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Brendan McFarlane
Brendan McFarlane (1951 – 21 February 2025) was an Irish republican activist. Born into a Roman Catholic family, he was brought up in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, Northern Ireland. At 16, he left Belfast to train as a priest in a north Wales seminary. He joined the Provisional IRA in 1969. In 1976, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his leading role in the Bayardo Bar attack which left 4 civilians dead, injuring other 50 others. Early years McFarlane was brought up in a strongly religious Catholic family in the Irish Republican Ardoyne area of North Belfast. He served as an altar boy at the local church, and at the age of 17 joined a missionary school in Wales, where he began training to become a priest. McFarlane joined the Provisional IRA when he was 18 years old, following the outbreak of The Troubles, after he had witnessed the violent disturbances first-hand in 1969. Bayardo Bar attack In 1976, McFarlane was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SDLP
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The SDLP party platform advocates Irish reunification and, pending the unity of all the people of Ireland and while the northern jurisdiction remains part of the United Kingdom, further devolution of powers. It is a sister party of the UK Labour Party, which maintains an electoral pact with the SDLP not to stand candidates in Northern Ireland but to support SDLP candidates instead. MPs from the SDLP sit with Labour MPs on the government benches when Labour is in power, but do not take the Labour whip, though they informally did so historically. During the Troubles, the SDLP was the most popular Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland, but since the Provisional IRA ceasefire in 1994, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1981 Irish Hunger Strike
The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaelic Football
Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kicking or palming the ball into the other team's Goal (sport), goal (3 points) or between two upright posts above the goal and over a crossbar above the ground (1 point). Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, bouncing, kicking, hand-passing, and soloing (dropping the ball and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands). In the game, two types of scores are possible: points and goals. A point is awarded for kicking or hand-passing the ball over the crossbar, signalled by the umpire raising a white flag. Two points are awarded if the ball is kicked over the crossbar from a 40 metre range marked by a D-shaped arc, signalled by the umpire raising an orange flag. A goal is awarded for kicking the ball ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard O'Rawe
Richard O’Rawe (born 1953) is an Irish author and former republican activist. He has written several books about The Troubles. Background Richard O'Rawe was born in 1953 and spent the first fourteen years of his life in the Lower Falls district of Belfast. His home was at the corner of Peel Street and Mary Street. Nearby lived Gerry Conlon. In 1970, his home in Peel Street was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area and he and his family moved to Ballymurphy, a new housing estate. At this time, The Troubles was developing. In 1971, the Ballymurphy massacre occurred in which eleven civilians were killed by the British Army. The following year, there was the Battle at Springmartin nearby. As a result of the heightened conflict in the area, O'Rawe got involved in Irish republican politics. He was later arrested and imprisoned in Crumlin Road gaol and then in Long Kesh prison. Role in the hunger strikes In Long Kesh prison in 1981, he was Provisional IRA press of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Biscuits
United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In November 2014, the company was acquired by Yıldız Holding and is now part of Pladis. United Biscuits manufactures in a number of countries across Europe, such as the Netherlands, France and Belgium. It also has a manufacturing site in India. The company's headquarters is in Chiswick Business Park in west London. History United Biscuits (UB) was formed in 1948 by a merger of two Scottish family businesses: McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang. In 1962, United Biscuits acquired William Crawford & Sons, a Scottish baker founded in Leith in 1813, for £6 million. In 1965, the company also acquired William MacDonald & Sons for £2.8 million, and brought the Penguin brand to the group. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Protest
The dirty protest (also called the no wash protest) was part of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners held in the Maze Prison (also known as "Long Kesh") and a protest at Armagh Women's Prison in Northern Ireland. In March 1978 some prisoners refused to leave their cells to shower or use the lavatory because of attacks by prison officers, and the inmates would later start smearing excrement on the walls of their cells. Background Convicted paramilitary prisoners were treated as ordinary criminals until July 1972, when Special Category Status was introduced following a hunger strike by 40 IRA prisoners led by the veteran republican Billy McKee. Special Category (or political) status meant prisoners were treated very much like prisoners of war, for example, not having to wear prison uniforms or do prison work. In 1976, as part of the policy of "criminalisation", the British Gover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Category Status
