"Home Rule Bill" redirects here. For the failed Government of Scotland Bill 1913, commonly referred to as the Scottish Home Rule Bill, see History of Scottish devolution.

The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 by a demand for self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late 17th century.^[1] Home Rule held out the promise of a new constitutional order and harnessed the energies of a more recent militant tradition, providing an alternative to nationalist militancy.^[2] For almost half a century – from the early 1870s to the end of World War I – Home Rule was both the single most dominant feature of Irish political life and a major influence within British politics.^[3] It united over a period the Irish past with the present, bound militants with constitutionalists, Irish with British politicians. For the British father of Home Rule William Ewart Gladstone, Home Rule was about the reconciliation of Irish nationalism to the British state. For other politicians, the Conservatives and Ulster Unionists Home Rule presented a fearful spectacle, their opposition to it so complete that a civil war seemed to offer the only path towards a resolution.^[4]

Historical background[link]

Under the Act of Union 1800 the separate Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain were merged on January 1, 1801, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Throughout the 19th century Irish opposition to the Union was strong, occasionally erupting in violent insurrection. In the 1830s and 1840s attempts had been made under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell and his Repeal Association to repeal the Act of Union and restore the Kingdom of Ireland, without breaking the monarchical connection with Great Britain (i.e. personal union). These attempts to achieve what was simply called repeal failed.

Until the 1870s, most Irish voters elected as their Members of Parliament (MPs) Liberals and Conservatives who belonged to the main British political parties. The Conservatives, for example, won a majority in the 1859 general election in Ireland. A significant minority also voted for Unionists, who fiercely resisted any dilution of the Act of Union.

Different concepts[link]

The term ”Home Rule”, first used in the 1860s, meant an Irish legislature with responsibility for domestic affairs. It was variously interpreted, from the 1870s was seen to be part of a federal system for the United Kingdom: a domestic Parliament for Ireland while the Imperial Parliament at Westminster would continue to have responsibility for Imperial affairs. The Republican concept as represented by the Fenians and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, strove to achieve total separation from Great Britain, if necessary by physical force, and complete autonomy for Ireland. For a while they were prepared to co-operate with Home Rulers under the "New Departure". Charles Stewart Parnell sought through the ‘constitutional movement’, as an interim measure a parliament in Dublin with limited legislative powers. Arthur Griffith envisaged a dual monarchy along Austro-Hungarian lines. For Unionists Home Rule meant a Dublin parliament dominated by the Catholic Church to the detriment of Ireland’s economic progress. In England the Liberal Party under William Ewart Gladstone was fully committed to introducing Home Rule whereas the Conservatives tried to alleviate any need for it through ‘constructive unionism’, passing many acts of parliament beneficial to Ireland.

Struggle for Home Rule[link]

In the 1870s a former Conservative barrister Isaac Butt who was instrumental in fostering links between Constitutional and Revolutionary nationalism through his representation of members of the Fenians Society in court, established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Irish Home Government Association. Under the later chairmanship of William Shaw, it reconstituted itself to become the Home Rule League in November 1873. Under it, Ireland would still remain part of the United Kingdom but would have limited self-government.

Some few years after his death a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell, turned the home rule movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party as it became known, into a major constitutional political force. It came to dominate Irish politics, to the exclusion of the previous Liberal, Conservative and Unionist parties that had existed there. The party's growing electoral strength was first shown in the 1880 general election in Ireland, when it won 63 seats. By the 1885 general election in Ireland it had won 85 out of the 103 Irish seats, with one Home Rule MP being elected in Liverpool.

Adversary Lords[link]

Two attempts were made by Liberals under British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone to enact home rule bills. Gladstone, impressed by Parnell, had become personally committed to granting Irish home rule in 1885. With his famous three-hour Irish Home Rule speech Gladstone beseeched parliament to pass the Irish Government Bill 1886, and grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to do so one day in humiliation. His bill was defeated in the Commons by 30 votes.

The Bill resulted in serious riots in Belfast during the summer and autumn of 1886 in which many were killed, and caused the Liberal Unionist Association to split from the main Liberal party. They allied with the Lord Salisbury's Conservatives until 1914 on the issue of Home Rule.

