[car engine rumbling]
[male radio announcer] RTE Radio 1 News at ten o'clock
with Michael Murphy,
[Michael Murphy] Good morning,
Gardai County Louth have recovered
the body of a man believed to have been murdered
by the IRA more than 20 years ago,
They body is thought to be the first
of a number of the so-called Disappeared
whose whereabouts the IRA is preparing to disclose,
The man's remains were in a coffin that was found
about seven o'clock this morning
at Old Faughart Graveyard,
about four miles North of Dundalk,
The coffin is thought to have been taken there
from another location during the night,
Gardai haven't yet formally identified the victim,
[phone ringing]
[ringing continues]
[woman panting]
[interviewer] Let's start talking
about your,,, Your family history,
-and republican background, -Hmm,
[interviewer] Tell me about your mother, your father,
-your aunts,,, -Yeah,
,,,and, you know, the sort of Republican influences
-that came up as you were growing up? -Yeah,
[Dolours Price] I come from a strong, very staunch
Republican background on both sides,
On my father's side, I had a very religious aunt
who would have said, for God and Ireland,
On my mother's side,
Ireland came first, came before God,
In 1939 when the IRA very grandly
declared war on England,
my father and some of his comrades went over
as the expeditionary force
to wage war on the imperial master,
[male announcer] A scene of havoc
in Broadgate, Coventry,
The crowded thoroughfare was suddenly
plunged into turmoil and confusion
as a violent explosion
swept bystanders off their feet,
Five people were killed and nearly 60 injured,
The cause is attributed again to IRA agents,
[Dolours] My father's two mates were arrested
and they actually didn't have anything to do
with that particular operation but they were convicted
and executed for it,
So, as children growing up, that's the kind of,
you know, bedtime story we would hear,
We wouldn't hear
Little Red Riding Hood, we would hear,
you know, "They hanged my mate Jimmy,"
As children, we looked forward to these nights
when he'd gather us round
and tell us about his time in prison,
[Albert Price] The time was fast approaching,
a lad lay sentenced for to die
and on the 2nd of September,
he meets his God on high,
Now he's walking to the scaffold,
[voices overlapping] head erect, he shows no fear,
for on his proud and gallant shoulders,
[secondary voice continues] Ireland's cross
he holds so dear,
Now the cruel blow is fallen,
for Ireland he has fought and died,
and we the countrymen who bore him,
will love and honor him with pride,
Brave Tom Williams, we salute you,
and we never will forget,
those who planned your cruel murder,
we vow to make them all regret,
[door opening]
So come all you Irish rebels,
if from the path you chance to stray,
bear in the memory of the morn,
when Ireland's cross was proudly borne,
but a lad who lay within these prison walls,
[Dolours] My father spent seven years altogether
interned in different prisons but he never was charged,
He often said,
I blew them up before you did,
the only thing was I didn't get caught,
We had the great honor of having had three generations
of women in my family spend time in Armagh Gaol,
We would have, as children, you know, been aware
that my aunts had a dedication to the prisoners,
and, you know, created parcels for them on special occasions,
which, as children, we were always very envious of
and I think it made me begin to think
prison wasn't all that bad a place to be,
You got these real big cakes and bars of chocolate
and you got all sorts of wonderful stuff
if you were in prison,
[Terence O'Neill] Here in Ulster, the Union Jack
is the flag of freedom and my task, my duty,
my resolve are to keep it hoisted at the top of the mast,
here in our beloved Ulster,
[crowd applauding]
[Dolours] The Catholic population
in my growing up time
were very down-trodden people,
and very accepting of their second-class citizenship,
Whereas we, as Republicans
had a kind of strange arrogance,
because we believed that we were the possessors
of the truth, the absolute truth
about how the island
should be run, and we believed ourselves
to be the custodians of the men of 1916,
And we, in many ways regarded ourselves as elite,
We were a very angry people actually,
the runt of Republicans that were left behind in Belfast
because, you know, we always regarded the fact
that when they signed away the six counties,
they actually signed us away,
[upbeat music playing]
♪ Hear it, hear it Hear my heartbeat,,, ♪
Dolours, be a good girl,
your Aunt Bridie's read for tea now,
♪ Pounding, pounding Like a drum ♪
♪ Louder, louder Goes my heartbeat ♪
♪ As nearer, and nearer And nearer you come ♪
♪ So hurry, hurry Says my heartbeat ♪
♪ Take me, touch me Make me thrill ♪
♪ Faster, faster Goes my heartbeat ♪
♪ I try but I can't Keep it still,,, ♪
[Dolours] My Aunt Bridie was an inspiration to us,
