Time for mixed housing estates

Irish News Editorial – 23/06/08 The debate over housing in Northern Ireland has changed beyond recog-nition since the injustices which forced Austin Currie and others into a dramatic intervention 40 years ago this week. Back in 1968 many unionist-controlled district councils were able to routinely discriminate against Catholics during the allocation of public authority homes. … Read more

Protest at Caledon was a ‘catalyst for change’

By John Manley Irish News 23/06/08 THE SDLP was always the “party of housing”, social development minister Margaret Ritchie told a conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Caledon protest. Entitled ‘Housing Rights for All’, the event at Armagh City Hotel on Saturday was addressed by the key participant in the protest, Austin Currie. … Read more

Housing Conference Report

Report From the Irish News: Event to mark 40 years since Caledon protest By Claire Simpson – 21/06/08 THE 40th anniversary of the one of the pivotal events in the fight for civil rights in the north is being marked at a conference in Armagh city today. In 1968 Nationalist MP Austin Currie squatted in … Read more

John McGuffin – A Tribute

By Eamonn McCann – Author “War & an Irish Town” et al. The obituary cliche that “He didn’t suffer fools gladly” was never more apt than for John McGuffin, which occasionally presented him with problems of an inter-personal nature, since McGuffin tended to regard a remarkably wide section of the earth’s population as fools. Anybody … Read more

An appreciation – Mary Ellen O’Doherty (1908-2007)

Originally Published – Derry Journal, Tuesday 31st July, 2007 Ninety-nine-year-old Mary Ellen O’Doherty [nee Hegarty] described by prominent civil rights leaders as the”mother” of the movement – was laid to rest recently in Derry. Mrs. O’Doherty died peacefully at Altnagelvin Hospital, on June 16th, after a short illness, comforted by all her children, and son-in-law, … Read more

Tributes to Madge Davison

Originally Published – Unity, 9th February 1991 MADGE DAVISON, Communist, feminist, activist and ardent Civil Rights campaigner died on Sunday 27 January 1991 at the tragically early age of 41. At her funeral the following Wednesday, the many people from all walks of life, who in her friend Anne Hope’s words came “to celebrate Madge’s … Read more