Bernadette McAliskey interview

[ONeill]

Dungannon,where all the nice middle class Catholics go

Elite?

[Main Street]

That's a very good interview and she's still as vital as ever she was in her younger days.
The journalist is the daughter of Eamonn McCann and Mary Holland?

[muppet]

How can you rubbish the middle classes and sit on the Board of Governors of schools that nurture them

57.7% of Irish are 'middle class or above'.

96% of them were 'nurtured' by Catholic schools. I presume you hold those Boards of Governors in equal contempt?

http://www.independent.ie/business/budget/news/half-of-irish-adults-now-qualify-as-middle-class-says-wealth-survey-34111412.html
http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Diversity-of-Patronage/

[ashman]

That's a very good interview and she's still as vital as ever she was in her younger days.
The journalist is the daughter of Eamonn McCann and Mary Holland?

Yep and obvious the purpose of the interview . 

[give her dixie]

Fantastic interview, and covered a fair chunk of her life.

For those of us a certain vintage, Bernadette will stand out as one of the iconic figures of the past 50 years,
and her place in Irish history is hard earned and well deserved. In our lifetime we will never see her likes again.

I got to know her and her family personally over the years, and consider them good friends. It's always a pleasure
to sit at the kitchen table and listen to her telling stories from the past, and talking about the present and the future.

When Ali came to Ireland to fight in dublin in the early 70's, he wanted to meet her. Somebody contacted the boxing club
in Coalisland and a friend of my fathers drove her to Dublin to meet him. That story was told many a time in our house growing up!!

She was once given the key to the city of New York, and she then then gave it to the Black Panthers.....

She is a very lucky woman to be alive having been shot 14 times, and to live to tell the tale.

Bernadette is an inspiration to people not only in Ireland, but all over the world. She stood up and spoke out and still does .

She is an incredible woman, and one Ireland can be proud of.

[whitey]

http://irishamerica.com/2009/10/1969-a-crazy-year-for-irish-america/


Kinda bizzare that youd come over to gin up support for your cause, and then insult everyone whos rallying behind you


"Bernadette Devlin Tours America

Irish America had always played an integral role in the fight for justice in Ireland. And so, just as John Devoy and Eamon de Valera did in the past, a new generation of Irish nationalists toured the U.S. to drum up support for their cause.

But 1969 was different. That became clear when 22-year-old Bernadette Devlin came to the U.S. in August.
The telegenic firebrand – the youngest person ever elected to British Parliament – seemed ready to woo Irish America with her reports of Catholic oppression in Northern Ireland. But Devlin wanted to speak out against all injustice – including the ongoing segregation of African Americans in the U.S. Devlin criticized the likes of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and even the Catholic Church.

Devlin argued that Daley and many other Irish-American power brokers either ignored or contributed to social inequality in the U.S. Perhaps most shockingly, she compared many Irish-American leaders to the Orangemen in Northern Ireland who repressed Catholics.

Suffice it to say, traditional Irish Americans did not take this well. The AOH, which had raised money for Devlin, swiftly took the gift back, handing it instead to the Irish Catholic church.

This, however, did not change the fact that even on an issue that seemed simple – supporting Catholic rights in the North – Irish America was being challenged in ways it never had been before"

[T Fearon]

A fierce critic of the Catholic Church yet sat on the Board of Governors of a Catholic School.

A vehement Republican who took her seat and salary at Westminster.Even Sinn Fein haven't somersaulted on this one,yet!

[Eamonnca1]

Everything about this place reinforces sectarianism: segregated education, segregated living."

I don't agree with everything she says, but on this she's spot on. I'm not seeing any sign of the parties doing anything to address it. Maybe they're afraid that there's too many Tonys around who want to keep schools segregated and children indoctrinated at the taxpayer's expense.

