Bellaghy pays tribute to Francis Hughes
In a series of events over the weekend, hunger striker Francis Hughes was remembered in the County Derry village of Bellaghy.
Saturday 12 May marked the 20th anniversary of Hughes' death; the County Derry man died after 56 days on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh.
A day-long exhibition, which included many hitherto unpublished photographs of Hughes and his comrades Dominic McGlinchey and Ian Milne were displayed in the Wolfe Tones GAA Hall in Ballyscullion Road just outside the town.
Ironically, Saturday 12 May was also the anniversary of Sean Brown, a leading figure in GAA circles in Derry and a senior member of the Bellaghy club who was abducted by loyalists on 12 May 1997. His body was found hours later in his burnt out car on the road to Randalstown just off the M2 motorway.
The exhibition was dominated by a huge mural of Hughes, painted by Belfast muralists Danny Devenney and Marty Lyons. It was part of an exhibition on display in the Ulster Museum up until the end of last month and depicts Hughes as a modern day Cú Chulainn.
The Bellaghy man was a renowned guerrilla fighter and his bravery both inside and outside prison shook the British militarily and politically.
In the course of the day, hundreds of people attended the exhibition which, according to Colm Scullion of the Bellaghy 1981 Committee, had to be run a second day due to demand.
At 5pm, in a ceremony at the Hughes family home in Tamlaghtduff, a stone commemorating Francis Hughes was unveiled. In a simple ceremony, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness unveiled the plaque on the original Hughes family home, the old farmhouse in which Francis was born.
In the presence of Joe and Maggie, Francis's father and mother, his brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces, McGuinness spoke of Francis as a friend, a freedom fighter, as someone who loved his country, who wanted to see it free and was prepared to pay the ultimate price in pursuit of the goal of a united and free Ireland.
Bik McFarlane, OC of the republican POWs in the H Blocks at the time of the Hunger Strike, also attended the ceremony.
At 7.30pm that same evening, over 1,000 people attended a wreath laying ceremony in the church yard of St Mary's on the outskirts of the town where Hughes is buried alongside his cousin and fellow hunger striker Thomas McElwee.
Later that evening, as many as 500 people packed into the Wolfe Tone hall for a performance of the play about the hunger strike, TheLaughter of Our Children, penned by Brian Campbell and former hunger striker Laurence McKeown.
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