Eibhlin has been a supporter, and a mentor of Ógra Shinn Féin from the moment and time she was safe to return home to Belfast having spent many years on the run.
Born into the staunchly republican Shortstrand in the heart of Loyalist East Belfast, she was surrounded from an early age by a very tense and alive interface that could have boiled over at any stage and often did.
In her early years she would experience the full whack of the Unionist State and naked sectarianism as loyalist mobs assisted by the state militias attempted to burn the Shortstrand to the ground.
The people, many friends, and family of Eibhlin got of their knees and the IRA, the people’s army, repelled the baying mobs.
It was a lesson that the risen people would confront and bring to an end these gutless bigoted and murderous acts on what were defenceless innocent civilians.
All these actions and the subsequent arrest of her father Dickie, had a deeply politicising affect on the young Eibhlin who enraged by the bigoted brutal actions of the Unionist state joined the Republican Movement to play her part in changing all the wrongs facing her and the people she lived amongst.
Becoming active in the republican struggle became a vocation which she has kept resolutely to this day, and it has led her to living a very interesting yet selfless life, a life which many would otherwise avoid.
Due to her political activism Eibhlin has endured prison, harassment, arrest, extradition proceedings which she successfully defeated twice, long periods where she could not return home to enjoy simple things like family birthdays and weddings, she has been labelled the ‘most wanted women’ by the Brits and has suffered the loss of many of her close friends including Bobby Sands and Brian Keenan.
Despite this extraordinarily difficult life, Eibhlin is always beaming with joy and excitement to meet fellow republicans, always glad to impart her knowledge and wisdom to younger activists, to another generation much more fortunate than her.
Eibhlin is an inspiration too Ógra for many reasons, because she is always there to lend a helping hand, weather simple advice, speaking at an event or lobbying and arguing in support of republican youth internal to the movement.
Eibhlin has engrained an ethos of gender equality into Sinn Fein, because of her actions, hundreds of more young republicans are proud to call themselves feminists, hundreds more young republicans are pro actively working to bring equality to the gender imbalance that exists within the party and society, because of her actions more and more young women are becoming involved in Ógra and Sinn Féin, and because of her actions, we are inspired to organise events like this tonight, where we honour all the outstanding women who have gave so much for this struggle, women like Eibhlin.
We are honoured to know Eibhlin personally and to have the pleasure of working with her.
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