Having sparked the formation of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1885 to oppose the threat of home rule, the bill caused Gladstone to temporarily lose power. Having returned to power after the 1892 general election Gladstone, undaunted, made a second attempt to introduce Irish Home Rule following Parnell’s death with the Irish Government Bill 1893 which he controversially drafted in secret and thereby flawed. Eventually it was steered through the Commons by William O'Brien, with a majority of 30 votes, only to be defeated in the Conservative's pro-unionist majority controlled House of Lords.

On this defeat the new Liberal leader Lord Rosebery adopted the policy of promising Salisbury that the majority vote of English MPs would have a veto on any future Irish Home Rule Bills. The Nationalist movement divided in the 1890s and their opponents remained in power until 1905.

Home Rule Bills[link]

The four Irish Home Rule bills introduced in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were intended to grant self-government and national autonomy to the whole of Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and reverse parts of the Acts of Union 1800. Of the two that passed the Parliament of the United Kingdom the Third Bill, enacted as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and then suspended, while the Fourth Bill, enacted as the Government of Ireland Act 1920 established two separate Home Rule territories in Ireland, of which the one was implemented by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, but the second Parliament of Southern Ireland was not implemented in the rest of Ireland. The bills were:

• 1886: First Irish Home Rule Bill defeated in the House of Commons and never introduced in the House of Lords.
• 1893: Second Irish Home Rule Bill passed the House of Commons, but defeated in the House of Lords.
• 1914: Third Irish Home Rule Act passed with Royal Assent never came into force, due to the intervention of World War I (1914–18) and of the Easter Rising in Dublin (1916).
• 1920: Fourth Irish Home Rule Act (replaced Third Act, passed and implemented as the Government of Ireland Act 1920) which established Northern Ireland as a Home Rule entity within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and simultaneously resulted in the partition of Ireland.

Home Rule in sight[link]

Ten years followed in which the Conservatives were in power. The significant Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (following the English Act of 1888) introduced for the first time the enfranchisement of local electors, bringing about a system of localised home rule in many areas. In the 1906 general election the Liberals returned an overall majority, but Irish home rule was not yet on their agenda until after the second 1910 general election when the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party under its leader John Redmond held the balance of power in the House of Commons. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith came to an understanding with Redmond, that if he supported his move to break the power of the Lords in order to have the finance bill passed, Asquith would then in return introduce a new Home Rule Bill. The Parliament Act 1911 forced the Lords to agree to a curtailment of their powers. Now their unlimited veto was replaced with a delaying one lasting only three years.

The Third Home Rule Bill introduced in 1912 was as in 1886 and 1893 ferociously opposed by Ulster unionists, for whom Home Rule was synonymous with Rome Rule as well as being indicative of economic decline. Edward Carson and James Craig, leaders of the unionists, were instrumental in organising the Ulster Covenant against the "coercion of Ulster", at which time Carson reviewed Orange and Unionist volunteers in various parts of Ulster. These were united into a single body known as the Ulster Volunteers in January 1913.^[5] This was followed in the south by the formation of the Irish Volunteers to restrain Ulster. Both Nationalists and Republicans, except for the All-for-Ireland Party, brushed unionist concerns aside with "no concessions for Ulster", treating their threat as a bluff. The Act received Royal Assent and was placed on the statute books on 18 September 1914, but suspended for no longer than the duration of World War I which had broken out in August. The widely held assumption at the time was that the war would be short lived.

Changed realities[link]

With the involvement of Ireland in World War I, the southern Irish Volunteers split into the larger National Volunteers and followed Redmond’s call to support the Allied war effort to free Europe from oppression and ensure the future implementation of Home Rule by voluntarily enlisting in Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division or the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army. The men of the Ulster Volunteers joined the 36th (Ulster) Division. During 1914-18 Irish regiments suffered severe losses.

