Standing up for rights: Terry O’Sullivan – A working class hero: Michelle Gildernew: My memories of the Good Friday Agreement

John Montgomery

Standing up for rights

Among those who attended the Easter Sundaycommemoration in Belfast two weeks ago was John Montgomery. I haven’t seen Johnin many years and it was a delight to meet him again. John is originally fromSt. James’ in west Belfast.

Thirty years ago John was the Chairperson of theBallyfermot Community Association. Those were different times. Politicalcensorship and the demonisation of Republicans was entrenched in governmentpolicy North and South. Collusion between British state agencies and theirunionist paramilitary surrogates was widespread.  The Irish and Britishgovernments were locked into a strategy aimed at defeating the IRA and smashingSinn Féin. There was no thought of peace with justice or of conflictresolution; of inclusive talks; or of the centrality of dialogue to resolvedifferences. The establishment was against that.

The Irish political system and sections of themedia were in the forefront of this campaign. Opposition to SinnFein had reached such a fever pitch in the South that Sinn Féin was refused theuse of our usual venue, the Mansion House in Dublin to hold our annual ArdFheis. Other public buildings were denied to us as Fianna Fail, the LabourParty and Fine Gael abused their authority to bar us. The Special Branch wasleaning on hotel owners to put them off hiring venues to us. In 1992 we had noplace to hold our Ard Fheis.  

Eventually the Ballyfermot Community Association,in the working class area of Ballyfermot, a sprawling Dublin district notunlike its northern urban cousins in Derry or Belfast, offered us the use oftheir community centre. The Irish establishment was outraged and threatened todeny funding to the community centre but a defiant John Montgomery rejectedthis pointing out that the government hadn’t provided any funding in theprevious 20 years.

Turning a community centre into a venue for the ArdFheis required a lot of hard work and imagination. Lucilita Bhreatnach who wasthen the Ard Runaí – General Secretary of the Party- led our head-office teamto get the logistical and other political back-up in place while a voluntaryteam of painters, carpenters and other construction workers moved in. My oldfriend from Long Kesh, the mural painter Danny Devenney, transformed thecommunity building. 

The theme of our 1992 Ard Fheis was ‘Towards aLasting Peace in Ireland.’ The title was taken from the document of the samename that we launched in the Ballyfermot Community Centre. At a time when theidea of a peace process was unimaginable ‘Towards a Lasting Peace in Irelandsaid: “An end to conflict is not of itself peace. In the Irishexperience to date it has represented but a pause – a postponement of conflictfor a decade or a generation. And end to conflict must of course be anobjective. But to have any lasting value it must be in the context of a peaceprocess which eradicates the causes of the conflict.”

In spite of the Irish establishment’s antipathytoward Sinn Féin the years that followed showed that the Ballyfermot CommunityAssociation was right in opening its centre up to Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin wasright about the need for a peace process.  Our efforts along with those ofothers created the opportunity for the Good Friday Agreement. Thank you JohnMontgomery. 

 

Terry O’Sullivan – A working class hero

Terry O'Sullivan is the General President ofthe Laborers' International Union of North American (LIUNA). He has just retiredafter a quarter of century as leader of one of the biggest trade unions inNorth America. I have known Terry O for many years. He is a proud IrishAmerican born in San Francisco and with close ties to Kerry where his paternalgrandfather was from. He still has family there. 

LiUNA's slogan is Feel the Power. Terry's mantra isOrganize or Die. Anyone who has heard him deliver one of his rousing speechesknows he means every word of that. He brings that same passion and convictionto his support for Irish Unity, for an end to the partition of Ireland and anew future for all the Irish people.

Terry is a committed united Irelander. He hasspoken at several Sinn Féin Ard Fheiseanna over the years. Terry has alsoaddressed Irish Unity conferences in the USA.

In 2013 he was in Dublin to mark the centenary ofthe Dublin Lockout. In 2016 he headed a big union delegation that came toIreland for the 100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising. He attended events inDublin and here in Belfast including unveiling the statue to James Connollywhich now stands outside Áras Uí Chonghaile on the Falls Road. 