Bridie was a living martyr and as children growing up
we were always very aware of this,
of the enormous sacrifice that she had made
because of her part in the struggle,
In 1938, she went to lift an arms dump
and the volunteer who was to lift the dump,
and she was to be his escort, didn't turn up,
She decided herself that she would lift
the arms dump, and she did,
It exploded on her and her hands were blown off,
her eyes were blown out,
and she was very badly mutilated,
and she looked like that for the rest of her life,
-[man shouting at a distance] -[siren wailing]
She was 25,
and my grandmother put the house into mourning,
the girls weren't allowed to go dancing,
It was like having a wake but with a living body,
She was a smoker
and, as children, once you got to be eight or nine
you had to be able to hold the cigarette for her
and put it to her mouth and take it away,
and I hated the job,
I thought it was the most awful job,
I couldn't stand it,
but I did it because it was Bridie,
The fact that she was in the state that she was in,
and the condition she was in obliged me in some way
to continue the struggle
because it validated her sacrifice,
To have ignored the struggle would have been
to make her sacrifice futile, useless,
And I went in one day,
and I could see these great big tears
rolling down her cheeks,
And I went back to my mother
and I said, "Mommy, how can my Aunt Bridie cry
when she has no eyes?"
And my mother burst into tears and said, "My poor sister",
and it was really a very, very touching, touching moment,
And, as a child, I can remember
how much pain there actually was
in that family that they hid,
that was concealed by this strength,
this Republican strength that they maintained,
As a family they didn't cry,
We were too strong to cry
and to cry was a sign of weakness,
[people singing] ♪ We shall overcome ♪
♪ We shall overcome, some day ♪
[singing indistinctly]
[inaudible]
[Dolours] I would've still been a sixth-former at school,
doing my A-levels, and we would go regularly
to the student meetings, and we would take part
in the debates and discussions as to what we could do,
you know, to bring about civil rights,
one man one vote,
you know, one family one house,
and all of the slogans that we had gathered,
because I had often debated with my father,
you know that this is the way that it would change,
And he would say, "Oh, you know, you'll learn,
you'll learn as you grow up,"
And I'd say, "No, I have learned,
I've learned that
you didn't win the war, you fought the war in 1940,
and yous didn't win,
This way we can change the system,"
[crowd protesting in foreign language]
♪ We shall overcome some day ♪
♪ For deep in my heart ♪
[people screaming]
Please, God save us, [screams]
[crowd shouting indistinctly]
[Dolours] October the 5th happened,
the RUC were seen
in their true light as being
a very sectarian police force,
Things were becoming more polarized,
I think, as Republicans,
we began to see a glimmer of light
that there could be a change,
♪ We shall overcome ♪
♪ We shall overcome, some day ♪
[Dolours] We had long debates about the only way
to change the system was to unite the Protestant
and the Catholic working class
against the imperialist system,
[protestant] Well, I think, it's been very successful so far,
We've had a very good turnout,
Now, we've had some difficulties along the route
and there are certain times we've been prevented
from going through, We don't like that,
but we feel that that demonstrates the fact
that in Northern Ireland, we have a situation
like the Southern States of America
where you do not have
the basic democratic liberty of free procession,
[Ian Paisley] This march flew its proper flag
into an outlawed Republican club banner
and this unmasks this march as nothing what-so-ever
to do with civil rights but simply
an outlawed rebel march,
[Dolours] We were marching along
to Derry being stopped
at every Protestant town and being turned back
and re-routed and eventually ending up at Burntollet Bridge,
We did get a kind of warning
that it wasn't going to be peaceful
or be allowed to be peaceful,
There's a good possibility that some stones
may be thrown, some people may be hurt,
[Dolours] The gathered Loyalists
stockpiled stones
to throw at us, and they had their cudgels
with nails in them, and they had all their weaponry,
Clearly the police saw them there,
and the police led us into the trap,
-We were massively decimated, -[Protestant screams]
[woman] We had to get into the water, and they came after us,
We tried to go up the back field
to just get away from them,
and they surrounded us in the back field,
We were stuck in the water,
We waded in and out of the water for half a dozen times
up to our waists, and they all battered us,
and they took the,,, They took a fella singly, and they battered him
and then they came for another fella, and they battered them,
And not one policeman in sight opened the gates, jeez!
