British army camps. My father was in the army for 27 or 28 years and my brother served Cyprus wiln une Irish Guards.. We came bellast wnen my lainer was demoboed in 1954.
I started work in a mill on the Falls Road. I worked part time in tempotal y accomodation buildings - very dark and very cold. and I had three children. It was when was six months pregnant that we here ouricd out ot our home on 1 August 1969. We were parents for a while and then temporary accommodation in clerical buildings very dark and very cold The baby that I was expecting was born in 1970, and because of the conditions we lived in she died in April of pneumonia.
We got a house in Ballymurphy. I'd been around to visit my mother *no nvea a lew strceis away, ana On the way back home I ran into a confrontation between the soldiers and south. The soldiers then were using rubber bullets. was hit in the side *ith one - I was three months pregmant and a tew hours caby. So that's twice I've lost babies hecause of the situation in the North.
At the beginning of 1971 when the soldiers the RUC men raaig une nouses n ure abondusı areas, myself and my husband and a iot of neighbours were objecting very strongly to this happening and drese l was gavel SIx MonIs Il Al magh with nine other women that were in for the same type ot ottence, if you want to call it that.
Afew months after I'd been released my sister in law Dorothy was shot. She was in a car with three other somen in the Falls using a loudhailer to warn people that there was raiding going on when the soldiers nte ot mne dack ormne carr amo oaste‹ it and blew most of Dorothy's head off.
How did you get involved, Chris? I served a four year prison sentence in Mountjoy jail in the Free State after being charged with possession of exprosives ar bne specta chilia coult. w hich is no different from the no-jury DiDiock courts in the six countes This charge was based on possession of a few batteries and some household wire - the sort used for mending fuses.
was ine Tulleniol back of the nationalist people.
clerical as a tactic.
with my ties.
given of the struggle?
later l lost the promote the irish should be used.
were about women?
were change is very that Sinn Fein opened confidence common Stop of you at meetings.
One of the most gelling involvea as a party in broad-based prosecutea t acer abortion SOeDA SOUCI ReHee sLuike of the republican movement and ot sinn rein. but aur ing the hunger strike what you had was the involvement of every section Since then Sinn Fein has progressed from mainly being involved in conspiratorial politics to being a revolutionary political party. For example, the decision to intervene in elections Sinn Fein now speaks for over 100,000 people in the six counHow do you see the relationship betweerf the military and electoral sides The combination for me is that any sort of vehicle through which we can people's right to self-determination is legitimate and that What about the debates in Sinn Fein The Ard Fheis at the weekend changed the name of the Sinn Fein Department of Women's Affairs to the Department. The name significant . Decaust prior to that we had men coming in to the meetings and we telt very strong y should recognise that we are one or tae most oppressca sections of the Irish community. That we needed the space to sit down among with ourselves, we needed the time to get ourselves and pull experiences without having men literally sitting on Fein important motions was that now Sinn Fein will be Many campaign mounted to defend the rights of any well-woman centre or family planning clinic or any individual woman who's going to be tae anti-amendment. Mạny dívíd bn were ve in the campaign against the amendAnn Maguire and Chris McAuley ment and there was a lot of discussion at the Ard Fheis saying that we should have got involved.
Isn't there a big political difference in Sinn Fein about the abortion issue? You have to take into consideration Sinn Fein is a mass movement, "L sne OnlV Conle-wie tionalist party. It takes in people from all different backgrounds. The fact of partition has also invitably affected the "think-tank' of the people along great influence Catholic church in the South where it can almost dictate to the state what it There's a lot of women in Sinr W Datac suc alu feel, personally, that they would like to see abortion being available to women. That discussion is ongoing. Four years ago you could hardly have raised the issue.
There was more open discussion at this year's Ard Fheis, and there was a motion which wanted the words 'we totally opposed to abortion' removed from our policy document on women. It was finally amended to remove the word 'totally'.
The main message across was that Sinn Fein realises the forces at work in societv that compel women to have abortions, work on that. of criminalisation from women.
Over the last four or there's been big women Sinn women organising beginning to feminist questions. been a tradition of women playing a strong role Men. nistonically SILIL.
Yes, and one of the other motions bears that out. Look at the the elec tions. No woman stood for election, no woman was put forward as canthe didate.
because we needed to win. We needed to say to the British, OK you told us to stand, we're going to stand. because we alreaay nave personanues who had gained momentum through the long history of our struggle, like was obvious that they were the people who should have gone forward, who were ine strongest candidalts.
discrimination in view of promoting women candidates in Sinn Fein for that Colle and let's To remove the stigma Demeye rs, movement Fein towards as women specifically There's always in the nationalist move- prisoners more But this is something new it's being Led.
Under Murray, Part of that was a tactical move We won 'privileges' They were there, so it year now, There's now a policy on positive Armagh. searches!
ONE OF the main reasons for Ann and Chris's visit to Britain was to highlight the situation of the women prisoners in Armagh jail. Chris described the conditions harassment that the women are suffering.
Republican remand Armagh systematically strip-searched going out to court once a week. It's just degradation and humiliation and used weapon against the women to break them before they' re sentenc.
These are women, remember, who haven't even been sentenced.
so-called English law, you're supposed to be innocent until you're proved guilty.
The prison governor, Thomas who's born-again Christian has the attitude that the women are going to have to pa! for their sins. He's locked the women ue to nours a day, they have lost association periods and such as visits and parcels. They're being groped by prison serews.
This has been going on for a since last November.
Strip-searches are carried out on women in Britain, but it's discre. tionary. It's been systematic in the six counties and for the women in
Socialist Action 2 December 1153
----- pull-quotes -----
'I was hit in the side with a rubber bullet. I was three months pregnant and a few hours later I lost the baby'
'We look to the women in Armagh as an example of courage and deter- mination which has kept us going'