na Kelly
The death recently of Mrs Anna Kelly of Creggan marked the
passing of one of the stalwarts of the prisoners' struggle. A
founder member of Derry's Relatives Action Committee, she was one
of a dedicated and determined core group of relatives who could
be counted on to be at every protest and every action in support
of the POWs, even if it meant travelling to the US or elsewhere
abroad. You knew if Mrs Kelly, and her inseparable neighbour and
friend of 40 years, Mrs Robson, weren't on a given bus to a
protest, that it meant they were visiting their sons or daughter
in one of the prisons.
``We actually had to plan our dinners a full week ahead, because
we had something on every single day in those years,'' Mrs Robson
recalls, referring to the H-Block/Armagh struggle. ``If we weren't
running to the Crum, to Armagh or the H-Blocks, it was a bus to a
protest or at a protest here in town.''
During the height of the H-Blocks/Armagh struggle, Anna Kelly
toured the US, and Europe breaking the censorship over this
issue, along with Eileen Harkin and Peggy McCool, also sadly gone
now.
Mrs Kelly got a certificate from a Creggan community group
proclaiming her a member of ``Creggan Women's Roll of Honour'', for
her ``unconditional devotion to her husband and family.'' Mrs
Robson describes her as ``a very, very strong woman, who just
lived for her family.'' Her concern embraced the wider community,
as reflected in the many tributes at her funeral. Not only Sinn
Féin and the PDF, but many other community groups she worked
tirelessly for mourned her passing: The Foyle Hospice, the
Sperrin Ward (cancer patients) at Altnagelvin Hospital, and the
Romanian children. Her long battle with cancer didn't dent her
spirit. She was still selling PDF tickets long after she was too
ill to do so.
Mrs Kelly's home on Westway in Creggan was the target for regular
house raids, ``but she always gave as good as she got,'' recalls
Mrs Robson. ``She was very witty, always had an answer to
everything. You always got a laugh with her. She kept us going on
many a long march, on the coldest, wettest days, whether from
Coalisland to Dungannon, in Dublin or Belfast. Even when
chemotherapy meant she lost her hair, she joked that she saved a
fortune in perms.
In every way, except for her tiny frame, Mrs Kelly was larger
than life. She typifies the courage, determination and good
humour of the relatives of the POWs, through all the long years
of struggle. She was one of Creggan's hero mothers, and her
passing leaves a gap, mourned not only by the Republican
Movement, but by all who knew her. To her sorrowing family and
friends, we extend our deepest sympathy.
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