[Dolours] It was at that point I think, I looked into the eyes
of some of these people who were beating us,
and they were glazed over with some kind of hate,
And I thought to myself I thought, "No,
that person is never going to want
to walk alongside of me,"
I'm never gonna convert those people,
It changed me entirely,
It brought me back round towards Republicanism,
The Northern state was rotten,
Change wouldn't be brought about by us marching
up and down the road or being hammered into the ground,
[crowd shouting]
My Aunt Kathleen was burned out of Dover Street,
my Aunt Evelyn was burned out of Percy Street,
The B-Specials, Loyalists, and RUC brought out the guns
and began to shoot down towards the Falls Road,
And we didn't have any guns, but we suddenly realized
there were no guns to protect the community,
-They machine-gunned us, -All those people,
[male reporter] Did you shoot back?
What with, peashooters and bottles?
Armored cars paving the way for the hooligans to come in?
[Dolours] We found out that the young Fianna boy,
Gerald McCauley had been shot dead and I think also
the little boy in Divis Towers had been shot dead,
the young child of,,, I think he was nine,
And so we realized it was quite serious,
There was a lot of gunfire coming
and, you know, we were dodging bullets,
And I decided I'd make my way home,
There was nothing else to do
except stand around and wait to be shot,
And when I arrived home to our house,
there were sitting the leadership of the Republican movement
of the day, uh, Bobby McKnight, Billy McMillen, Jimmy Sullivan,
and they were sitting in our house, my house,
waiting for their transport to take them across the border
to Dundalk,
And I remember thinking,
"You cowards, you're running away,"
And the people of the Falls Road are now,
are being burned out, being shot at, being murdered,
and that would have been a time
when I would have been turning against them,
and I would have been looking for leadership
in a different direction,
[soldiers shouting indistinctly]
Boys, d'you want a cup of tea?
There you are, love,
That's for after your lunch or after your dinner,
Thank you very much, appreciate it, thank you,
[soldier] The honeymoon period cannot continue forever, obviously,
We're perhaps at the peak now, where, everybody is smiling
and swapping cups of tea and all this sort of business
and cracking jokes but unless there is a solution,
or some hope for the future,
the soldiers are not going to be welcomed on the streets,
-[crowd shouting] -[glass shattering]
[male reporter] Two men have died in rioting in Belfast
after a big round up of suspects this morning
which was followed by an official announcement
that there's to be internment,
[Brian Faulkner] I have decided, after consultation
with Her Majesties Government in the United Kingdom
last Thursday, to exercise where necessary,
the powers of detention and internment vested in me
as Minister of Home Affairs,
[people shouting indistinctly]
[Dolours] The place was in upheaval,
but the strange thing was that the local people
had suddenly changed,
and they had suddenly become Republican,
Protestant extreme organization are shooting over
into the Catholic areas and being protected,
protected by the British Army, and then they tell you,
"Oh, if you complain about this or say anything about this,
it's only IRA propaganda,"
Now, wait 'til I tell you something, everybody around here
don't need to be an IRA man,
but they'll definitely support it now!
[Dolours] Young boys who were out throwing stones
were pulled in to have cups of tea handed to them
and sticky buns and back out to throw more stones
and there was a sea change
within the thinking of the Catholic population,
♪ If you hate the British Army Clap your hands ♪
♪ If you hate the British Army Hate the British army ♪
♪ Hate the British Army Clap your hands ♪
[people shouting]
[Dolours] I suppose that was the seeds
of the Provisional movement
coming along and the seeds of people who had been,
not really politically inclined,
becoming politically inclined because of necessity,
and they began to look to Republicans
as protectors,
I, Dolours Price, promise that I will promote
the objects of the Irish Republican Army
to the best of my knowledge and ability
and that I will obey all orders and regulations issued to me
by the army authority and by my superior officer,
That was basically it,
I put my hand up, I made that declaration
and I was a member of the IRA,
[scratching]
You had spent your life learning this as a way of life
and you had spent your life being taught
that it was a glorious way of life,
and it was a proud and honorable way of life,
When I reported to the army and said I wanted to join,
I said, "I don't want to be rolling bandages,
That's not what I want to do,
I want to fight,"
They put me in a room with a load of rusty bullets
and some steel wool,
and my job was to clean these bullets,
That incensed me, but I did it,
I obeyed all orders,
[helicopter hovering]
One of my jobs was to transport explosives
from Dundalk to the Battalion areas,
I would travel to Dundalk, sometimes twice a day,
certainly four or five times a week
and have my car loaded up with explosives,
[interviewer] Where were the explosives hidden?