A core element of the remaining Irish Volunteers who opposed the nationalist constitutional movement towards independence and the Irish support for the war effort, staged the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Dublin. Initially widely condemned by Irish and British alike, the British government's mishandling of the aftermath of the Rising, including the rushed executions of its leaders by General Maxwell, led to a rise in popularity for an Irish republican movement named Sinn Féin, a small separatist party taken over by the rebellion's survivors. Britain made two futile attempts to implement Home Rule which both failed because of Ulster unionists' protest at the proposed implementation of Home Rule for the whole island of Ireland; first after the Rising and then at the end of the 1917-18 Irish Convention. With the collapse of the allied front during the German Spring Offensive and Operation Michael, Britain had a serious manpower shortage and the Cabinet agreed on 5 April to enact Home Rule immediately linked in a "dual policy" of extending conscription to Ireland. This signalled the end of a political era,^[6] which resulted in a public swing towards Sinn Féin and physical force separatism. Interest in Home Rule began to fade as a result.

Home Rule enacted[link]

After the end of the war in November 1918 Sinn Féin secured a majority of 73 Irish seats in the general election, twenty five of these seats taken uncontested. In January 1919 twenty-seven Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin and proclaimed themselves unilaterally as an independent parliament of an Irish Republic, ignored by Britain. The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) ensued.

Britain went ahead with its commitment to implement Home Rule by passing a new Fourth Home Rule Bill, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, largely shaped by the Walter Long Committee which followed findings contained in the report of the Irish Convention. Long, a firm unionist, felt free to shape Home Rule in Ulster's favour, and formalised dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The latter never functioned, but was replaced under the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the Irish Free State which later became the Republic of Ireland.

The Home Rule Parliament of Northern Ireland came into being in June 1921. At its inauguration, in Belfast City Hall, King George V made a famous appeal drafted by Prime Minister Lloyd George for Anglo-Irish and north–south reconciliation. The Anglo-Irish Treaty had provided for Northern Ireland's Parliament to opt out of the new Free State, which was a foregone conclusion. The Irish Civil War (1922-1923) followed.

The Parliament of Northern Ireland continued in operation until 30 March 1972, when it was suspended in favor of direct rule by the Northern Ireland Office during The Troubles. It was subsequently abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. Various versions of the Northern Ireland Assembly reestablished home rule in 1973-74, 1982–86, intermittently from 1998–2002, and from 2007 onward. The Assembly attempts to balance the interests of the unionist and republican factions through a "power sharing" agreement.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Sir Edward Carson
• James Craig
• Charles Stewart Parnell
• John Redmond
• John Dillon
• William O'Brien
• Rudyard Kipling
• Parliament of Southern Ireland
• Parliament of Northern Ireland
• Solemn League and Covenant (Ulster)
• Unionists (Ireland)
• Devolution
• Curragh incident
• Easter Rising
• Gladstone's Irish Home Rule speech (beseech in its favour)
• Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
• Parliament Act 1911
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• Partition of Ireland
• History of Ireland (1801–1922)

Further reading[link]

• Irish Government Bill 1893, available from the House of Lords Record Office
• Government of Ireland Act 1914, available from the House of Lords Record Office
• O'Donnell, F. Hugh, 'A History of the Irish Parliamentary Party', 2 vols (London, 1910)
• MacDonagh, Michael: The Home Rule Movement, Talbot Press, Dublin (1920)
• Rodner, W. S.: "Leaguers, Covenanters, Moderates: British Support for Ulster, 1913-14" pages 68–85 from Éire-Ireland, Volume 17, Issue #3, 1982.
• Loughlin, James Gladstone, Home Rule and the Ulster Question, 1882-1893, Dublin: (1986)
• Smith, Jeremy: "Bluff, Bluster and Brinkmanship: Andrew Bonar Law and the Third Home Rule Bill" pages 161-174 from Historical Journal, Volume 36, Issue #1, (1993)
• Hennessey, Thomas: Dividing Ireland, World War 1 and Partition, (1998), ISBN 0-415-17420-1
• Kee, Robert: The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism,(2000 edition, first published 1972), ISBN 0-14-029165-2
• Jackson, Alvin: Home Rule, an Irish History 1800-2000, Phoenix Press (2003), ISBN 0-7538-1767-5
• Lewis, Geoffrey: Carson, the Man who divided Ireland (2005),ISBN 1-85285-454-5
• Stanford, Jane, 'That Irishman: The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power", History Press Ireland, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84588-698-1

External links[link]

• Ulster Covenant - Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
• History of the 1912 UVF
• CAIN - University of Ulster Conflict Archive
• Ulster, 1912 (Kipling) at Words (etext library)
• Official text of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (repealed 2.12.1999) as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
• Text of the Act as applied in Northern Ireland in 1956
• Text of the Act as originally enacted in 1920, from BAILII
• House of Lords Library - Record Office, for Texts of Irish Government bills
• Department of the Taoiseach - Irish Soldiers in the First World War.

