1999 (2 page)

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Authors: Morgan Llywelyn

BOOK: 1999
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McGee, Mary:
Married woman living in Skerries, County Dublin.

McGuinness, Martin (b. 1950):
Born in the Bogside of Derry, Northern Ireland; by the time he was 21 he was O/C of the Derry Brigade of the IRA; in 1972 was one of a seven-member delegation invited to London for peace talks with Willie Whitelaw; married his wife, Bernie, while he was on the run—the priest who married them was Fr. Denis Bradley; in 1973 McGuinness was arrested for membership in the IRA; in 1975 was director of operations for the Northern Command of the IRA; became chief of staff in 1978; resigned in 1982 to devote himself to republican politics; appointed as Sinn Féin's chief negotiator; elected MP for Mid-Ulster; served as minister for education in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

MacStiofáin, Seán (John Stephenson) (1928–2001):
London-born and half-English; served in the Royal Air Force 1945–48; joined the IRA shortly afterwards; appointed director of intelligence in 1966; chief of staff of the Provisional IRA 1969–72.

MacThomáis, Éamonn (Éamonn Patrick Thomas) (1927–2002):
Patriot, historian, writer, Dubliner. Joined both Sinn Féin and the IRA in the fifties; became treasurer of Sinn Féin; manager and contributor to the
United Irishman
; Dublin O/C at the start of the Border Campaign; arrested in 1957 and interned in Curragh Camp; released in 1959; became editor of
An Phoblacht
in 1972; arrested again in 1973; upon release was again editor of
An Phoblacht
; rearrested within two months and sentenced to fifteen months in prison for allegedly possessing an IRA press bulletin; author of numerous books about Dublin; creator and presenter of RTE series during the seventies on the history of Dublin; conducted numerous walking tours of Dublin; lecturer and Keeper of the House of Lords Chamber in the Bank of Ireland on College Green, Dublin, 1988–2002.

Macken, Eddie:
Member of numerous Irish show-jumping teams.

Magee, Patrick:
Irish republican convicted of the Brighton bombing in 1984.

Major, John (b. 1943):
Entered the House of Commons during the Conservative Party landslide in 1979; junior minister in 1986; in 1989 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed him to the cabinet post of foreign secretary; subsequently served as chancellor of the Exchequer; on November 28, 1990, Major became leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister after Thatcher resigned.

Mallon, Séamus (b. 1936):
Born in Markethill, County Armagh; schoolteacher; civil rights activist; SDLP spokesperson on law and order from 1982; deputy first minister of Northern Ireland 1998–99; deputy leader SDLP 1979–2001 MP for Newry and Armagh 1986–2005.

Mansergh, Martin (b. 1946):
Personal and political adviser to Charles J. Haughey.

Maxwell, Sir John Grenville:
British general who took command in Ireland after the 1916 Rising and ordered the executions of the leaders.

Mayhew, Sir Patrick:
Attorney general in Northern Ireland; appointed secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 1992.

Meir, Golda (1898–1978):
A founder of the State of Israel and its fourth prime minister, serving from 1969 to 1974.

Morrison, Danny (b. 1953):
Volunteer; editor of the
Republican News
; national director of publicity for Sinn Féin in the eighties.

Mr. Justice Gannon:
Appointed as a judge in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Mowlam, Mo (1949–2005):
Lecturer at Newcastle University until 1983; senior administrator at Northern College, Barnsley, until her election as MP 1987; opposition spokeswoman on Northern Ireland 1987–89; opposition spokeswoman on trade and industry 1990–92; opposition spokeswoman on Citizens' Charter and Women's Affairs 1992–93; shadow national heritage secretary 1993–94; shadow Northern Ireland secretary 1994–97; secretary of state, Northern Ireland 1997–99.

Newman, Sir Kenneth (b. 1926):
Served with the British police in Palestine; a commander with the Metropolitan Police in London; then a deputy chief constable in Northern Ireland; was appointed chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1976.

