On This Day / May 10, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19710510
Reference Date
19710510
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 10th May 1971, an explosion killed the mother of loyalist leader John McKeague, while Easter Rising figure James Connolly’s son Roddy spoke in Belfast of socialism and political transformation in Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Loyalist’s Mother Dies in Explosion | On This Day – 10th May 1971
THREE men who spent all day assisting police with their investigation into a weekend Belfast explosion and fire in which an elderly woman died left Mountpottinger police station last night.
They had been there since soon after the blast on Albertbridge Road demolished a ground floor shop and sent flames roaring through the flat above.
The woman who died was Mrs Isabella McKeague, mother of Mr John McKeague, the militant Protestant leader and chairman of Shankill Defence Committee.
He shared the flat with his mother who was in her seventies but was away on a camping trip at the time of the explosion.
The theory is not being discounted in the investigation in that the two-stick gelignite bomb, believed to have been placed or thrown against the front door of the shop, was put there in the belief that Mrs McKeague was also absent from home.
There was speculation it was a ‘grudge’ attack on Mr McKeague’s home by other Protestants.
An RUC spokesman said: ‘We believe that there is no sectarian significance in the incident’.
Mrs McKeague suffered from arthritis. When she appeared at the front window of the blazing flat neighbours urged her to jump to safety as they waited to catch her on the pavement. But because of her infirmity she refused.
Connolly’s Son on ‘Workers’ Republic’
THE political situation in the 26 Counties was undergoing a transformation more complete than ever before.
So said Mr Roddy Connolly, chairman of the Irish Labour Party, speaking as a fraternal delegate at the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast.
Mr Connolly, son of the executed 1916 leader, said Fianna Fail for the first time in its history was torn by dissention and the present situation was pregnant with political possibilities.
In his view, the Labour Party will continue to be the strongest democratic force south or north of the border.
The view of the party was that socialism in Ireland was indivisible.
The working class, North and South had a common interest in the complete transformation of society politically as well as economically.
In the ultimate analysis, no border could divide a Workers’ State in the North from a similarly constituted state in the South.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: John McKeague (1930-82) emerged as a leading Loyalist firebrand in 1969 when he admitted invading the Falls at the head of a mob.
As editor of the viciously sectarian Loyalist News, he was prosecuted but acquitted under Stormont’s Incitement to Hatred Act.
He was assassinated by the INLA in 1982. Roddy Connolly had been in the GPO with his father In 1916.)
On This Day – 10th May 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710510
Reference Date
19710510
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 10th May 1971, an explosion killed the mother of loyalist leader John McKeague, while Easter Rising figure James Connolly’s son Roddy spoke in Belfast of socialism and political transformation in Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Loyalist’s Mother Dies in Explosion | On This Day – 10th May 1971
THREE men who spent all day assisting police with their investigation into a weekend Belfast explosion and fire in which an elderly woman died left Mountpottinger police station last night.
They had been there since soon after the blast on Albertbridge Road demolished a ground floor shop and sent flames roaring through the flat above.
The woman who died was Mrs Isabella McKeague, mother of Mr John McKeague, the militant Protestant leader and chairman of Shankill Defence Committee.
He shared the flat with his mother who was in her seventies but was away on a camping trip at the time of the explosion.
The theory is not being discounted in the investigation in that the two-stick gelignite bomb, believed to have been placed or thrown against the front door of the shop, was put there in the belief that Mrs McKeague was also absent from home.
There was speculation it was a ‘grudge’ attack on Mr McKeague’s home by other Protestants.
An RUC spokesman said: ‘We believe that there is no sectarian significance in the incident’.
Mrs McKeague suffered from arthritis. When she appeared at the front window of the blazing flat neighbours urged her to jump to safety as they waited to catch her on the pavement. But because of her infirmity she refused.
Connolly’s Son on ‘Workers’ Republic’
THE political situation in the 26 Counties was undergoing a transformation more complete than ever before.
So said Mr Roddy Connolly, chairman of the Irish Labour Party, speaking as a fraternal delegate at the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast.
Mr Connolly, son of the executed 1916 leader, said Fianna Fail for the first time in its history was torn by dissention and the present situation was pregnant with political possibilities.
In his view, the Labour Party will continue to be the strongest democratic force south or north of the border.
The view of the party was that socialism in Ireland was indivisible.
The working class, North and South had a common interest in the complete transformation of society politically as well as economically.
In the ultimate analysis, no border could divide a Workers’ State in the North from a similarly constituted state in the South.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: John McKeague (1930-82) emerged as a leading Loyalist firebrand in 1969 when he admitted invading the Falls at the head of a mob.
As editor of the viciously sectarian Loyalist News, he was prosecuted but acquitted under Stormont’s Incitement to Hatred Act.
He was assassinated by the INLA in 1982. Roddy Connolly had been in the GPO with his father In 1916.)
On This Day – 10th May 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710510
Reference Date
May 10, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 10th May 1971, an explosion killed the mother of loyalist leader John McKeague, while Easter Rising figure James Connolly’s son Roddy spoke in Belfast of socialism and political transformation in Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Loyalist’s Mother Dies in Explosion | On This Day – 10th May 1971
THREE men who spent all day assisting police with their investigation into a weekend Belfast explosion and fire in which an elderly woman died left Mountpottinger police station last night.
They had been there since soon after the blast on Albertbridge Road demolished a ground floor shop and sent flames roaring through the flat above.
The woman who died was Mrs Isabella McKeague, mother of Mr John McKeague, the militant Protestant leader and chairman of Shankill Defence Committee.
He shared the flat with his mother who was in her seventies but was away on a camping trip at the time of the explosion.
The theory is not being discounted in the investigation in that the two-stick gelignite bomb, believed to have been placed or thrown against the front door of the shop, was put there in the belief that Mrs McKeague was also absent from home.
There was speculation it was a ‘grudge’ attack on Mr McKeague’s home by other Protestants.
An RUC spokesman said: ‘We believe that there is no sectarian significance in the incident’.
Mrs McKeague suffered from arthritis. When she appeared at the front window of the blazing flat neighbours urged her to jump to safety as they waited to catch her on the pavement. But because of her infirmity she refused.
Connolly’s Son on ‘Workers’ Republic’
THE political situation in the 26 Counties was undergoing a transformation more complete than ever before.
So said Mr Roddy Connolly, chairman of the Irish Labour Party, speaking as a fraternal delegate at the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast.
Mr Connolly, son of the executed 1916 leader, said Fianna Fail for the first time in its history was torn by dissention and the present situation was pregnant with political possibilities.
In his view, the Labour Party will continue to be the strongest democratic force south or north of the border.
The view of the party was that socialism in Ireland was indivisible.
The working class, North and South had a common interest in the complete transformation of society politically as well as economically.
In the ultimate analysis, no border could divide a Workers’ State in the North from a similarly constituted state in the South.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: John McKeague (1930-82) emerged as a leading Loyalist firebrand in 1969 when he admitted invading the Falls at the head of a mob.
As editor of the viciously sectarian Loyalist News, he was prosecuted but acquitted under Stormont’s Incitement to Hatred Act.
He was assassinated by the INLA in 1982. Roddy Connolly had been in the GPO with his father In 1916.)
On This Day – 10th May 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.