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Note 34.12 Open season on Ireland and the Irish 12 of 17
DUB01::OSULLIVAN_D "Gall gan ceart ach neart" 140 lines 8-MAR-1988 17:20
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The Short Life of Mairead Farrell.
Mairead Farrell, who died three days after her 31st
birthday, was an unlikely IRA recruit. Born on the
Stewartstown Road, in a relatively middle-class area of
West Belfast, she was the only girl in a family of six
children. Although her maternal grandfather had been a
Republican and was interned by the Black and Tans in
Ballinmore, Co. Leitrim, her own parents were not
politically involved and had hoped for a university
education and maybe even a profession for their
daughter.
According to her friends and family, she had been
"involved" not so much for what happened to her own
family but what she saw on the streets of the Falls
happening to other families. Her mother later said:
"Mairead was strongly affected by different girls'
fathers and brothers being arrested, being interned,
for no reason at all. That had a big influence on her,
I think."
By her early teens she had already made a commitment
and joined the Provisionals as a volunteer. She told
friends that by 14 she had decided to play her role in
the "armed struggle", at whatever cost. But whatever
commitment she had made privately, her parents knew
nothing. To them she was a bright and well-behaved
student at Rathmore Catholic primary and grammar in
Dunmurry on the outskirs of West Belfast. She did very
well, passing her "O" levels in languages with ease.
She was 15 when Bloody Sunday happened and she later
said it was the images from Derry which confirmed what
she saw as her future.
By June, 1975, she had left school at 18. Ten months
later, on April 6th, 1976, she was arrested after
planting three bombs at Conway's Hotel, outside
Belfast. Her colleague and friend, Sean McDermott, was
shot dead by the RUC and the third man involved in the
bombing, Kieran Doherty, later died in jail in 1981
while on hunger strike.
Farrell never regretted her role in the Dunmurry
explosion. No one was injured and that had been their
intention she said. In a detailed interview with
Magill magazine shortly after her release from jail in
September, 1986, she said: "I went out on an operation
and there was the possibility of my being killed or
caught. It's just one of those things. I did 10 1/2
years for that. There's no point in crying over it
now."
According to Briona MacDermott, an Irish lecturer, who
is currently writing a book on Farrell's life, she told
her: "I was lucky that day." She said the RUC told her
they had not opened fire because they knew they would
catch her. "Nowadays they don't take prisoners," she
told MacDermott.
For her involvement in the explosion she was sentenced
to 14 years and in Armagh women's prison she adopted
the same policy as the male prisoners and joined the
gradual campaign to gain political status which
continued in the "dirty protest" and the Maze hunger
strike. In December, 1980, Farrell and two other women
prisoners, Mary Doyle and Mairead Nugent, went on
hunger strike after nearly a year on the "dirty
protest". Within 10 days the fast was called off by
the IRA after the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) had
indicated the possibility of some concessions. By the
time Farrell came back from hospital, the NIO had
denied any such possibility.
In the 1981 elections run during the height of the Maze
hunger strike, Farrell was the only woman to contest a
seat. Her name was put forward in Cork North Central
and she garnered a small percentage of the vote.
Farrell, according to women who were in prison with
her, had the commitment and single-minded resolve to
carry herself and many of the other women through these
years, through strip-searching, months without sanitary
conditions or a wash, hunger strike and solitary
confinement. "She was definitely a leader, she
believed absolutely in what she was doing but was also
very popular. A good listeer who kept spirits up," one
said.
At Magherberry Prison where she was moved shortly
before her release, she continued to play a leading
role in representing Republican women prisoners. She
told Magill that prison had taught her "the real values
in life; it's made me more committed to my political
beliefs," she said, and pleged to continue her active
role. During her years in prison she had taken an Open
University course in politics and economics and last
autumn, just over a year after her release at the age
of 29, she began a BA degree in politics and economics.
"She wanted to understand things. For her it was the
opportunity to get the university education she had
missed," Briona MacDermott said.
MacDermott, who interviewed Farrell dozens of times
over the last 18 months, told the Irish Times: "She had
enjoyed her life since her release. She had started
studying again, had grown close to her family and to
her younger brothers whose growing up she had missed
out on. She had a boyfriend and I think she wanted to
have a normal a life as possible. But she knew it
would never be normal. She was completely dedicated."
Her brothers are not politically involved and although
she remained very close to her family, it is not
thought any of them had much support for the very
determined path she had made for herself since her
release. They accepted it with some resignation but
were naturally devastated yesterday by her death.
Rita O'Hare, the editor of An Phoblacht, said: "I
wouldn't like anyone to think Mairead was the type who
had coolly preparing to lay her life down. She was a
lively happy-go-lucky, popular girl. But she was
committed to what she was doing and accepted the
consequences."
"She had an inner calm as if she knew exactly what she
was doing and why. She was a very committed Republican
and Socialist," MacDermott added. her only regret
about the Conway Hotel bombing was getting caught, and,
according to her friends, her only likely regret about
Gibralter would be getting shot. She knew the stakes,
they said.
Only 12 women, including Farrell, have died on what the
IRA call "active service" and the last was Rosemary
Bleakley, a Cummann na mBan member, who died in north
Belfast in January, 1976.
- Irish Times, March 8th, 1988.
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