Acclaimed Civil Rights activist for Boher event
Bernadette McAliskey (Devlin) to unveil plaque
Legendary human and civil rights activist and former politician, Bernadette McAliskey (Devlin), is to unveil a memorial plaque in North Tipperary on Sunday, September 21, to nine IRA volunteers who died during Ireland’s War of Independence and the Civil War.
Bernadette, who came to national and international prominence during the Northern Troubles at the age of just 21, will also deliver the keynote address at the event at Boher Cross, Ballina. ‘Commemorating the Heroes of Arra’ is the culmination of a series of events to honour the volunteers who died in the Troubles between 1916 and 1924.
These commemorations have been organised by the North Tipperary Republican Monument Committee and the families of the men, aged between 16 and 34, who lost their lives in that turbulent period. Boher Cross was chosen as an appropriate site for a memorial as it is located in the heart of the District of Arra where the young men lived.
A large crowd is expected to attend the commemoration and to hear Bernadette, famous for her powerful oratory, speak. Throughout her adult life she has remained an advocate of social equality, justice and inclusion. In latter years she worked as head of the Dungannon-based NGO, South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (STEP), that provides advisory services and supports for myriad groups including women and children, migrants and ethnic communities. She has also been deeply involved in Stronger Together Consortium, countering racism and promoting equality.
REPUBLICAN IDEALS
Still a much sought-after public speaker and interviewee, she has repeatedly expressed her horror at the mass killings perpetuated on the people of Gaza.
Bernadette has never lived far from Cookstown, Co Tyrone, where she was born, the third of six children. Her father, John, who raised her to hold Republican ideals, died when she was nine years old. Ten years later her mother, Elizabeth, passed away, leaving Bernadette to help raise her siblings while studying at Queens University.
She was studying Psychology at Queens in 1968 when the Troubles erupted. In a recent conversation on the Blindboy Podcast, she recalled the origins of her involvement in politics. She pointed out that the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association had been established in 1967, with one of its main aims being to achieve “one man, one vote”. At the time, only ratepayers and their spouses could vote in Local Council elections. This meant that people who did not own the property they lived in did not have the right to vote but private landlords who were technically the ratepayers for multiple properties had multiple votes.
Amid enormous social, economic depression and discrimination, Bernadette joined the student-led People’s Democracy, and her compelling analysis quickly propelled her to fame – and attracted the ire of the Establishment. Following Unionist politicians’ complaints, her scholarship was revoked, and she was refused the right to sit her final exams. Her political profile was dramatically heightened in April 1969 when she was elected to Westminster for Mid-Ulster on the “Unity” ticket – the youngest ever MP at the time. Contrary to the traditional Republican policy of abstentionism, she stood on the electoral pledge, “I will take my seat and fight for your rights”. The day before her 22nd birthday, she delivered an electrifying Maiden Speech including the phrase “There is no place in society for us, the ordinary “peasants” of Northern Ireland.”
PRISON SENTENCE
Eight months later she was convicted of incitement to riot (a charge arising from the August ’69 Battle of the Bogside) and served six months in prison.
She was re-elected in the 1970 British General Election and declared she would sit in Westminster as an Independent Socialist while in 1971 Bernadette gave birth to her first child, Roisin.
In 1972, having witnessed the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, she went to Westminster and famously slapped Home Secretary Reginald Maudling across the face when he falsely claimed the Parachute Regiment had fired on the civil rights march in self-defence.
Bernadette supported the Republican prisoners hunger strikes, travelling abroad to garner backing for an embargo on British-made goods. In 1981, she and her husband Michael McAliskey, were attacked in their home near Coalisland by a UDA gang. Their children were in the house at the time. Bernadette was shot nine times but she and her husband survived the assassination attempt.
Her extraordinary life has been documented over the years through broadcast, film and print. Bernadette continues to work as a human rights activist, constantly advocating on behalf of community solidarity, women’s immigrants, Travellers.