[Dolours] In the door panels,
We robbed a couple of banks,
Once, we went in dressed as nuns,
I'm withdrawing funds on behalf
of the Irish Republican Army,
And he said to me, "I need to see your credentials,"
-Here's my credentials,,, -[gun cocking]
Now, we'll do this really calmly,
Just open the safe and fill the little bag,
and we'll all get this done very quickly,
I would hire a car using a fake license
that I had been given,
I got so familiar to the soldiers on the border
that they knew me by my first name,
[interviewer] They knew you as Dolours?
They knew me as Rosie, No, Rosie was my fake name
on my driving license, on the fake license,
I found it so much easier than you would imagine
and I think that probably comes
from the recklessness of youth,
We were young, we were very idealistic,
We were very dedicated,
When we carried out operations like that,
we did it in a remarkably calm way,
[crowd shouting]
[glass shattering]
[doctor] One has just got to be blunt, almost brutal at times
at telling you your wife has lost both her legs,
Your young son has been killed in an explosion,
This is the sort of situation which we're faced with
almost daily in this hospital,
Taking a father to the morgue to identify his only child,
who is unidentifiable following an explosion,
[man] Marion?
The IRA in Belfast was divided
into three operational areas,
the First, the Second
and the Third Battalions, or Batts,
as they were usually called,
On top of all three Battalions, was the Brigade,
headed by the Brigade Commander,
Each Battalion also had a Commander
with his own staff,
Check that there's nothing in the breach,
[Dolours] The Brigade Commander was in charge of the IRA
in all of Belfast and he, never a she,
reported to the IRA's Chief of Staff,
[interviewer] It seems to be about that time
that this special squad called The Unknowns was set up,
-Mmm-hmm, -,,,what can you tell me about The Unknowns?
The Unknowns, they were, um,
supposed to be unknown people
who were trustworthy, dedicated,
had their wits about them
and could be trusted with very, very specific jobs,
and obeying orders without question,
I was selected to be one of them,
There would have been 12 or 13 in all,
[interviewer] Was there a Commander of this, "The Unknowns"
and to whom did he report,
and from whom did he get his orders?
[Dolours] Well, Pat McClure would have been
one of the immediate commanders within the squad,
and they would have reported back
to the Officer Commanding in Belfast
who would have been Gerry Adams,
[inaudible]
They came away very willingly because they had been told
they were going for a break, a holiday,
Occasionally volunteers who were stressed
would be sent away and given time off
and taken across the border to spend a few weeks somewhere,
They were generally in holiday mood, I just,
I mean I had to bring them across the border
and leave them there,
I believe they
hung out with the local unit for a while,
that they had some fun with them,
They were taken to pubs and they did have
some kind of break,
[guns firing in distance]
Ultimately, I believe they were shot,
We believed that informers
were the lowest form of human life,
They were less than human and death was too good for them,
[male reporter] The widowed mother of ten children was kidnapped
last December, from her home here in the Divis Flats complex
on Belfast's Lower Falls Road,
On the evening of December 7th, four women entered the home
of Mrs, Jean McConville, told her family
that their mother would be returned
in half an hour, and then left with her,
[male reporter] Helen, when did you last see your mother?
On the 7th December '72,
[male reporter] Before this, did she give you any idea
at all as to why she was going to go away?
No,
[male reporter] Where do you think she is gone?
[Helen] I dunno,
[Dolours] This where it gets dangerous for me,
[interviewer] Yes, okay,
[Dolours] These were-- [interviewer] Are these one of these areas
-we were talking about before? Okay, -[Dolours] Yeah,
[interviewer] So we're going to handle this very carefully
but I need to know the facts,
[Dolours] Jean McConville was identified as an informer,
her house, her flat in Divis Flats
had been discovered
to have had a transmitter where she was supposedly
passing information over to the British Army,
She was also observed by some volunteers
who were taken into Hasting Street Barracks
to be identified by a person concealed behind a blanket,
[interviewer] And what actually happened,
where was she, was she with you?
