The times they are A changing

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Monday August 20, 2007 10:38 by Davy Carlin

The Murph - Turf, and beyond

I hear some from various political parties attempt to play ping- pong politics in relation to the march for truth, held in August 2007 in Belfast. I had attended that march, along with friends and family, which included my wife and mother-in-law. And on that march we had carried the picture of Brian Stewart, a child, murdered by the state. Indeed on the very day that I was celebrating my 6th birthday on the 4th of the 10th 1976, in the ‘Murph estate, Brian was being shot in the Turf estate.

There is a mural of Brian on a gable wall in Turf, the same as the picture we had held at that march.

And so as we stood at the top of the White rock Road on that day, I had looked directly a few yards to my left and remembered 30 years back to my childhood. I remembered over the years of ’hitting the deck’ as my mum had always told me to do if ‘caught up in trouble’. I remembered the bullets, some solid and thudding others small and whizzing, all around me, and then there was the sound and smell of rebellion. I remembered also the armoured tanks and guns and the teenagers caked in poverty, but with eyes on fire. I remembered the brutality dished out by the state to innocent men, women and children alike, which fanned the flames of resistance, and in part provided me with my childhood eyes of defiance.

Whether one agrees with it or not real life has taught me that there is a difference between those citizens driven into the Politic of the gun through what many believed was no other alternative, and that of Imperialism driven by the gun. More especially for those citizens who had sought such because of that initial basic human instinct of ‘defence, for those that they loved and cared for.

Imperialism’s and Capitalism’s greed and lust for power and dominance means that they will seek to crush any that stands in its way. We live in a world of plenty yet such resources, lives, and the environment are plundered and destroyed. Millions are starved and allowed to die through preventable diseases, while nations of millions are shackled in debt for the greed of a few. It is a system that will always create chaos for humanity; indeed it is a system with little humanity at its core.

Yet War is such a terrible thing, and many more are affected in many differing ways than what the death and physical injuries statistics speak of.

And so in such a situation there will always be those who will arise up from upon their knees and give all they have got to attempt to change such, through whatever means and however an initial small a way.

With that in mind I then looked to my right and it was only the day before this march I had sat in a Black taxi at the top of the ‘Rock. And to my right I had seen a young twenty something, getting out of their four by four, and going into the new internet café to sip their Lattes and Cappuccinos, and maybe to plan a holiday to far of lands. Indeed many have ‘benefited from the ‘Peace, yet many more are living still in poverty. Indeed where I live many windows speak still of such poverty, and for them, little has changed.

And so the march for me was about marching with and lending solidarity for Relatives seeking truth, including my own. Yet all sides have carried out atrocities. I had known those personally who had been mowed down by Republicans. I had a picture of Andy Kearney and I holding aloft football trophies. He was slaughtered in the name of Republicanism. I remembered kids and teenagers from youth such as Carol Ann Kelly and Karen Reilly, murdered by the state. They are but a few I had known, as there where many, with many in addition taking their own life’s.

Yes, families do need some form of closure from all sides. For me, I had been part of, attending, organising and mobilising against murder, and threats of murder to innocents, may it have come from varieties of Republicanism, Loyalism, the state or collusion with such. Therefore this march, for me was on this occasion about standing with friends and family calling on the British government to acknowledge their part in it. This issue cannot be allowed to incorporate the local ping – pong re - action coming from some. Therefore I believe such a matter would be best dealt with through an Independent and International process in search for truth.

Yet I am not naïve to think that the state will be willingly forthcoming on such matters, indeed it may take decades for even some limited truth in many cases to come out. But nevertheless we must press for it, with and for those that seek it.
On that matter, I had during the West Belfast festival went to a packed meeting that discussed yet more slaughter of innocents in the Ballymurphy estate. They spoke of the murder of their loved ones and of the harassment and taunts they had got afterwards from the state, indeed so similar to many I know. Having been born into the Murph I remember the closeness of the ‘Community. Indeed as a child, just one street in the Murph, that of Glenalina Road in the 70’s held about ten homes related to me in one way or another with many more I would run in and out of. So I knew of many from the surrounding areas and some names on that day I had remembered.

Yet times are a changing in many ways, even on that march as we got to the bottom of the ‘Rock, I remembered how several kids would trail a large tree, {cut down from the Falls Park} past the burning and burnt out lorries and buses that lined the Falls Road to stick on our bonfire. Now thirty years on I sit on committees, have marched, and agitated in various ways. And in doing so have played my part with others that has seen and is seeing through the conservation, redevelopment and renewal of the Falls Park, Black Mountain and Bog Meadows, for generations to come.

Similar I remember the kids heading up the Falls Road to vent their anger at the old Andersonstown barracks site. Thirty years on I marched back down the Falls Road, this time against the proposed private development on the site, now that iconic Barracks has gone.

And so while much has changed, battles still continue. They continue, for many, not only against poverty, and the neo liberalism embraced by many political parties, it continues also for the truth of those murdered, and more.