Nixon, Richard Milhous (1913–94):
Vice president of the United States 1953–61; thirty-seventh president of the United States 1969–1974.

Nugent, Ciaran:
Member of the IRA and first of the “Blanket Men” in the H-Blocks.

Ó Brádaigh, Ruairí (Rory Brady) (b. 1932):
Born in County Longford; graduated from University College, Dublin; taught school in County Roscommon; joined Sinn Féin in 1950; joined the IRA in 1951; Sinn Féin TD for Longford-Westmeath 1975; IRA chief of staff 1958–59 and 1961–62; when the republican movement split in 1970 became the first president of Provisional Sinn Féin; lost leadership to Gerry Adams in 1983; leader of faction that left Sinn Féin to form Republican Sinn Féin.

O'Callaghan, Sean:
IRA informer.

Ó Conaill, Dáithí (David O'Connell) (1938–91):
Schoolteacher from Cork; joined Sinn Féin in 1955; subsequently joined the IRA; second in command to Seán Garland in the 1956 Border Campaign; lost a lung to a bullet wound; member of the Army Council.

Ó Dálaigh, Cearbhall (1911–78):
Born in Bray, County Wicklow; called to the bar in 1934; became senior counsel in 1945; supreme court judge 1953; chief justice 1961; elected president of Ireland in 1974.

O'Donnell, Mary:
Noted Irish fashion designer born in County Donegal; trained with Mainbocher and with Sybil Connolly before going into business for herself in 1963.

Ó Fíaich, Cardinal Tomás (1923–90):
Historian and cardinal of the Church; born in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, shortly after partition; ordained in 1948; lecturer in modern history at Maynooth 1953; professor 1959; college president 1974; named archbishop of Armagh in 1977; elevated to cardinal in 1979.

O'Hanlon, Feargal:
IRA Volunteer killed during the Brookeborough raid.

O'Leary, Michael (1936–2006):
Tanaiste
under Garret FitzGerald.

O'Malley, Desmond (b. 1939):
Politician who succeeded his uncle Donagh O'Malley as a TD for Limerick East; parliamentary secretary to Taoiseach Jack Lynch in 1969; minister for justice 1970–73; strongly anti-IRA, O'Malley introduced a special no-jury court to deal with militant republicanism. Appointed minister for industry and commerce in 1977, O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985 for refusing to follow the party line and went on to found the Progressive Democrats.

Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza (1919–80):
Shah of Iran 1941–79. The shah's efforts at modernisation produced strong economic growth that transformed his country; however his friendship with both the United States and Israel, and his support of women's rights, turned the religious fundamentalists against him. He appealed to the United States for help but it was not forthcoming; he was driven from power in 1979 and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who established a religious revolutionary regime.

Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle (b. 1926):
Born in Armagh, the son of James Kyle Paisley, originally a Baptist minister, and his wife Isabella; eventually moved to the Reformed Presbyterian Church; at sixteen young Ian attended a fundamentalist college in South Wales. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in August 1946. Later he would found his own church, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, with a strong separatist and fundamentalist theology. From the beginning Ian Paisley was dedicated to the condemnation of Catholicism. His fire-and-brimstone speeches won a wide following among working-class Ulster Protestants, and inspired an extreme, militant sectarianism calling itself “loyalism.” Upon founding the Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, Paisley led his followers away from the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party. After a lifetime spent in political manoeuvring, in 2007 Ian Paisley finally became first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Prisoners identified by name in the Cages and the H-Blocks.

Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1911–2004):
Radio sports announcer; film actor; president of the Screen Actors Guild; governor of California 1967–74; fortieth president of the United States 1981–89.

Rees, Merlyn (1920–2006):
The son of a Welsh coal miner, Rees joined the Labour Party; named as shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 1972; became secretary of state for Northern Ireland 1974–76; promoted to home secretary in 1976.

Reid, Fr. Alec:
Redemptorist priest from Clonard Monastery who acted as mediator in various republican feuds; brought Sinn Féin and the SDLP together for talks in 1988; gave artificial respiration to two British army men who were dragged from their vehicle and killed after they drove into the funeral of Volunteer Kevin Brady in 1988; was one of the two independent clerical witnesses to the final act of IRA decommissioning in 2005.