[Dolours] She was behind the blanket,
she was concealed behind a blanket
with a slit in it that she could see through,
And the blanket stopped short of her feet,
[interviewer] And that's how she--
And some of the volunteers
who went through that identification process
recognized the slippers,
When Cumann na mBan arrested her
and questioned her,
she made an admission to the fact
that that's exactly what she had done for money,
She was ordered to be taken across the border,
to be taken away, and, in her case,
the verdict was, again, death,
Our first contact with her
was to just pick her up in the house,
[interviewer] And was, again, Pat McClure--
[Dolours] Pat and myself and another volunteer
took her and we went with her across the border,
She, having told everything,
believed that she was being taken away by the legion of Mary,
[interviewer] Where did she get that idea from?
[Dolours] She was told that,
[interviewer] By you?
[Dolours] Yes,
And it was only at that stage that I realized even
that she had children,
[Pat] All right, chips for everybody?
[Dolours] And she talked a lot,
and she was very arrogant,
My children, they will be brought to me?
Yes, I'm sure they will be,
Will they give me money, will they get me a house?
[scoffs] Well, I imagine so,
I knew those Provo bastards
wouldn't have the balls to shoot me,
[Dolours] And at one point, she said,
"I knew those Provo bastards
wouldn't have the balls to shoot me,"
[interviewer] Hmm,
And the Provo bastards who were driving her
-thought "Oh, wouldn't they?" -[interviewer] Hmm,
-Which was unfortunate for her, she talked too much, -[interviewer] Right,
[door shuts]
[Dolours] She was left in Dundalk
with the Dundalk unit,
and stayed with them for some days,
[interviewer] But I understand that the Dundalk IRA
didn't want to do it?
[Dolours] They didn't want to do it, no,
[interviewer] So you guys had to do it, is that right?
[Dolours] Hmm, yeah,
They couldn't bring themselves to execute her,
probably because she was a woman,
[interviewer] What actually happened that day?
There had been a grave dug by the Dundalk Unit
and she was taken by the three volunteers
to the grave,
and shot in the back of the head
by one of the volunteers,
And then the other two volunteers,
each fired a shot,
so that no-one would say that they for certain
had been the person to kill her,
She was left in the grave and the local unit
buried her,
[interviewer] They covered up the grave?
Yeah,
[interviewer] There are those who regard the disappearing of people
as a war crime, do you think it's a war crime?
I think it's a war crime, yes,
I think it's a war crime,
It had never before been done
within the Irish Republican Army,
I certainly advocated and said that it is nonsense,
that informers should be thrown out,
their bodies should be thrown out on the street
to put the fear of God and the Republican movement
into anybody who would choose that form of life,
We had lots of discussions as to what we could do
to bring the war to a higher level,
It was at that time, we discussed the possibility
of bringing the war to England,
back to what my father had done,
We selected targets that were emblems of the British Empire,
Gerry Adams was there,
Gerry announced to the room
that this was a very serious operation
they were being asked to volunteer for,
and that it could be a hanging job,
And he instructed those who did not wish
to have any further input into the operation,
he instructed them to leave,
I was very shocked and surprised
that people were so unwilling to actually undertake
an important operation,
which I was only too happy and too willing to undertake,
I carried the role of OC on that operation,
We could set off ten car bombs in Belfast,
and they would have little effect
on the English public opinion, But that one car bomb
in London would change English opinion
to such an extent that they would perhaps
begin to call to have their troops taken out,
A lot of time and effort was put into planning,
then the operation which was decided should happen
on the 8th of March which was the day
there was to be a referendum held in the North
as to whether or not the people of the North
wish to remain part of Britain or not,
And that being a foregone conclusion,
the car bombs placed in London
were to be the IRA response to that referendum,
The plan was that we would take six car bombs,
Four cars got through, I had already been to London
to select the targets,
The boys had been instructed to not acknowledge each other,
to be oblivious of each other,
nothing untoward was to happen
and they, of course, disobeyed all of that,
went to pubs, got drunk,
were carried into boarding houses,
and, generally, the thing became a haimes,
As I approached Gerry Kelly outside the art museum
in Trafalgar Square,
he was leapfrogging
over the bollards and shouted across the road to us,
"What about yous?" in a broad Belfast accent,
[phone ringing]
But, having said all of that, it didn't really matter,
We were set up,
[sirens wailing]
[male reporter 1] Unidentified terrorists strike
at the heart of London,
The first bomb explodes in Great Scotland Yard
on the riverside of White Hall injuring 38 people,
The second bomb explodes outside the Old Bailey,
shattering the windows and buildings--
[male reporter 2] In the two explosions, one man was killed,
two policemen were seriously hurt,
more than 180 people were injured,
police concentrated their hunt for the bombers on the IRA,
London now knows what Belfast is like,
[Dolours] The police in London were waiting for us,
they knew we were coming, they had my photograph
and Marian's photograph available to Special Branch
so basically the operation was going to be a failure
from the start,
[interviewer] Was there an informer on the job?
