One of the founders of this Blog, John (Sean)Throne, participated in the Bogside uprising. He also served as a member of the Bogside Citizens Defense Association which ran the barricaded area - known as Free Derry - which emerged out of the uprising.
Below is a short excerpt from chapter 15 of his recent book: "We'll Take A Cup Of Kindness Yet". This book as well as his first book, The Donegal Woman, is available here. To view the titles of the chapters of "We'll Take a Cup of Kindness Yet visit here. You can also go to the order page by clicking on the link under the image.
"The Bogside uprising was no skirmish. Over 1,000 people were injured in the fighting. Over 350 police were injured. The Battle of the Bogside, as it came to be known, was a real mass uprising. It was a great honour and an education for me to have participated in the event that shook British imperialism at its core. It transformed my life.
After days of fighting the police were exhausted and the B Specials, the part-time Protestant and mainly rural state militia, armed with 303 rifles, were called up and ringed the Bogside. A massacre was on the cards.
If this had taken place the fighting would have spread to the South and Britain and upheavals would have been inevitable in the US and Australia and other countries where there were large Irish populations. England, Scotland and Wales, all their major cities had large Irish populations or populations of Irish descent. This was the importance of the Bogside uprising. It had the potential to become a world-wide crisis for British imperialism. I was involved in an event of world significance.”
3 comments:
Thanks Comrade. I admire your courage and life long commitment to socialist revolution but not sure, if BA hadn't intervened, if it mightn't have led to Civil War at home rather than revolution abroad in Britain, or elsewhere.
Beir Bua
From that amazing struggle emerged the O'Hara family and Patsy O'Hara's sacrifice along with the other 9 brave men on the 1981 hunger strike.
I watched my mother weep saying "What must their mammys be going through", she knew because her Da did 23 days on hunger strike after being arrested as a quarter master in the Irish Citizen Army and a load of weapons.
Being a commie I was naturally attracted to the Irish Republican Socialist Party so when the chance came up for me to name a road Patsy O'Hara place was my natural choice.
https://kevinhester.live/2016/05/21/my-tribute-to-my-comrade-patsy-ohara-and-his-family/
Thank you Padraig. I agree with the thrust of your comment that the situation was not one of revolution. Rather what British Imperialism feared was conflict in cities in Ireland Britain and the English speaking world. And this would have weakened their control and hit their profits. So they intervened to try and contain the situation to the North and calm things. John (Sean) Throne.
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