[seafoid]

She understands the madness of power.

https://www.ft.com/content/1f91316c-8099-11e6-bc52-0c7211ef3198#ixzz4L3EIyEAW

"Another said that while Mr Hammond was adopting a cautious, evidence-based approach to future business links with the EU, pro-Brexit ministers were eager to make a clean break with the single market and customs union.
"There are two significant strands of thinking in government," said one person who had attended the Whitehall meetings. "One strand is gung-ho and wants to drive on without fully understanding the consequences, the other is more measured."

Boris Johnson and David Davis do not give a flying f**k about the people of Northern Ireland
It was exactly the same thing in the early 80s with the Tories.
People have to fight for their rights and always have. Same thing with the Church.....

[reddgnhand]

nor her position on the board of governors of an elite grammar school.

St Pats Academy wasn't that elite Tony.  If you had brains you went there money or not.  Is that why you hate Brendan Rodgers?

I had to laugh at that. When I think of some of the headcase's I went to the Academy with to be described as the "elite".

[seafoid]

I was in second class when she was shot. The headmaster came in and told us something awful had happened. Did we know who Bernadette Devlin was? No idea. She wasn't involved with the Galway hurlers. I only learnt about her later. Very impressive lady.

[Owenmoresider]

A fierce critic of the Catholic Church yet sat on the Board of Governors of a Catholic School.

A vehement Republican who took her seat and salary at Westminster.Even Sinn Fein haven't somersaulted on this one,yet!

Doesn't stop them taking offices there and claiming all the expenses they can get.

[longballin]

Bernadette is a  heroine still holding true to her values. As for Tony - a clown who wants these threads to be about him.

[seafoid]

Kids should learn this kind of stuff in school :

She told parliament: "There is no place in society for us, the ordinary 'peasants' of Northern Ireland . . . because we are the have-nots and they are the haves . . . The situation with which we are faced in Northern Ireland is one in which I feel I can no longer say to the people, 'Don't worry. Westminster is looking after you.' "
She says now of that speech that she was perhaps politically naive.
 
"I had a very moral view when I was younger. I thought everybody cared. I think it's part of a Catholic upbringing, that idea of universal solidarity. That was a journey for me . . . I didn't think the government was bad. I genuinely thought they just didn't know and if I just went to London to tell them, people would say, 'Do you hear that young woman there? We need to do something about that.' But then I realised: the b**tards, they do know and not only do they know, they don't see anything wrong with it."

[johnneycool]

http://irishamerica.com/2009/10/1969-a-crazy-year-for-irish-america/


Kinda bizzare that youd come over to gin up support for your cause, and then insult everyone whos rallying behind you


"Bernadette Devlin Tours America

Irish America had always played an integral role in the fight for justice in Ireland. And so, just as John Devoy and Eamon de Valera did in the past, a new generation of Irish nationalists toured the U.S. to drum up support for their cause.

But 1969 was different. That became clear when 22-year-old Bernadette Devlin came to the U.S. in August.
The telegenic firebrand – the youngest person ever elected to British Parliament – seemed ready to woo Irish America with her reports of Catholic oppression in Northern Ireland. But Devlin wanted to speak out against all injustice – including the ongoing segregation of African Americans in the U.S. Devlin criticized the likes of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and even the Catholic Church.

Devlin argued that Daley and many other Irish-American power brokers either ignored or contributed to social inequality in the U.S. Perhaps most shockingly, she compared many Irish-American leaders to the Orangemen in Northern Ireland who repressed Catholics.

Suffice it to say, traditional Irish Americans did not take this well. The AOH, which had raised money for Devlin, swiftly took the gift back, handing it instead to the Irish Catholic church.

This, however, did not change the fact that even on an issue that seemed simple – supporting Catholic rights in the North – Irish America was being challenged in ways it never had been before"

Well she wasn't wrong and the fact that she sowed it into the narrowbacks and plastic paddies about their failings and hypocrisy and not just placate them for the dirty dollar gains her more credence in my mind.