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Home rule is the power of a constituent part (administrative division) of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government.

In the United Kingdom, it has traditionally referred to self-government, or devolution or independence, of constituent nations (namely Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), and at one point Ireland. In the United States and other countries organized as federations of states, the term usually refers to the process and mechanisms of self-government as exercised by municipalities, counties, or other units of local government at the level below that of a federal state (e.g., U.S. state, in which context see special legislation). It can also refer to the similar system under which Greenland and the Faroe Islands are associated with Denmark.

During the British Empire, there were vigorous demands for home rule by activists in India.

Home rule is not, however, comparable with federalism. Whereas states in a federal system of government (e.g., Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States of America) have a guaranteed constitutional existence, a devolved home rule system of government is created by ordinary legislation and can be reformed, or even abolished, by repeal or amendment of that ordinary legislation.

A state legislature may, for example, create home rule for a county or parish (or its townships), so that a county commission or board of supervisors may have jurisdiction over its unincorporated areas, including important issues like zoning. (Without this, a U.S. county is simply an extension of state government.) The legislature can also establish or eliminate municipal corporations, which have home rule within town or city limits through the city council. The state government could also abolish counties/townships, or their governments, according to the state constitution and state laws.

Irish home rule[link]

The issue of Irish home rule was the dominant political question of British and Irish politics at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

From the late nineteenth century, Irish leaders of the Home Rule League, the predecessor of the Irish Parliamentary Party, under Isaac Butt, William Shaw, and Charles Stewart Parnell demanded a form of home rule, with the creation of an Irish parliament within the British government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This demand led to the eventual introduction of four Home Rule Bills, of which two were passed, the Third Home Rule Act won by John Redmond and most notably the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (which created the home rule parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland -- the latter state did not in reality function and was replaced by the Irish Free State), which was enacted.

The home rule demands of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century differed from earlier demands for Repeal by Daniel O'Connell in the first half of the nineteenth century. Whereas home rule meant a constitutional movement towards a national All-Ireland parliament in part under Westminster, repeal meant the repeal of the 1801 Act of Union (if need be, by physical force) and the creation of an entirely independent Irish state, separated from the United Kingdom, with only a shared monarch joining them both.

• 1886: First Irish Home Rule Bill was defeated in the House of Commons.
• 1893: Second Irish Home Rule Bill passed by the House of Commons, vetoed in the House of Lords.
• 1914: Third Irish Home Rule Bill passed to the statute books, temporarily suspended by intervention of World War I (1914–1918), finally following the Easter Rising in Dublin (1916).
• 1920: Fourth Irish Home Rule Act (Government of Ireland Act 1920) fully implemented in Northern Ireland and partially implemented in Southern Ireland.

Indian home rule[link]

Several nationalist leaders banded together in 1916 under the leadership of Annie Besant to voice a demand for self-government, and to obtain the status of a Dominion within the British Empire as enjoyed by Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Newfoundland at the time.

While enjoying considerable popularity for some years, its growth and activity were stalled by the rise of Mohandas Gandhi and his Satyagraha art of revolution: non-violent, but mass-based civil disobedience, aimed at complete independence.

Scottish Home Rule[link]

In a similar fashion to Ireland, supporters of Home Rule in Scotland have historically desired greater levels of devolved governance within the United Kingdom. Although the term Home Rule has been largely superseded by 'devolution', the Home Rule movement can be seen as the forerunner to the creation of the current devolved Scottish Parliament.

