About this episode
The SS Al RawdahFor the first time ever the families of many of the 207 Republican internees held on the Al Rawdah prison ship between 1940 and 1941 met in Belfast. 85 years after their loved ones were interned on the prison hulk the families came together for the launch of Tom Hartley’s insightful account of that period.At the beginning of his remarks Tom invited the relatives present to stand. There was spontaneous and sustained applause from the rest of the audience. It was an emotional moment, for the relatives and for those watching, in what was an evening of memory and recollection.Mary McConville whose Uncle ‘Rocky’ Burns was held on the Al Rawdah, introduced the event and Tom Hartley explained to the relatives and audience his motivation for writing the book and the forensic approach he took in collecting information. He also drew attention to the poignant fact that two days earlier was the 85 anniversary of the only prisoner to die on the Al Rawdah, John Gaffney, who fell from his hammock and hit his head.Tom reminded us all that following partition in 1920 the Unionist Regime at Stormont moved quickly to consolidate its power and to ensure that nationalists and republicans living in the North posed no threat to their domination. Legislation was introduced to gerrymander electoral boundaries, and deny hundreds of thousands of citizens, mostly nationalist, access to a vote in local elections. Local Councils with nationalist majorities became unionist controlled. Discrimination in employment and housing was built into the structure of the state.A Space in which Dialogue is PossibleLast week Queens University , Belfast and Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) announced a significant new partnership that will establish DKiT as a University College of Queen’s University. The all-island educational and economic potential is enormous. Last week also, the Good Friday Agreement Oireachtas committee was told that survival rates for children with congenital heart conditions on the island of Ireland now match the best results anywhere in the world. This is because of 15 years of co-operation between the health services North and South.To add to this good news, the Shared Island Unit announced an additional €50 million for projects and it emerged that a number of MEPs have written to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola requesting special “observer” status for representatives from the North.The DUP lead
