Solidarity Event for Marian Price

Tonight The Pensive Quill features a piece forwarded to us by Sandy Boyer. It was written by Michael Patrick MacDonald, Author of All Souls: A Family Story from Southie.

As driving rains and threats of a Nor’easter kept most New Yorkers inside this past Sunday afternoon, close to one-hundred people filled Rocky Sullivan’s Pub in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They came to unite against a revived internment policy in Ireland, and to stand in solidarity with the basic human rights and due process deserved by every citizen in a democracy. The continued imprisonment of Marian Price for … well, no one knows ‘what for’ because the British government hasn’t made that clear. For
allegedly providing a mobile phone to people who were charged with killing two British soldiers, even though the accused in that case was found not guilty? For holding a piece of paper that held words critical of British rule in Ireland?

Most people are confused about the specific charges against Marian Price, because Secretary of Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, has simply 'revoked her license' (what we in the U.S. call parole). Marian had served years inprison for her role in the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973.

Her legal team insists that Marian, in fact, received the Royal Prerogative of Mercy (the “Queen’s Pardon”) in 1980, when she was freed, having suffered extreme physical and emotional debilitation from forced feeding and torture while on hunger strike in British jails in the 1970s. British authorities now claim that the document specifying the conditions of Marian’s release in 1980 'cannot be located.'  Their "word" on this - and their word that Marian is a threat - is supposed to be good enough.

Marian Price has been in solitary confinement in a British cell for nearly a year now, and faces the rest of her life in prison. Her case, though it spotlights some of the most "blatant" disregard for due process we’ve seen in a long time, and has caused immeasurable pain to her family and friends, is not simply about one person. The capriciousness of British justice in a period, post Good Friday Agreement, when this is all supposed to be in the past, sends a strong message that London can and will arbitrarily imprison anyone they are inclined to in the North. Past is present, and future. Today it’s Marian Price, tomorrow it could be anyone under suspicion. There need be no proof. And this case is not simply about Irish people or the British government. The same arbitrary, capricious and callous disregard for due process can be witnessed increasingly in our own country and in democracies across the globe.

Just over a month ago, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and Msgr. Raymond Murray spoke at a community meeting at Conway Mill in Belfast for Marian Price’s release. A video of that meeting went viral in Irish America. We heard the call: ‘Organize, Agitate, Educate!’ At that meeting community members spoke of their re-committal to a new civil and human rights movement against the British government’s ability to lock up anyone who speaks dissent in the alleged democracy. The crowd included people who identify
across the fragmented political parties and affiliations of the north, from SWP to SDLP. Their message was united in solidarity with Marian and with all those imprisoned ‘for who they are’, rather than what they have done.

We wanted to do the same on our shores. Lifelong Irish American activist, Sandy Boyer, echoed the call. We expected about twenty people would show up. And as the Nor’easter approached, we figured we’d settle for ten and call it “a meeting,” a good start in preparation for bigger events in the future. But Rocky Sullivan’s was filled. The crowd was as diverse as that at Conway Mill, with concerned Irish Americans from across the American and Irish political spectrums. Musicians Mary Courtney, Ray Collins, Peadar o hÍcí, and Chris Byrne entertained and inspired. Brehon Law Society Delegate to the U.N., Gen. Jim Cullen, a human rights lawyer, spoke passionately about the rights of Marian and of all of those improperly accused and incarcerated in violation of the basic tenets of a democracy. Visual artist Conor McGrady gave a presentation on the role of the artist in the history of resistance to oppression in the north. All attendees signed post cards sent to Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson demanding the release of Marian Price.

Past is present ... and future. And instead of having to hold a humble meeting, a “good start,” we all knew a solidarity movement was born. Or "reborn".

4 comments:

  1. I read "All Souls" By Michael Patrick McDonald. It tells the story of us Guys in Southie and Dorchester as well. It tells the story of growing up poor and marginalized.

    This story is also the narrative of those who grew up marginalized in Northern Ireland.

    The lyrics from Christy Moore's song "No time for Love" are also the narrative for those who stand up for the poor and marginalized. Those who have the balls to challenge authority.

    " You call it the law, we call it apartheid, internment, conscription, partition and silence."

    "It's the law that they make to keep you and me where they think we belong."

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  2. "Yes, ruling by fooling, is a great British art with great Irish fools to practice on." ~ James Connolly~
    The new despot regime that exists in the statelet of Norn Irony is finally starting to sink in with grass roots Republicans, and not not before time!! Selective Internment based on trumped up charges, RUC/PSNI 'Stop and Search' on nationalist streets etc etc are been cunningly given the green light. 99 and counting, aptly named peace walls blight the landscape. The gulf between the working classes has grown wider, yet we see millions squandered on the Titanic building in a vain attempt to create a mirage of a psuedo normality.i.e. try and create an identity for this non-entity.... Th PSF/DUP coalition do Whitehall's bidding when it cmes to doling out the saxon shilling, and will soon introduce unprecedented cuts and reforms which will inevitably widen the glass gulf even further... We have developed into a society void of principles or morals and immune to the suffering of our fellow countrymen/women.. cocooned in our big brother society... and all for what? to maintain an illegitimate Statelet which without outside interference and propping up is both economically or democratically self-sufficient..'The only peace strategy that will resolve the cause of conflict in Ireland is the strategy that challenges Britain's illegal claim in Ireland. The numerous failed strategies over the decades are testament to this fact.' ~ Bernadette Sands-McKevitt ~

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  3. A band of women gathered together this evening at the Busy Bee on the Andersonstown rd to collect signatures on a petition to have Marian released some of the women were a bit shocked by the attitude of, qsf,s ex lisburn councillor Pat Rice,s wife, her abrupt no said it all thats elitism for you folks

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  4. UPCOMING EVENTS ON BEHALF OF MARIAN.13th MAY
    Unveiling of mural;Top of the Whiterock rd.3.00p.m..to be confirmed
    27TH may...March...Beechmount to Busybee

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