Administrative devolution was granted to Scotland, with the creation of the Scottish Office, in the late 19th century. In the mid-20th century, the Home Rule movement became significant, campaigning for a Scottish Assembly. Between 1947 and 1950, the Scottish Covenant, a petition requesting a Scottish legislature within the UK, received over two million signatures. It was not until 1979 that devolution entered the political sphere - the Scottish devolution referendum, 1979 was held, failing to meet the required threshold. In 1999, due to the success of a second referendum, the Scottish Parliament was created.

United States[link]

Home rule within the 50 states[link]

In the United States, some states constitutionally or legislatively grant home rule to cities, counties, and municipalities within their borders. These are called "home rule states." Local governments in home rule states are free to pass laws and ordinances as they see fit to further their operations, within the bounds of the state and federal constitutions. In other states, local governments have only the authority expressly granted to them by state legislatures, typically in accordance with the legal principle known as Dillon's Rule.

District of Columbia home rule[link]

The U.S. Constitution gives jurisdiction over the capital city (District of Columbia or Washington, D.C.) to the United States Congress in "all cases whatsoever". This arrangement is due to the fact that the District is neither a state, nor part of a state. At certain times, and presently since 1973, Congress has provided for D.C. government to be carried out primarily by locally elected officials. However, Congressional oversight of this local government still exists, and locally elected officials' powers could theoretically be revoked at any time.

Greenland home rule[link]

Greenland is a self-governing Danish province. Home rule was granted by Danish parliament in 1979. Denmark's monarch is Greenland's head of state. Greenland is not part of the European Union, even though Denmark is.

See also[link]

• Devolution, the practice of a national power granting specific powers to a region, state, or province
• Municipal home rule, the legal ability in most American states where voters can adopt a home rule charter granting the municipal government greater local control
• Home Rule Cities Act (Michigan), an example of Municipal Home Rule

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (April 2011)

Ben Manski (born July 16, 1974) is an American attorney, organizer, activist with the Green Party, Executive Director of the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution and editor of the Liberty Tree Journal. As a member of the Wisconsin Green Party, he served as co-chair of the Green Party of the United States from 2001 through 2004.^[1] Manski also served as the Wisconsin representative on the Green Party Diversity Committee,^[2][3] and is a former chair of the GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee.^[4] In December 2011, Manski was announced as the campaign manager of Jill Stein, candidate for President of the United States.^[5]

Early life and education[link]

Manski was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 16, 1974 to economist Charles Manski and educator Kate Manski. When he was a little over three years old his family moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where he and his sister, today a Palestinian rights advocate, spent their early childhood years. In 1982, his parents decided to return to the United States, moving to Madison, Wisconsin.

Manski received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School in 2005, and a B.A. in Sociology with a focus in Rural Sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1999.^[6]

Career[link]

• Field Director with Greenpeace.
• Mining Organizer with Wisconsin's Environmental Decade.
• Executive Director with Democracy Unlimited of Wisconsin, Cooperative.
• Midwest Field Director with Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign.
• Organizing Director with Progressive Dane.
• National Director with Campus Greens.
• Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States.

State Assembly candidacy[link]

As a Green Party candidate, Manski came in second of four candidates in a 2010 race for a Wisconsin State Assembly seat vacated by long time Madison legislator Spencer Black, winning 31% of the vote, defeating the Republican and Constitution Party candidates.^[7] This was the strongest performance of any independent candidate in Wisconsin since 1944.^[8]

References[link]

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
A mural by the Bogside Artists in Derry's Bogside, depicting Devlin
Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
In office 1969–1974
Preceded by	George Forrest
Succeeded by	John Dunlop
Majority	18,213
Personal details
Born	(1947-04-23) 23 April 1947 (age 65) Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Independent (1970-1974), (1976-1977), (1978-present)
Other political affiliations	Unity (1969-1970), Independent Socialist Party (1977-1978), Irish Republican Socialist Party (1974-1976)
Spouse(s)	Michael McAliskey
Children	Róisín Elizabeth McAliskey Deirdre McAliskey
Alma mater	Queens University of Belfast

Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born 23 April 1947, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist. She served as a Member of Parliament at Westminster from 1969 to 1974 for the Mid Ulster constituency.

