Revisiting 1981

By AM Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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Just in through the door after taking part in a vigil on the Bridge of Peace in Drogheda. It was in support of demands for the release of the Maghaberry prisoner Brendan Lillis. His condition continues to deteriorate in the face of determined opposition by the British state to calls for it to take a compassionate view.

Like previous events there over the past two weeks tonight's was organised by Duleek Independent Republicans who deserve  enormous credit for the work they do in support of prisoners. Were it not for groups like them people throughout the Twenty Six counties would be in a state of perpetual darkness about British abuses in the North’s prison.

I missed last week's vigil, the second in a series, due to being on a family holiday in Cork. Apparently the Garda put in a repeat performance of their first outing a fortnight ago. On both occasions they took names and addresses. Tonight was different. They failed to appear. Speculation at the vigil was that they were forced to go and earn their money by trying to catch those who carried out a tiger kidnap robbery in the town yesterday morning. Perhaps had they spent less time monitoring peaceful vigils and put the effort into pre-emptive intelligence work yesterday's robbery might never have taken place. Still, I suppose if they are hassling us they are not running into flats and beating people over the heads with batons.

On the bridge tonight I ran into an old friend from Belfast. We chatted for three quarters of an hour before I gave into my daughters demands, made my excuses and retired to the local park where she happily played on the swings. Brendan Lillis will be the last to complain; she held his photo for motorists to see for the duration of her time there.

My Belfast friend told me how he was up at 6 o'clock this morning putting out posters in Dundalk in a bid to draw attention to the plight of Brendan Lillis. Now he was on the bridge in Drogheda. He and others are putting a fair amount of effort into this. But it is a swim against an inhumane tide. Yesterday Martin McGuinness finally stepped up to the mark and called on his micro ministerial colleague David Ford in his capacity as Minister for Justice  to release Brendan Lillis. Ford today ignored him and said he had no power to effect the release.

Roisin Lynch, the partner of Brendan Lillis emerged from today’s meeting with the irascible Ford in a downbeat mood. Detailing his intransigence she said:

It was a very depressing and sad meeting. David Ford gave me the run-around again, placing the onus on the Life Review Commission and claiming he can do nothing about the case. We appealed to him to make the correct decision from a humanitarian point of view, but our pleas feel on deaf and indifferent ears. I fear now that David Ford will not release Brendan until he is either dead or only a matter of hours from death. I did not detect any compassion or justice from the Justice Minister today.

We have been down this road before with callous Brit ministers trying to make a name for themselves as some sort of security hard men. The full force of the republican ex-prisoner community needs to be brought to bear on this British unionist who thinks he can tramp over prisoners in the manner of his predecessors Roy Mason and Humphrey Atkins. If Ford wishes to behave as if this is 1981 he should be met with the robust opposition from the men and women who so exemplified resistance within the prisons of thirty years ago.