There was an informer,
There was an informer back in Ireland,
They interrogated Marian first, and she said nothing,
And then they interrogated me,
To every question they asked me, I responded,
"I have nothing to say,"
And, eventually, after the 20th "nothing to say",
I did remark that, at the risk of sounding repetitive,
I had nothing to say,
We were put in cells, stripped,
given blankets to wear
which I refused to wear because I said it was filthy,
I was walked through the police station, naked,
in front of the gathered accumulation of policemen,
Mummy?
-[Dolours cries] -Don't cry,
Don't cry,
[Dolours] My mother arrived,
to visit us after about four days,
She whispered in my ear, "No tears,
"not in front of these people,"
So that's how staunch we had to be,
That's how staunch my mother was,
She told us not to cry in front of these people,
And she continued that all the way through our prison time,
And I asked her, "What's prison really like, Mommy?
And she said, "I did 14 days, and it was like 14 years,"
And I thought that was a very honest answer
but not very consoling for our ourselves
who were looking at enormous sentences
when we would be convicted,
being fully aware we would be convicted,
To be on a hunger strike, you've got to condition your mind
and convince your mind that food is bad,
To have food, to take food, to eat food is failure,
is defeat, is wrong,
[prison door opens]
[struggling]
[sobbing]
[muffled screaming]
[panting]
[door unlocking]
[footsteps approaching]
[Dolours grunting]
No, no!
[shouting indistinctly]
-[officer] Settle down, -[Dolours crying]
[grunting]
[Dolours] Our hunger strike was 208 days
and 180 something of those days
we were forcibly fed each day,
Sometimes twice a day,
If you were sick enough, they would measure
how much sick you brought up
after the tube had been removed,
That had a very, very traumatic effect
on both myself and Marian,
[liquid flowing]
[breathing heavily]
[protesters] Release the Price Sisters now!
[male reporter] Brixton Prison, London, and today,
inside these walls, Dolours and Marian Price are dying,
The British Home Secretary Roy Jenkins
has got three options open to him,
One, he can accede to the Price Girls' demands
and have them sent back to Northern Ireland
to serve out the remainder of their sentence
in Armagh Gaol,
Two, he can allow them to continue their hunger strike
without any interference and die,
or three, he can order the resumption
of the forcible feeding that has caused
so much controversy
within sections of the British medical profession,
[Albert] Well at the moment, they're very weak,
but in spirit and mentally they are very alert,
and I suppose happy in their way,
[male reporter] What did they say to you?
Well, they said, "Dad, it's one way or the other,
We're going home to Armagh or we're going home some way,
We'll go home,"
[male reporter] How long do you feel they can survive?
