IF YOU are an Irish nationalist or republican or simply a person who believes in resisting oppression, you probably need cheering-up under current circumstances.
I would bet the House of Commons on it that you will feel better if you watch online the video of Bernadette Devlin MP, as she then was, explaining to reporters why she adopted a robust physical approach towards Home Secretary Reginald Maudling in the chamber at Westminster on the day after Bloody Sunday in Derry. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EKx0wOFQP8
My late friend and colleague James Downey gave an eye-witness account of the incident, describing in the Irish Times how Ms Devlin “launched herself, a tiny, furious figure, upon the rotund mass of the Home Secretary”. Although Downey counted three blows being delivered to Maudling’s face, the recipient “suffered no injury, except to his dignity”.
It made world news, with the New York Times reporting how “the Catholic radical member from Ulster” ran across the floor and attacked the “notably phlegmatic” Maudling, whom she described as “a murdering hypocrite”.
If you’re not internet-friendly or can’t connect to the link, then let me report that the highly-articulate Mid-Ulster MP pointed out to the assembled media that, in his Commons statement, Maudling had not even expressed regret for the fact that 13 people were dead. She rejects the suggestion that her attack on the Home Secretary constituted an emotional reaction, insisting rather that it was “quite coldly and calmly done”. She adds that she was present in Derry the day before and had been fired on by the paratroopers, but was now being refused the opportunity to speak in the chamber to which she was elected. As a result, she had delivered “a simple proletarian protest” to the man she described as being “responsible for the murder of 13 people”.
The best part of the clip is when a reporter asks the young MP if she intends to apologise to the Home Secretary, and she responds: “I’m just sorry I didn’t get him by the throat.”
Heaven forbid that anyone should raise a finger against the current Prime Minister-cum-Dancing Queen, or any member of her cabinet, but it would be nice if there was someone in the Commons chamber these days who was elected to represent the nationalist viewpoint in the north of Ireland. Bernadette McAliskey, as she is now known, served from April 1969 to February 1974 and there have been numerous others down through the years who ensured that the feelings of the minority community were made known.
Now, however, at a time that is crucial in the history of the north and indeed the whole island, there is nobody. The Democratic Unionist Party have the field all to themselves with the exception of independent unionist Sylvia Hermon.
You have to ask: what madness is this? Nationalist and republican voters elected seven Sinn Féin MPs in the last general election but they don’t take their seats because they can’t swallow the oath of allegiance to the British monarch. It should be added that they have every right to adopt such a stance and I refuse to engage in the tedious exercise of “Shinner-bashing”, but the rest of us have the equal right to respond that this isn’t good enough in the circumstances that exist nowadays.
It reminds me of a movie I saw years ago, called Life for Ruth, where a man allows his daughter to die because a blood transfusion is contrary to the doctrine of his (unspecified) religious affiliation.
The counter-argument in relation to Westminster is that the MPs in question ran on an openly-abstentionist basis, so people knew what they were voting for in advance. It is also pointed out that the SDLP ran on the basis of taking their seats and went down from three MPs to zero.
So maybe it’s time to consider running what used to be called “unity” candidates. That’s the basis on which Bernadette was elected and her 1969 book, The Price of My Soul, has a lively and even humorous description of the episode and, indeed, the rather comical procedure for taking the oath afterwards: the Commons record for April 22, 1969 states that “Bernadette Josephine Devlin, Member for Mid-Ulster, was sworn.”
Another unity candidate was Frank Maguire, who took the oath on October 31, 1974 and represented Fermanagh-South Tyrone until his untimely death in 1981, which led to the historic by-election that was won by hunger-striker Bobby Sands.
Meanwhile, turning to a previous era, another, very different, figure who ran unsuccessfully for Westminster four times was trade unionist William Walker, who is the subject of a forthcoming conference at the MAC in Belfast on October 19-20, hosted by the Irish Labour History Society and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Maybe the issue of abstention might also be discussed.
