Club and was leaving for it’s next job. A number of local youths

standing outside Whelan’s Shop in Etna Drive, were sharing a yarn. When

a UVF man alighted from the sunroof of the car armed with an automatic

rifle and directed his fire at them. As they dived for cover, eighteen

year-old, Seamus Morris from Highbury Gardens. His younger brother,

Conor and a friend luckily survived. As chaos reigned, the car attempted

to make good it’s escape but found it’s way blocked by the same lorry

and was forced to mount the footpath. The lorry driver and his helper

had courageously decided to ram the getaway car. As it drove up the

kerb, the gunman again opened fire into the cab of the lorry and killed

it’s passenger, Peter Dolan (32) from West Belfast.

 

I didn’t know Seamus well, we attended different Schools. However, he

was a very nice person and never passed you by without a hello. He was

known locally as a quiet fella, very intelligent and had worked in the

Civil Service. As with nearly everyone killed from the locality by

Loyalists, Seamus had absolutly no connection to Republicanism and was

clearly a victim of a random sectarian shooting. The two murders were

eventually admitted by the Protesstant Action Force (PAF), a cover-name

for the UVF. The death of Seamus had a devastating impact on his family

and his Mother contracted cancer soon afterwards and died four years

later. His Dad never recovered and couldn’t even speak about his son.

Therefore, I’m proud to announce on this Blog that on his and Peter’s

25th anniversary a Plague will be unveiled outside Whelan’s Shop on

August Sunday 11th, August at 1pm. The details of which I publish below.

I would encourage everyone to please attend and show solidarity with

both families.

 

In another event to mark Internment, the Anti-Internment League has

organised a large march which will leave Ardoyne Avenue at 6pm on Friday

9th, August. The parade will proceed down the Oldpark Road, Rosepenna

Street, Cliftonville Road, Antrim Road, New Lodge Road, North Queen

Street, Donegall Street, Royal Avenue, up Castle Street onto Divis

Street where it will meet other marchers and bands. The march will then

proceed up the Falls Road, Anderstown Road and into the Busy Bee, where

a Rally will be held to recall those incarcerated between 1971 and 1975.

It will also focus on Political Prisoners currently held behind bars

like Martin Corey and others Interned by Remand. Where POWs’ can be held

up to 3 years before trial. The march has been endorsed by a number of

Republican Political Groups, such as the Irish Republican Socialist

Party (IRSP), Republican Network for Unity (RNU), Eirigi, the 1916

Societies and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement. Once again, I would

ask anyone with an interest in Human Rights to please attend the above

march and demonstrate your opposition to Internment.