[Albert] The doctors would probably know
more than I know but, as far as I'm concerned
they're not the wee girls that left home,
[Dolours] Something in my heart told me that it was that time,
I don't know why, I don't know what happened
but when I went into my cell, I started packing my stuff,
I don't know why, I put my coat on,
and I started to gather my bits and pieces together
and the governor came in and she told us
we were going home,
She said, "Well, not home, you're going to Armagh,"
I said, "That's near enough for me,"
[male reporter] She's just coming into Downing Street now,
Here comes the Prime Ministerial Rover
bearing now Mrs, Thatcher as Prime Minister,
A wave that we've now become really quite well accustomed to
throughout this campaign, Mr, Denis Thatcher,
her husband standing behind,
I know full well the responsibilities that await me
as I enter the door of number ten,
And I'll strive unceasingly to try to fulfill the trust
and confidence that the British people have placed in me
and the things in which I believe,
And I would just like to remember some words
of St, Francis of Assisi which I think are really just
particularly apt at the moment,
"Where there is discord, may we bring harmony,
where there is error, may we bring truth,
where there is doubt, may we bring faith
and where there is despair, may we bring hope,"
[panting]
[Dolours] After the hunger strike
and the force-feeding
and all of the psychological damage that that created,
we didn't ever have a normal relationship
with food or eating,
We both ended up with very distorted notions
of the function of food
which resulted in us both being anorexic
and not wanting to eat,
[door opening]
Dolours, it's Marian, they've released her,
She's going home today,
[Dolours] A little part of me had always hoped that,
because we'd been through everything together,
that, again, this would be a together thing, But it wasn't,
And, actually, I should be quite pleased
that we were treated as two individuals
in that situation 'cause we hadn't been before,
We were always lumped together
as if we were some kind of Siamese twins,
So, I suppose, in a way, I should have been quite pleased
that they released that individual prisoner,
and the other individual prisoner had to stay behind,
And then I got really depressed
because it was like I'd been separated
from my Siamese twin,
So, I was lost without Marian, yes, I was lost without her,
[male reporter] The prisoners believe that in ending
the dirty protest, attention will be focused
on the second hunger strike,
This began yesterday in the H Blocks
with one of the prisoners, Bobby Sands
from Twinbrook in West Belfast, refusing food,
According to Provisional Sinn Fein,
-[Dolours coughing] -,,,more prisoners will join the hunger strike
later this week or early next week,,,
[Margaret Thatcher] There can be no question of political status
for someone who is serving a sentence for crime,
Crime is crime is crime, [echoes]
[coughing and vomiting]
[Fenner Brockway] "Dear Margaret, you may remember
that eight years ago, Dolours and Marian Price
received a life sentence for being involved
in a bombing outrage outside the Old Bailey,
I'd sought to influence them against violence and the IRA,
Marian has subsequently been released on health grounds
and Dolours is left isolated in Armagh Prison,
Her recent letters show me
that she is deeply upset psychologically,
I am quite sure that if Dolours were released,
she would become active, despite the dangers,
in urging her fellow Catholics to refrain from violence,
I enclose a letter just received from Dolours,
It illustrates her condition of mind and her convictions,"
[Dolours] Thirty is a marker in every woman's life,
For me, it is more,
It means nearly almost all my 20s wasted in prison,
It means no babies, and my fruitful years
passing me by,
[male reporter] He said the lives of the hunger strikers remain,
as they have done since the protests began,
in their own hands,
And the RUC has now confirmed that,,,
[Dolours] Marian comes to visit me very rarely,
She will visit this week for only the third time
since her release,
I no longer even pay lip service
to any organization,
[male reporter] With the condition of Bobby Sands
now deteriorating seriously, it seems that the British government is bracing itself
for the consequences if he dies,
Certainly, the Northern Ireland office
will make no moves to,,,
[Dolours] Each day I live my solitary life
and am made feel an outcast, a traitor to their cause
because I declare it no longer to be mine,
[Thatcher] The men of violence have chosen to play
what may well be their last card,
They've turned their violence against themselves,,,
[Dolours] Am I to live through all those awful memories?
I will be eating, as well as any anorexic can,
but, mentally, I will live and starve each day with them,
I want to live, to love life again, to survive,
-I can't do that here, -[breathing heavily]
I was very, very, very ill,
I think the last time they'd weighed me,
I was about five stone or something,
I suppose, at that point, it didn't particularly matter to me
one way or the other, You know?
So I got to the stage where I thought,
"If I live or die, I'll still get out of this place,"
I'd had enough of it, physically and mentally
there was nothing on me left to keep on going,
[male reporter 1] Dolours Price, one of two sisters
jailed in 1973 in connection with IRA bomb attacks in London
is being released,
[male reporter 2] The Northern Ireland statement
said that Dolours Price was being released
because there is unequivocal independent medical evidence
that she was in imminent danger of collapse
and death if she stayed in prison,
[female reporter] Reverend Paisley failed to secure
an emergency debate about the release
of Dolours Price from Armagh Prison,
[male reporter 3] The news has filtered through to this community
that Bobby Sands has died after 66 days of hunger strike,
And in scenes reminiscent of the early days of internment,,,
[male reporter] The IRA has announced what it describes
as a complete cessation of military operations
from midnight tonight,
The statement, issued in Dublin just after 11 o'clock,
doesn't attach any conditions or time limit to the ceasefire,
Reacting to the announcement, the President of Sinn Fein,
Gerry Adams, said it was courageous,
[Gerry Adams] I want to say a word or two
about the volunteer soldiers of the Irish Republican Army,
who have fought the British for the last 25 years
and who are undefeated by the British,
-[crowd cheering] -[typewriter clicking]
I am a Republican, born and bred,
As were my mother and father before me
and theirs before them,
Give me an honest socialist any day
over a lying treacherous so-called Republican,
I would take no more joy in seeing my sons
follow their convictions to prison or the grave
than did my mother, or the mothers of all those
who lie in Republican plots,
It was my free choice,
and I believe we all have that freedom,
But I will never abandon my Republican beliefs
and state them whenever I choose,
Nobody will deny me that right,
That my own aunt lived without hands or eyes
with quiet dignity and without complaint
for 40 years,
No deal has been done with the Brits,
I remember thinking, "What?"
