The Price of my Soul by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

ĭevlin punched Reginald Maudling, the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the Conservative government, when he made a statement to Parliament on Bloody Sunday stating that the British Army had fired only in self-defence. She was later infuriated that she was consistently denied the chance to speak in Parliament, although parliamentary convention decreed that any MP witnessing an incident under discussion would be granted an opportunity to speak about it in Parliament. Bloody Sundayĭevlin witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday. This documentary included footage of Devlin during the 'Battle of the Bogside'. ĭirector/producer John Goldschmidt made the major documentary film 'Bernadette Devlin' for ATV which was shown on ITV in the UK and on CBS's 60 Minutes in the USA.

After being re-elected in the 1970 general election, Devlin declared that she would sit in Parliament as an independent socialist. She had actively engaged, on the side of the residents, in the ' Battle of the Bogside'. Her radical left-wing politics resulted in conviction of incitement to riot in December 1969. Many Catholics approved of her activities, while many Protestants were critical of her and referred to her as a ' Fidel Castro in a miniskirt.' Her 1969 book, The Price of My Soul, publicised discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland. She made her maiden speech on her 22nd birthday, within an hour of taking her seat. ĭevlin stood on the slogan 'I will take my seat and fight for your rights' – signalling her rejection of the traditional Irish republican tactic of abstentionism (being absent from Westminster). At age 21, she was the youngest MP at the time, and remains the youngest woman elected. When George Forrest, the MP for Mid Ulster, died, she fought the subsequent by-election on the ' Unity' ticket, defeating a female Unionist candidate, Forrest's widow Anna, and was elected to the Westminster Parliament. She opposed James Chichester-Clark in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969.

Devlin was subsequently excluded from the university. She was studying Psychology at Queen's University Belfast in 1968 when she took a prominent role in a student-led civil rights organisation, People's Democracy. She attended St Patrick's Girls Academy in Dungannon. 2.4 Support for hunger strike prisonersĭevlin was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone and raised as a Roman Catholic.She served as a Member of Parliament at Westminster from 1969 to 1974 for the Mid Ulster constituency.

Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born 23 April 1947, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist. Irish Republican Socialist Party (1974-1976)Ītheism (Formerly Roman Catholicism ) A mural by the Bogside Artists in Derry's Bogside, depicting DevlinĬookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland

The Price of my Soul by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey