Something inside so strong
BY LAURA FRIEL
At the corner of the Whiterock Road we stand. Raincoats, water boots and umbrellas keeping the worst of the weather at bay. A band, waiting with us, braves the worst downpour of this summer and keeps us entertained with a medley of familiar tunes. "It's hurting my ears," wails four-year-old Niamh. "I want to go home." From under a pink umbrella, her seven-year-old sister Aoife gives me a withering look. "Why are we here?" she demands.
Last Sunday, thousands of people from all parts of Ireland marked the 20th Anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike by participating in a march and rally in Belfast. Banners and bands bore testimony to the participation of people from places as diverse as Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh, Dublin, Longford and Waterford, Wicklow, Belleek and Kilkenny, Scotland, England and America, The Basque Country and Turkey.
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The weather might be dismal but the mood of the crowd is far from that. There's smiles, waving and hugs as comrades and friends of longstanding greet one another. The commemoration marks the sacrifice and vision of republican POWs two decades ago, but as Bik McFarlane once said, "it seems like yesterday"
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Marches, organised throughout the city, set out at different times to converge in West Belfast mid afternoon at Casement Park GAA stadium. The rain had began early and continued unrelenting throughout the parades, soaking the marchers and bands, turning roads into rivers and the entrance to Casement into a quagmire. But as Christy Moore remarked, "it takes more than eight hours of rain to dampen the spirits of people here".
Waiting at the Whiterock Road, Niamh is anxious to leave as line after line of people and band after band parade past. "When are we going?" she whines and "in a minute" comes the reply. But as we begin to realise this is one of the largest marches seen in West Belfast since the funeral of Tom Williams and as 30 minutes pass, there is still no sign of the last of the marchers.
d some people had already been marching for over two hours, from the north of the city, from the south and east and coming in the opposite direction from the greater West Belfast area of Lagan Valley. Earlier, loyalists protesting about restrictions placed upon an Apprentice Boys parade by the Parades Commission blocked the Ligoniel Road, preventing the Wolfe Tone flute band from joining a commemoration in Ardoyne.
"I've found the biggest puddle in the world," confides Niamh, her spirits momentarily lifting as we finally make our way to Casement Park in driving rain. And the weather might be dismal but the mood of the crowd is far from that. There's smiles, waving and hugs as comrades and friends of longstanding greet one another. The commemoration marks the sacrifice and vision of republican POWs two decades ago, but as Bik McFarlane once said, "it seems like yesterday".
But this is not a crowd of old comrades remembering the past. This is the broad republican community, young and old, north and south, home and away, commemorating the living legacy born out of those times but which continues to shape our daily lives. Inside the stadium, republicans were looking to the future as well as remembering the past. As Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams told the crowd, tomorrow is the first day of the next phase of the struggle.
Criticising the British government's suspension of the institutions, Adams warned that "behind the soft words really what is being opened up is a six- or seven-week period in which the British government and unionists are going to try to put pressure on republicans to move to resolve issues on British or unionist terms".
"Is anyone here going to allow that?" asked Adams and the crowd roared their reply. He warned that republicans would not be fooled by 'Humpty Dumpty' politics and nor would they allow those resisting change to 'pocket initiatives' and expect republicans to go along with it.
"If the British government is saying the deal is within reach, does that mean they are going to pull troops out of south Armagh, Tyrone, west and north Belfast?" asked Adams. "I hear also the patronising tone that the institutions have only been stood down for only one day and now it's okay. Well it's not okay."
Earlier, Bik McFarlane, the OC of the H Blocks during the hunger strikes, remembered the ten men who died and paid tribute to their courage and the courage of their families. Jennifer McCann, a former POW, described the living memorial that the hunger strikers had bequeathed to future generations, of which her own three young children are a part.
Addressing the rally, Sinan Ersay, the brother of a Turkish death faster, compared the imposition of F type prisons and the policy of isolation currently being pursued in Turkey to the H Block struggle in Ireland 20 years ago. Highlighting the inspiration drawn from Republican POWs like Bobby Sands, Ersay called for solidarity with Turkish prisoners, their families and supporters.
extract from a play performed by Dubbeljoint provided a vehicle for the roll of honour, and each name, his age and the number of days on hunger strike rang out in the now silent stadium. Moments earlier, a Colour Party had marched into the centre of the pitch and, forming into a figure H, stood to attention during the playing of 'Amhrán na bhFiann'.
Children of former POWs carrying placards, which together formed the words 'Our revenge will be the laughter of our children', recalled the words of Bobby Sands and expressed the hopes of republicans for a future in which all the children of the nation will be cherished.
Forlorn and cold, Niamh climbs into my arms and snuggles for warmth beneath my raincoat. The rain has stopped but the sky is overcast. Across the stadium the strains of the song 'Something Inside So Strong' begin. Niamh lifts her face and smiles in recognition.
"The higher you build your barriers, the taller I become," sings one small voice. "The more you take my rights away, the faster I will run."
d suddenly her sister Aoife's indignant question, "Why are we here?" is answered for all of us. "And I know that I can make it," sing more than one voice, "because there's something inside so strong."
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