In July 1972, William Whitelaw, the Conservative British government's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, granted Special Category Status (SCS) to all prisoners serving sentences in Northern Ireland for Troubles-related offences. This had been one of the conditions set by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) when they negotiated a meeting with the government to discuss a truce. Special category (or "political") status was '' de facto'' prisoner of war (POW) status, providing them with some of the privileges of POWs, such as those specified in the Geneva Conventions. This meant prisoners did not have to wear prison uniforms or do prison work, were housed within their paramilitary factions, and were allowed extra visits and food parcels. SCS was introduced in 1972 by William Whitelaw while serving as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. That year, Whitelaw explained the status in the House of Commons, while denying that political status had been granted: In Januar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maze Prison
HM Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as the Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to September 2000. On 15 October 1974 Irish Republican internees burned 21 of the compounds used to house the internees thereby destroying much of Long Kesh. The prison was situated at the former Royal Air Force station of Long Kesh, on the outskirts of Lisburn. This was in the townland of Maze, about southwest of Belfast. The prison and its inmates were involved in such events as the 1981 hunger strike. The prison was closed in 2000 and demolition began on 30 October 2006, but on 18 April 2013 it was announced by the Northern Ireland Executive that the remaining buildings would be redeveloped into a peace centre, however these plans were later abandoned. Background Following the introduction of internment in 1971, Operation Demetrius was implemented by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miami Showband Killings
The Miami Showband killings (also called the Miami Showband massacre) was an attack on 31 July 1975 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. Five people were killed, including three members of The Miami Showband, who were one of Ireland's most popular cabaret bands. The band was travelling home to Dublin late at night after a performance in Banbridge. Halfway to Newry, their minibus was stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint where gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered them to line up by the roadside. At least four of the gunmen were soldiers from the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), and all were members of the UVF. Two of the gunmen, both soldiers, died when a time bomb they were hiding on the minibus exploded prematurely. The other gunmen then started shooting the dazed band members, killing three and wounding two. It has been suggested tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miami Showband
The Miami Showband were an Irish showband in the 1960s and 1970s led firstly in 1962 by singer Jimmy Harte, followed by Dickie Rock and later by Fran O'Toole. They had seven number-one records on the Irish singles chart. The band's career was interrupted at the height of their fame when three members – Fran O'Toole, Tony Geraghty, and Brian McCoy – were killed in 1975 by loyalist terrorists, in a botched attack initially intended to convince the United Kingdom government that the band had been involved in smuggling explosives across the Irish border. The band reformed in 1976 but would disband in 1982, later reuniting and reforming. The Miami Showband played their final gig in 2015. Career The band was established in Dublin in 1962 by impresario Tom Doherty. He recruited an existing group, the Downbeats Quartet, comprising Joe Tyrell (piano), Tony Bogan (drums), Clem Quinn (guitar), and Martin Phelan (saxophone), and augmented them with singer Jimmy Harte who at the time wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Taylor (journalist)
Peter Robert Taylor is a British journalist, writer and documentary-maker. He is best known for his coverage of the political and armed conflict in Northern Ireland, widely known as the Troubles, and for his investigation of Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism in the wake of 9/11. He also covers the issue of smoking and health and the politics of tobacco for which he was awarded the WHO Gold Medal for Services to Public Health. He has written books and researched, written and presented television documentaries over a period of more than forty years. In 2014, Taylor was awarded both a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award. Early life Taylor was born in 1942 in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, and was educated at Scarborough High School for Boys, a state boys' grammar school, followed by Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read classics, Modern History and Social and Political Sciences. Career Taylor's career reporting on political ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
