The year was 1976, and Ireland was set to explode:
The Irish Republican Army had just killed ten more Protestant men;
Northern Ireland then lost control of their government – to England.
Contemptible butchery on religious grounds continued, the stories told
Of neighbour against neighbour, guerrillas imprisoned for murder and unrest.
In August, three children were killed by a car as a fugitive was shot by the Brits.
Ten thousand women gathered to protest for Peace, at the end of their wits –
The ‘Troubles,’ they’d called it – soft war with no winner, as all could attest.
A witness who ran to the car, Betty Williams, determined the terror must cease,
While the aunt of the children who died, Mairead Corrigan, helped her organize for Peace.
These women were working class gals who’d grown up in Catholic Belfast.
Their impact, while somewhat short-lived, was, in hindsight, the knock on a door:*
“The cycle of violence must stop,” co-existence in Peace cannot be ignored.
The message, guerrillas, religions, politicians? Peace must be explored.
June Edvenson 