Wednesday, 1 September 2010

Mná Na hEireann



Siobhan O'Hanlon
by James Hume

Amongst the plethora of Irish Martyrs and heroes, few stand out as much in recent years as Siobhan O'Hanlon.
Siobhan was an Irish Republican Army Volunteer, Sinn Féin activist and assistant to Gerry Adams. She was born in 1963 to a working-class Republican family in North Belfast. Among her relatives was the
IRA hero, Joe Cahill.

While growing up in Belfast, her home was routinely attacked and her brother, Rory, was murdered by Pro-British thugs. She later became an Óglach in the IRA and was first jailed in 1983 on explosive charges.

In the late 1990s she was among the Sinn Féin delegation to Downing Street in preparation of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations. She also visited South Africa, where a memorial to the Hunger Strikers was unveiled
by Nelson Mandela.

Siobhan was a great humanitarian and in her later life she helped found the West Belfast Festival, Feile an Phobail and worked with Young people and those with Down Sydrome. After being diagnosed with Breast Cancer,
she turned her great organising skills to raising awareness about Breast Cancer.

Siobhan passed on from Cancer on April 11th 2006, a sad day in modern Irish History. An activist in the mould of Markiewicz, Drumm and Nugent had been lost. Over 1000 people attended her funeral, where amongst others
Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison paid tribute.

Gerry Adams; We could say that she went before she got to do all the things she wanted to do. But, is é sin an saol.
Maybe it isn't the length of our lives - it's what we do with our lives that counts. It's the difference we make to the lives of others that counts. Siobhan packed three or four different lives into one. She made a huge difference in the lives of many, many people. There was her life as a child and a young nationalist from a strong republican family ˆ growing up in north Belfast. There was her life in the IRA. There was her life as a political prisoner. Her life as a Sinn Féin activist. Her life as a mother and a wife.

And here is a poem that was read at her funeral:
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

1 comment:

  1. 12 years now Siobhan. I remember Blackpool (98)to this day where we shared a laugh and made history at the Conference. God Bless You.

    Stephen
    Portsmouth 2018

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