Reynolds, Albert (b. 1932):
Businessman and politician; member of Fianna Fáil; elected to Dáil Éireann as TD for Longford-Roscommon in 1977; minister for finance (1988–91); minister for industry and commerce (1987–88); minister for industry and energy (1982); minister for posts and telegraphs and transport (1979–81); eighth
taoiseach
of the Republic of Ireland 1992–94.

Robinson, Mary (b. 1944):
Academic; barrister; civil rights campaigner; member of the Irish Senate 1969–89; elected Ireland's first female president in 1990.

Sands, Bobby (1954–81):
Born in Belfast; during his youth loyalist harassment forced his family to move twice; Sands left school at fifteen to become an apprentice coach-builder; joined the IRA while still in his teens; arrested for IRA membership in 1972; sentenced in 1973 to five years' imprisonment in Long Kesh; studied Irish in prison; released in April of 1976; rearrested in October of that year for possession of a gun; sentenced to fourteen years; arrived in the H-Blocks in September 1977; wrote articles under the pen name “Marcella” for the republican press; first man to go on hunger strike on March 1, 1981; in the April by-election Sands stood for the British Parliament and won, defeating the Unionist candidate; died on May 5, his sixty-sixth day without food.

Shankill Butchers and victims:
As named in text and according to police sources.

Spence, Gusty (b. 1933):
Born in the Shankill area of Belfast; joined the Royal Ulster Rifles in 1957 and served in Cyprus; joined the UVF in 1965 as commanding officer of the Shankill unit; arrested in 1972 and imprisoned in the Maze; resigned from the UVF in 1978; in 1991 became commander of combined loyalist forces that declared a ceasefire in 1994.

Stalker, John (b. 1945):
Served on the police force of Manchester, England, for over twenty years; in 1978 promoted to head of the Warwickshire CID; in 1984 named deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester.

Stephenson, Sam:
Irish architect who designed Dublin Civic Offices at Wood Quay.

Stone, Michael “Flint”:
Loyalist gunman convicted of the murders of three men during a funeral at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.

Tebbit, Norman:
Secretary of state for trade and industry in the Thatcher government.

Thain, Ian:
Private in the British army convicted of murdering a northern Catholic and imprisoned for life. Released after only two years and returned to his regiment.

Thatcher, Margaret Hilda, nee Roberts (b. 1925):
Conservative British prime minister known as “The Iron Lady.” Daughter of a grocer who had a minor career in the Conservative Party and eventually became mayor of Grantham. Margaret Roberts was educated at Oxford; worked as a research chemist; married Dennis Thatcher, wealthy oil industry executive; read for the bar and specialised in tax law; elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1959; became a cabinet minister under Edward Heath 1970–74; succeeded Heath as Conservative leader in 1975; became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979; was Britain's longest serving prime minister in the twentieth century before being ousted in 1990 and replaced as head of the Conservative Party and prime minister by John Major.

Twomey, Séamus (1919–89):
Commandant of the Belfast Brigade; succeeded Seán MacStiofáin as chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.

Vidal, Gore (b. 1925):
American novelist; born at West Point; served in the Pacific in World War Two; his works included
Williwaw, The City and the Pillar, Myra Breckinridge, Washington, DC, Burr, 1876,
and
Julian.

Widgery, Lord Chief Justice:
British jurist who conducted the first tribunal to investigate Bloody Sunday.

Wilson, Fr. Des:
Catholic priest from Gerry Adams' parish of West Belfast who became involved early on in conflict resolution in the north; in the 1970s he did much work in the prisons.

Wilson, James Harold (1916–95):
The son of an industrial chemist; educated at Oxford; member of the Labour Party; elected to the House of Commons in 1945; prime minister of the United Kingdom 1964–70, 1974–76.

Wright, Billy (1960–97):
Known as “King Rat,” Wright was the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

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