Political beginnings[link]

1970 newsreel film about the Ulster conflict featuring Bernadette Devlin

Devlin was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone and raised as a Roman Catholic. She attended St Patrick's Girls Academy in Dungannon.^[1] She was studying Psychology at Queen's University Belfast in 1968 when she took a prominent role in a student-led civil rights organisation, People's Democracy.^{[2][dead link]} Devlin was subsequently excluded from the university.^[2] She stood unsuccessfully against James Chichester-Clark in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969. When George Forrest, the MP for Mid Ulster, died, she fought the subsequent by-election on the "Unity" ticket, defeating a female Unionist candidate, Forrest's widow Anna, and was elected to the Westminster Parliament. At age 21, she was the youngest MP at the time, and remains the youngest woman elected.^[2]

Devlin stood on the slogan "I will take my seat and fight for your rights" – signalling her rejection of the traditional Irish republican tactic of abstentionism (being absent from Westminster). She made her maiden speech on her 22nd birthday, within an hour of taking her seat.^[3]

The Troubles[link]

The Battle of the Bogside[link]

Her radical left-wing politics resulted in conviction of incitement to riot in December 1969. She had actively engaged, on the side of the residents, in the 'Battle of the Bogside'. She served a short jail term.^[4] After being re-elected in the 1970 general election, Devlin declared that she would sit in Parliament as an independent socialist.^[5]

Bloody Sunday[link]

Devlin witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday. She was later infuriated that she was consistently denied the chance to speak in Parliament, although parliamentary convention decreed that any MP witnessing an incident under discussion would be granted an opportunity to speak about it in Parliament.^[6]

Devlin slapped Reginald Maudling, the Home Secretary in the Conservative government, across the face when he said in the House of Commons that the British Army had fired only in self-defence on Bloody Sunday.^{[2][dead link]} She was suspended from Parliament for six months as a result of the incident.^[7]

IRSP[link]

McAliskey helped to form the Irish Republican Socialist Party along with Seamus Costello in 1974.^{[citation needed]} This was a revolutionary socialist breakaway from Official Sinn Féin and paralleled the Irish National Liberation Army's split from the Official Irish Republican Army.^[8] She served on the party's national executive in 1975, but resigned when a proposal that the INLA become subordinate to the party executive was defeated.^{[9][dead link]} In 1977, she joined the Independent Socialist Party, but it disbanded the following year.^[10]

Support for hunger strike prisoners[link]

She stood as an independent candidate in support of the prisoners on the blanket protest and dirty protest at Long Kesh prison in the 1979 elections to the European Parliament in Northern Ireland, and won 5.9% of the vote.^[11] She was a leading spokesperson for the Smash H-Block Campaign, which supported the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike in 1980 and 1981.

Injured in Loyalist shooting[link]

On 16 January 1981, she and her husband were shot by members of the Ulster Defence Association using their cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters"^[12][13] who broke into their home in Coalisland, County Tyrone. The gunmen shot McAliskey a total of seven times in front of her children.^[14] British soldiers were watching the McAliskey home at the time, but failed to prevent the assassination attempt.^[2][15] An army patrol of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment heard the shots and rushed to McAliskey's house. The paramilitaries had torn out the telephone and while the wounded couple were being given first aid by the troops, a soldier ran to a neighbour's house, commandeered a car, and drove to the home of a councillor to telephone for help. The couple were taken by helicopter to hospital in nearby Dungannon for emergency treatment and then to the Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast under intensive care. Three attackers, including Ray Smallwoods, captured by the army patrol, were subsequently jailed.^[16]

Dáil Éireann elections[link]

In 1982, she twice failed in an attempt to be elected to the Dublin North–Central constituency of Dáil Éireann.^[17]

Deported from USA[link]

In 2003, she was barred from entering the United States and deported on the grounds that the State Department had declared that she "poses a serious threat to the security of the United States", — apparently referring to her conviction for incitement to riot in 1969 — although she protested that she had no terrorist involvement and had frequently been permitted to travel to the United States in the past.^[18][19][20]

Personal life[link]

In 1971, while still unmarried, she gave birth to a daughter Róisín.^[2] This cost her some support in conservative Roman Catholic areas.^[21] She married Michael McAliskey on 23 April 1973, which was her 26th birthday.^{[citation needed]}

