Conference tallis::celt

1061.0. "Civil Rights Activist to Speak (Tonight!)" by WREATH::DROTTER () Thu May 21 1992 10:32

                           Civil Rights Activist to Speak.

                     Mary Nelis, from Derry City, County Derry
                              Thursday, 5/21 (Tonight!)
                              122 1st Street (off Rte 110)
                              Lowell, Mass.  @7:30pm

 
   Currently on a speaking tour of the U.S., she has just arrived in Mass.
from  LA, where she was the guest speaker at the the annual Bobby Sands (MP)
Memorial Dinner sponsored by the Irish-American Production Company and
Trinity Theatre (West Holywood, Calif.). 
    
   The following is a brief biography of the woman. I hope CELTfile readers
can attend the lecture and find out from someone who lives it every day, what it
means to be locked in a struggle for freedom in the six counties of IRELAND
that are being held hostage by England.

                                      -*-

   Mary Nelis is from Derry City in the North of Ireland. She is the mother of
nine (9) children, three of whom have been imprisoned for their political
activities in Northern Ireland.

   Mary raised her children in the 1960's in the Creggan housing estate, a
Nationalist ghetto of sub-standard housing built by the Unionist ("Loyalist")
controlled Derry City Corporation to keep the Irish Nationalist families
within one electoral district.

   This gerrymandering enabled the Unionists to maintain power in Derry, despite
being in the numerical minority. Mary was extremely active in the formation of
the first Tenants Association in Derry City and fought successfully on many
campaigns for better housing, playground facilities, and proper schooling for
the thousands of children in the immediate area.

   Although busy coping with raising her family, Mary became actively involved
in the Civil Rights campaign of the 60's, and later became a community activist
after the onset of violent conflict in 1969. She initially joined the SDLP led
by John Hume of Derry, and for seven years spent most of her time trying to
get people released from the custody of the British Army and "security forces."
She also defended neighbors' rights when their houses were being invaded and
ripped apart by the RUC and British Army searches.

   In 1976, her oldest son, Denis, was arrested and subsequently was sentenced
to 16 years in jail, processed by the conveyor-belt "justice" system
known as Diplock Court: one judge, no jury, torture and hearsay evidence
the linch-pin of successful convictions. Denis joined the "blanket protest"
against the British policy of criminalization of political prisoners.

   Because of the torture and punishment meted out to this small number of
prisoners and the refusal of the Catholic Church and other influential bodies to
intervene, Mary decided drastic action was called for. She and two other women
relatives of the prisoners, stripped and donned a blanket in front of the local
Bishop's residence protesting the inhumane conditions in Long Kesh prison. The
rsultant outcry escalated into a massive ground swell of many thousands of
people protesting and demonstrating against British policies in occupied
Northern Ireland.

   The struggle within the prisons resulted in the death of the ten Hunger
Strikers including Bobby Sands. Mary Nelis was at the forefront of the Relatives
Action Committee campaign outside the prison as two of her sons were involved in
the protest.

   Mary has been arrested on several occasions, assaulted by the RUC police, and
strip-searched while in RUC custody.

   She speaks eloquently of long years of struggle and the huge sacrifice made
by women who have borne the brunt of the poverty and repression in NI. Mary
continues to be politically active in many different ways and is currently
active with Sinn Fein, the political party of the Irish Republican movement.

   In 1984, she opened Dove House Resource Centre in the Bogside (Derry) with no
cash or resources - by squatting in an abandoned house until the housing
authorities relented. Today, Dove House employs over forty people and provides
services to the Bogside, the Nationalist ghetto in Derry, which has a 20%
unemployment rate.

   In 1988 she co-founded the Templemore Craft Co-Operative, a workers co-op
of women only, who tried to utilize their skills in the manufacturing of
clothing and craft products. The co-op finally failed due to the lack of funding
from any other sources even though there order book was full. It is almost
certain that the lack of funds was due to the British policy of "Vetting" groups
with politically active participants. Mary's high profile in opposition to
British Government policies brought down the government's prejudicial actions
against the co-op.

   To help Americans understand the term, "Vetting" is the British Government
policy of intense background investigation that is uded more to intimidate
community participation and to discourage the investment of outside funds in
companies, organizations and groups that employ people that are not "politically
correct."

   Most recently, Mary has been active in FORUM 2 & 3, a group to promote debate
around the issue of the threat to remove Irish Citizenship from those Irish men
and women born in the North of Ireland, by removing the 2nd and 3rd Articles
of the Irish Constitution.