Ógra Shinn Féin
South Tyrone
When asked to write an article for International Women’s Day, I knew there were a plethora of inspiring female figures from our own struggle and other struggles around the world whose dedication and bravery would be an inspiration to anyone; however, I have decided to write about one of the most inspirational acts of defiance I have ever come across.
This event was the breaking of the Falls Road curfew, or “the rape of the Lower Falls.”
Women from Falls Road came out on the 5th July to break the curfew.
The British Army had placed this curfew on the Falls on the 3rd of July, it was an blatant act of oppression against the people of that area and during it five civilians were killed by the British Army and 300 republicans were arrested.
The women of the community rose up against this on their “bread march” to make a stand for their community and the welfare of their families. As the women marched down the Falls Road and pushed the barricades out of their paths, they sang “we shall not be moved” while the British army stood and watched, open mouthed and stunned at their bravery and open rebellion.
The women marched as far as the shops and back again, returning with loaves of bread and pints of milk. It must have been an amazing sight!
Minutes after the women defiantly marched through the Falls, an Army helicopter droned overhead and announced that the curfew was being lifted.
One of the women, 61 year old Dolly Monaghan, said, “They couldn’t mow us down, and they couldn’t clap us all in jail, there wouldn’t be enough room”
The women of the Falls Road made a stand in 1972, just as republican women have always done, including Kathleen Clarke and the women of Cumman Na mBan in 1916, Dolly Monaghan in 1972, Martina Anderson and Rita O’Hare in 2010, not to mention the thousands of women activists organised in Sinn Fein and Ógra throughout this island.
Our struggle will never be short of inspirational women.
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