On 12 May 2007, she was guest speaker at éirígí's first Annual James Connolly commemoration in Arbour Hill, Dublin.^[22] She currently coordinates a not-for-profit community development organisation based in Dungannon, the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme,^[23] and works with migrant workers to improve their treatment in Northern Ireland.^[2]

In 1969 Director/producer John Goldschmidt made the documentary film 'Bernadette Devlin' for ATV, which was shown on ITV and on CBS's 60 Minutes and included footage of Devlin during the 'Battle of the Bogside'. Another documentary, 'Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey', directed by Leila Doolan, was released in 2011.^[24] At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival a biopic of Devlin was announced,^[2] but Devlin stated that "[t]he whole concept is abhorrent to me" and the film was not made.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bernadette Devlin, The Price of My Soul, 1969 (Foreword and Chapter Twelve)
• THE BLANKET: "Knowing Too Much and Saying It Too Well: Bernadette McAliskey Barred from US" - 23 Feb 2003, (by Anthony McIntyre)
• Interview by Peter Stanford, published in The Independent on Sunday: 29 July 2007.
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Bernadette Devlin

Graffiti supporting Price on the Falls Road, Belfast following her 2011 imprisonment

Marian Price (born 1954), also known by her married name as Marion McGlinchey,^[1] is an Irish republican militant.

Old Bailey bombing[link]

As one of the so-called "Price sisters", Price was jailed for her part in the IRA London bombing campaign of 1973. She was part of a unit who placed four car bombs in London on 8 March 1973. The Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court and Hillgate House – a Government Building) and Whitehall army recruitment centre were damaged with 200 injured and one man died of a heart attack.

The two sisters were apprehended along with Hugh Feeney and seven others as they were boarding a flight to Ireland. They were tried and convicted at the Great Hall in Winchester Castle on 14 November after a two days of deliberation by the jury. Marian Price was sentenced to two life terms.

She and her sister Dolours Price, along with Gerry Kelly and Hugh Feeney, immediately went on hunger strike in a campaign to be repatriated to a prison in Northern Ireland. The hunger strike lasted over 200 days,^[2] with the hunger strikers being force-fed by prison authorities for 167 of them.^[3]

In an interview with Suzanne Breen, Marian described being force-fed:

Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can't struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can't move. They throw whatever they like into the food mixer – orange juice, soup, or cartons of cream if they want to beef up the calories. They take jugs of this gruel from the food mixer and pour it into a funnel attached to the tube. The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You're in control of nothing. You're terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won't be able to let them know because you can't speak or move. You're frightened you'll choke to death.

Political activity after prison[link]

Marian Price resumed a private life, emerging only in the 1990s as a vocal opponent of Sinn Féin's "peace strategy". Of the Good Friday Agreement she said: "It is not, certainly not, what I went to prison for."^[4]

Price gave the graveside oration at the funeral of Joseph O'Connor,^[5] a member of the Real IRA in Belfast killed by the Provisionals.

She is a prominent republican and member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and spokesperson for the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

Return to prison[link]

On 17 November 2009 she was named as being one of two people arrested in connection with an attack on the Massereene Barracks in Northern Ireland in March 2009 in which two British soldiers were shot dead.^[6] In 2011 she was charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism.^[7]

On 15 May 2011 she was charged with encouraging support for an illegal organisation. This related to her involvement in a statement given at an Easter Rising rally in Derry in 2011.^[8] On the same day the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson revoked her release from prison on licence. Peterson said the decision was made because the threat posed by Price had "significantly increased".^[9]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Clutterbuck, Richard. Kidnap and Ransom. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1978.

External links[link]

• "Fire in the Blood", Italian interview, January 2007
• Radio Free Eireann intervies Marian Price
• Suzanne Breen interviews Marian Price
• "I have no regrets", The Guardian, March 2003
• Source material (2000 Electronic Telegraph article)
• Interview with Marian Price, The Blanket, Winter 2002
• Who Killed Joseph O'Connor?
• Graveside Oration for Joseph O'Connor
• Graveside Oration for Volunteer Joe O'Connor (Italian version)