the other press February 14, 1977 Atlantic a by Jeff Kessler for Canadian University Press Quebec Bureau nadette Devlin McAliskey was first across the international press as the youngest Member of Parliament, it was 1969. What had begun as peaceful protesting in Northern Ireland had turned into full-scale street warfare, and British troops had one another. In North America there ap- peared to be some type of grass roots rebellion in the making. The protests seemed more per- vasive than strictly anti-war. In December of that year, Ber- nadette Devlin went to Colum- bia University and before an overflow crowd of several thou- sand, exhorted listeners to be- lieve in the common cause; that while the struggle in Ireland may not exactly be our fight it is none the less everyone’s fight insofar. as it is a struggle for freedom and for human dignity. Seven years later, December, Bernadette returned to Colum- bia. The condition in Northern Ireland remained the same, but the situation over here had certainly changed-as had Ber- nadette Devlin. Speaking before about 800 people in the gymnasium, Dev- lin re-examined the historical reasons for the conflict in Nor- thern Ireland and pressed her campaign for helping victims in the state of emergency in South Ireland. However, her ultimate message carried a new twist: “‘If you Americans really want to help us, build the struggle in your own country.’’ The strug- gle, for Devlin, is the struggle toward socialism. ® Two views of the conflict There are two views the rest of the world holds toward the strife in Ireland, Devlin said. One is that there is some kind of “racial aberration drawing the Irish into constant conflict’’, TYRONE Enniskillen FERMANAGH Irish Republic NEW YORK (CUP)--When Ber- been called in, supposedly to™ | protect the Northern Irish from a Mire hook eee LONDONDERRY: Lou i eOmagh Dungannone OT Tae ae ‘er that there is a medieval relig- ious war going on inIreland.The second view is that Ireland is being torn apart by a small group of ‘‘pathological political killers.” . ‘‘These views are gratis of the public’s willingness to believe whatever it reads in the news- papers or sees on television’, she said. Citing from her plain-spoken autobiography, The Price of My gh. Neagh oo. eS 5 ld Mesa DOWN ay } 2 Sri James II, the Catholic King of England, in the late 17th cen- tury. The Easter Rising may have failed, but that action and the fact that in 1918 Ireland peace- fully voted to be removed from the British Empire, forced the British to realize they could hold on no longer. In 1921 Ireland ' was divided, forming the Free Soul, Devlin gave a brief sum- - mary of the evolution of North- ern Ireland to clarify ‘‘just what the real issue is to be present- Cte Historical perspective In 1609 the British Empire transplanted thousands of Scot- tish Presbyterians to thé nine counties of Northern Ireland that composed the ancient king- dom of Ulster. These Protestant colonists were meant to keep the rebellious Irish under control, and they did, insofar as they formed an upper class and became the landed gentry, while the Irish Catholics. formed the peasant class. “‘The tradi- tional hatred between the col- onists and the colonized, the haves and the have-nots, was further complicated by religious hatred. Politics and religion have never separated themsel- ves in Northern Ireland.”’ In 1801, with the Act of Union, Ireland’s linen and wool. economy was sacrificed for the British cotton industry. Devlin commented that ‘‘this caused a resurgence of nationalist activ- ity, generally nonsectarian, which culminated in Easter Rising of 1916.”’ “The citizens of Ulster took very little part in this doomed revolution’’, partly Devlin pointed out, because of poor organization. Whatever the rea- son, the northern counties were already regarded with hostility by the south-they were called “‘Orange,’’ condemned for be- ing the offspring of Protestants who had supported the Dutch William of Orange against State to the South. Six predom- inantly Protestant counties went to the formation of Northern Ireland: they were six of the - nine counties of Ulster. Streetfighting pacifist Devlin came to be involved in the pacifist movement in 1969 while still a student at Belfast. These peaceful protest marches quicly deteriorated into street fighting. In a country where unemployment is so high, where housing is such a problem, and where a large segment of the population, the Catholics, are treated as second-class citizens, religious tension is still high. In Derry, in 1969, it appeared that the Protestants were going - to slaughter the Catholics. The police were unable to contain the streetfighting and the Pro- testant B-Specials, a special civilian militia, were called out. Finally British troops were brought in to keep the peace. The Catholics cheered their arrival, heedless of the fact that British troops were once again on Irish soil. Devlin said that when she brought this up in speech, reminding the Catholic crowd that the British had come not to protect the Catholics, but to preserve the State of Northern Ireland, she was booted off the rostrum by her fellow Republi- cans. That she can say ‘“‘I told you so’’ is no comfort to this small but powerful woman. That is the background of the present conflict in Northern Ireland. ‘‘I would love to say it is a class struggle,’’ Devlin sigh- ed. “‘But it’s not. day-to-day struggle against op- pression, against second-class It is a NORTHERN IRELAND Bernadette Devlin citizenship.”’ In an interview, Devlin com- mented on the women’s peace movement presently taking - place in Northern Ireland: “They have no politics. The oppressed cannot be the first to lay down their weapons. They would be walked all over. These women’s demands for peace are demands by the oppressed to the oppressed.”’ The situation in the south Devlin was gravely concerned about a new twist in the turn of events in supposedly free South Ireland where the constitution has been suspended and the , basic rights of citizenship have been denied--all in the name of law and order. A state of emergency has been declared’’ ..-as South Ireland batters down the hatches to prevent the onslaught of terrorist activity from the North.” ‘“‘Press censorship has been taken so far that newspapers have been told they are respon- sible for the views expressed in letters to the editor’’, said Dev- lin. Alleged criminals, she added, if they are said to be political activists, can be tried without jury in special political courts. All one needs for this is the word of one policeman. Devlin came to America to protest one such case. Marie and Noel Murray, a young couple in their mid-twenties, The struggle towards socialism were arrested for bank-robbery and the alleged shooting of an off-duty policeman in the course of the crime. They were arrested as political activists, though they belong to no party or movement, and were interro- gated for seven days without the benefit of counsel. After seven days of interrogation the police emerged with signed confess- ion. The Murrays were tried without jury, and most $f their trial was conducted with the Murrays themselves in absten- tia. The automatic sentence for the murder of a policeman is death. The Murrays have very little time to live before they are hanged, and Devlin’s trip to the US had been to collect signat- ures protesting the hanging. The Murrays, Devlin said urgently, ‘‘are the easiest peo- ple to hang. They have no political affiliation.’’ No one has been hanged in Ireland for 30 years. The Murrays will be the first, Devlin said, and they will be the first of many.The Mur- rays are just the beginning, Devlin continually stressed. ‘‘Anyone who is said to be a political activist by any one policeman can be tried without jury and be hanged.” Devlin told Canadian Univer- sity Press, ‘‘We have cut our- selves in two tightening our belts. There is no way this system can give us all we want. They can’t afford to treat us. cont’d. on page 10