On This Day / October 29, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
October 29, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 29th October 1971, John Hume rejected Stormont’s authority at the Dungiven Assembly, two Belfast sisters were buried and Faulkner appointed a Catholic minister. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Hume Echoes Carson | On This Day – 29th October 1971
CARSONITE war cries were hurled in the face of Unionism when the Assembly of the Northern Irish people met for the first time in a County Derry ballroom.
It was an intense, determined meeting under the glare of TV floodlights in Dungiven Castle ballroom.
It ran smoothly and quietly and Derry MP Mr John Hume captured the mood of the 100 or so delegates when he recalled Lord Carson’s cry: ‘I do not care tuppence if it’s treason or not’.
Said Mr Hume: ‘Today we do not recognise the authority of the Stormont Parliament and we do not care tuppence whether it’s treason or not’.
He went on to remind delegates that, like Carson, they were not afraid of illegalities.
RUC Station Demolished
SIX policemen and seven civilians were injured last night when a thirty pound gelignite bomb demolished the front of Larne police station.
Two policemen were ‘seriously injured’. An elderly woman was also seriously ill.
Funeral of Shot Sisters
THOUSANDS watched in silent sorrow as two Belfast sisters met for the last time at the junction of Falls Road and Whiterock Road yesterday.
The funeral cortege of Mrs Mary Ellen Meehan (31), mother of four of Bantry Street in the Clonard district, merged with that of her sister, 19-year old Dorothy Maguire of Westrock Drive.
The sisters were killed when Army bullets riddled the car in which they were back seat passengers at Cape Street in the Lower Falls early on Saturday morning when they were on vigilante duty as troops raided a house in the street.
And as thousands made their way from the cemetery, four motherless children, having paid their last respects to their mother, went home to Bantry Street.
Faulkner Appoints Catholic Minister
THE appointment of Mr Gerard B Newe, a Catholic, as Minister of State at the Department of the Prime Minister, was announced yesterday by Mr Faulkner.
The PM said he was asking Mr Newe ‘to consider how best to establish and maintain contact with the various elements of the Catholic population’ and ‘in doing so I am recognising the importance of letting it be clearly seen that the point of view of the religious minority in NI is adequately taken into account by the Government’.
Mr Newe said he recognised that he had no mandate from anybody.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Though it soon ran out of steam, the Dungiven Assembly symbolised the withdrawal of nationalist consent for Stormont rule.
Faulkner’s appointment of the unelected GB Newe was seen as a stunt by a desperate Premier.
The two sisters shot dead by troops in disputed circumstances were members of Cumann na mBan.)
On This Day – 29th October 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.