Terry and LiUNA continue to play a leadership rolein making the vision of Áras Uí Chonghaile a reality. He was one of thespeakers at its formal opening in April 2019 along with President MichaelD Higgins. Last year Áras Uí Chonghaile dedicated its conference space onthe top floor of the building to Terry renaming it: “The Terry O’SullivanLiUNA! Conference and Event Space.”

As well as being a trade union leader Terry is alsoa dear friend and a comrade. Over the years I had the pleasure of meetingTerry’s father, Terry Sr. and his mother Leona. They too were strong IrishAmericans and were enormously proud of their son’s many achievements. So alsois the rest of his family and his wife Yvette.

Most recently Terry O travelled to Dublin to attendthe funeral of Rita O’Hare who he had come to know over many years and torespect. He was one of those who acted as guard of honour.

Terry has dedicated his life to advancing the causeof labour and improving the conditions of working people in the USA and aroundthe world. Terry totally understands and embraces Connolly’s analysis thatthe “Cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour and the Cause of Labour isthe cause of Ireland.” 

He may live thousands of miles away but Terry livesthat cause every day and we are forever grateful for it. He may be steppingdown from his leadership role in LiUNA but I know we will continue to advocatefor Irish Unity and in defence of the Good Friday Agreement. 

 

Michelle Gildernew: My memories of the Good FridayAgreement

My memories of the Good Friday Agreement areinterspersed with countless trips across the Irish Sea. I was the Sinn Féinrepresentative in London and on the day the Agreement was reached I was inLondon, where Jimmy and I were staying with Mary Mason, a brilliant Londonbased activist.

In the years preceding that I had been asked by theparty to work in the International Dept, based in Conway Mill and headed up byBairbre de Brún. I learned a lot there and really enjoyed it, and when the SinnFéin rep in London decided he was ready to come home I was asked to considerreplacing him.

After talking it over with my family and Jimmy, Idecided to relocate, knowing that it was a lot of responsibility but also agreat opportunity. As a result, I had been over in London a few times beforethe first visit to Downing St, and was included in that delegation along withGerry, Richard, Martin, Lucilita, Siobhan and Martin Ferris in December 1997.

When Gerry posted that photo on Instagram lately itsparked all sort of conversations with a new generation of Republicans asking“How come you were asked to go?”, “why were you in that delegation?”, quicklyfollowed by “…and what age were you?!”

One of my best memories of that day was being in ataxi en route to the airport the day before and hearing on the news that LiamAverill had escaped out of Long Kesh. The bus nearly left the road with thecheer from everyone inside, yet parts of the media portrayed it as “anembarrassment to the delegation”. We had been joined by the then politicaleditor of the Irish News who can testify that there was no embarrassment, onlydelight!

Looking back now it was a huge honour to beincluded. I remember as we sat in the Cabinet room Tony Blair saying in hisopening remarks that there wouldn’t be a United Ireland in the lifetime of theyoung person in the room, and that was me. Gerry’s response in his openingremarks was “If someone had told us ten years ago that we would be in 10Downing St. sitting with a British Prime Minister  and leader of theLabour Party with your majority we would have said “not in our lifetime too.”To which Tony Blair replied “Touché.”

There is all sorts of possibilities if the will isthere. And then we got down to what turned out to be a very good meeting.

During those times it was extremely busy and wefelt like we were always rushing, to catch planes or to meet deadlines and thefrenetic pace didn’t stop after 10th April 1998.

When others felt their work was done, the Sinn Féinleadership brought the ANC over and organised hundreds of meetings, includingin the jails in order to bring people with us. We had a special Ard Fheis forthe party to take the final decision on the Agreement.

Thinking back the risks taken by Gerry and Martinare in stark contrast to the leadership of other party’s today. We owe GerryAdams and Martin McGuinness a debt of gratitude for the personal and politicalrisks that they took for unity and peace.