We got nothing,
Congratulations Dr, Paisley, you got what you wanted,
Stormont back, Northern Ireland secure
and the Fenians in their place,
Not this Fenian and a good few besides,
We don't recognize The Northern State,
Never have, never will,
[sighs]
Admit it, lads, you lost the war,
Some of us see it as only having lost
another battle,
You can lose all the battles but only when you surrender,
do you lose your soul,
[exhales]
A historic day at Stormont,
After two years of talks and after a generation of bloodshed,
and decades of division and acrimony,
George Mitchell ushers in, what the whole island hopes
will be a new era of peace,
An agreement that unites Loyalists and Republican,
Unionist and Nationalist Leaders
in a wide-ranging historical accord,
[Tony Blair] The principal of consent is absolute
and is throughout the agreement,
And the breakthrough
is that that is now accepted by all, North and South,
[Dolours] I was on a very protracted hunger strike,
I suffered forcible feeding
which was a very horrendous experience,
I served eight years in prison, and for what Sinn Fein
have achieved today,
I would not have missed a good breakfast,
Sinn Fein, quite cynically, seem to me
to be climbing over the corpses of the people
who have died
since the commencement of the struggle,
Volunteers didn't only die, volunteers had to kill as well, you know,
[interviewer] Do The Disappeared haunt you at all?
Yes, yes, I think back on those
who I had responsibility for driving away,
I'm not a deeply religious person
but I would say a prayer for them,
[interviewer] Can I turn to the very first of those operations
that you believe The Unknowns were involved in?
That's the Joe Lynskey affair,
-Yes, -Can you tell,,,
What can you tell me about the Joe Lynskey business?
[Dolours] Joe Lynskey was an extremely gentle, gentleman,
He made a horrendous and grave mistake
which I believe came from his naivety,
He'd been off to be a monk, and he was a mature man
but he was in many ways immature,
certainly in the ways of the world
and he made the mistake of falling in love
with another volunteer's wife,
Joe set up this husband, and had another volunteer
go and shoot him, The volunteer acted in good faith
believing that this person was an informer,
Which he wasn't,
Fortunately he didn't die, fortunately he lived,
When it came to light that this is what Joe had done,
he would have been court-martialed for that
and the sentence for having done that
would have been death,
And Joe would have been sentenced to death,
[doorbell rings]
I was given the task of taking him away,
bringing him across the border
and leaving him in the hands
of people who would deal with him,
He came in the car with me,
and he tried to explain to me
what had happened and I said, "I don't want to know, Joe,
I really don't want to know what happened,
I just know that I have this very difficult thing to do,"
And he apologized to me for being responsible
for my having to, to take him,
He brought his little overnight bag with him,
which I thought was very sad and pathetic
because he sat with it on his knee
and I thought, on the way,
as I was driving down
I thought I should take him to the boat
or I should,,, Or why doesn't he jump out of the car?
Why doesn't he smack me on the head and run away?
Why doesn't he do something to save himself?
But I realized that, you know, his loyalty and his dedication
to the movement was such that he had accepted his fate,
And my dedication to the movement was such that
I couldn't have taken him to the boat
because I would have been disobeying my orders
and I would have been acting contrary
to what I believed in,
And I know Joe had done wrong, um,,,
I,,, I couldn't have seen any other sentence for him
other than that, and I think he accepted,
He accepted his fate fully,
He shook my hand and he thanked me
for driving him
and I said, "Well, I'll see you, Joe,"
knowing full well that I wouldn't see him again,
[sniffles]
I couldn't live with the failure
of what my life's purpose had been,
My life's purpose had been to fight the fight
that had been established and had been conducted
throughout my family over the generations
and to realize that it had all been for nothing,