6 minute read
Danny Morrison
EXCERPTS FROM DANNY MORRISON’S AUGUST 1971 DIARY
DANNY MORRISON was 18 and a student when internment was introduced. He lived in the Broadway/Iveagh/Beechmount area of the Falls in Belfast. The following account is based on a diary he kept during that time
1971 AUGUST MONDAY 9
Listened to the radio. The first news of the day said that a soldier’s been shot dead and there’s rioting in all nationalist parts of Belfast, in Derry, Newry and Omagh.
Outside our house there was shouting and screaming. There’s been raids and arrests and talk that ‘they’ve introduced internment’.
We began putting up barricades, which we’d last done in August 1969. Two on Broadway and one across Beechmount Avenue. Side streets on the Falls being kept clear for access for fighting. Milk bottles collected for petrol bombs.
We rioted at the top of Iveagh Parade, the neighbours in other streets out in huge numbers. When armoured cars or military jeeps flew past we let them have everything we’d got — bricks, rocks, stones, hammers, wrenches, petrol bombs — then swarmed onto the main road to retrieve weapons and show the retreating soldiers the numbers against them, that we despise them.
Mostly young but older ones also threw and those who couldn’t riot made us sandwiches and sent drinks up to the street corner. Incredible sense of morale.
Heard another two people have been killed. Heard shooting throughout the day, coming from the Murph or Whiterock. Radio Free Belfast’s back on air. Broadcasting messages of resistance, playing republican songs and telling people to be wary of rumours.
Rioted as long as the soldiers came, never feeling exhausted. Swede said we should get on top of the Co-Op roof and drop paint and bottles of petrol onto the armoured cars speeding past, then further along people could set them alight with petrol bombs to immobilise them.
Saw that bastard Brian Faulkner on TV announcing they’d introduced internment. Hateful. Only ones arrested have been Catholics.
Coming across Beechmount after midnight shots were fired close to us but we could see no Brits out on foot. Later learnt that the Brits shot and wounded Marty Devine at the corner of Beechmount Drive. There was more heavy shooting around Broadway and the Donegal Road.
Heard that ten people were now dead. Go to bed for a few hours.
1971 AUGUST TUESDAY 10
The Brits tried to take down our barricades and we resisted.
Two soldiers in Andersonstown and another two in the Lower Falls wounded by snipers.
Rioting broke out from Broadway to Beechmount. We were out in even greater numbers, then the Brits opened fire and several struck the wall in Islandbawn Street. Later, they got out of a Saracen at the Avenue and took up positions in Daly’s Garage.
We replied with stones and bottles. Was standing at the top of Iveagh Drive when a soldier fired at me. Bullet went through the window of the Squirrel sweetie shop. He fired again and this time the bullet struck the ground a few feet in front of me and ricocheted, striking the gable wall in the entry behind me. Eventually we were pinned down with the Brits at Beechmount Avenue firing shots every now and then to keep the road clear. Heard that Eddie Doherty from Iveagh Street was shot dead by Brits on the Whiterock. He’s married with kids.
Met a nurse from the country. She was doing first aid on people who were injured, including my cousin Thomas McKee. Her name’s Carmel. She’s about two or three years older than me. I’ve no chance. She’s in digs on the front of the road.
Around about 11pm there was a rumour of trouble at the Broadway barricade. Lads were sent down. Me and Tony Taylor remained at the top of the Parade, next to the big ‘Guin-
ness is Good For You’ billboard. Suddenly shots rang out and we dived to the ground. The shots went through the advertisement. My elbows were bleeding. Swede’s brotherin-law Gerry Deery gave me plasters and we went out again. The heavy shooting continued but it was all the Brits. Had a huge row with a local IRA man. Lads were screaming at him and giving him abuse. Why weren’t the IRA firing back? Where were they? If you don’t want to use your guns given them to us. He took as much as he could, then turned and walked away. [It was only later that I learnt that the IRA had ordered no action in Beechmount. It wanted the area quiet so that they could meet in safe houses there and organise operations.]
1971 AUGUST WEDNESDAY 11
I got a few hours sleep but was woke at twenty past four by the sound of bin lids. I jumped out of bed and went out but the raids must have been in Rodney and St James. The noise of banging bin lids was continuous. The brickyard at the top of Beechmount was set alight. There was more rioting and the number killed so far is twenty-two or more. There are no deliveries and the women have walked down to the loyalist Village area to buy food in the shops there.
We were joined by a group of Dubs who came up give us a hand. Things became quiet but were quite tense. Went home at half two.
• When armoured cars or military jeeps flew past we let them have everything we’d got — bricks, rocks, stones, hammers, wrenches, petrol bombs — then swarmed onto the main road to retrieve weapons
1971 AUGUST THURSDAY 12
McCavanagh’s next door was hit in the early hours. Brits took away Danny McCavanagh, Jim Duff, Noel Maguire and one of the Dublin lads, Frank Power, who was staying there. Women came out banging bin lids. When I went to go out my mammy cried and begged me not to go. She didn’t want to see me killed. I was conflicted and spent some time in the house until she calmed down, then I went out.
There’s a huge wartime feeling and a sense that we’re all in this together. Peter Fox and I hoisted the Tricolour from the top of the CoOp roof.
Aunty Eileen in England phoned up, wanting the family to move to Bury. Daddy would love to go but mammy would never leave her sisters and brothers or Belfast. Granny Morrison packed up Springview Street and Uncle Gerard, Harriet and kids have cleared out Crocus Street and are on their way to England. Said they’ll not be back.
After we finished rioting tonight a Norwegian photographer from Oslo asked if he could take our pictures. He asked us, ‘Do you consider yourselves revolutionaries?’ Tear it down! Form our own democracy! Yes!
1971 AUGUST FRIDAY 13
During the night hundreds of soldiers removed all our barricades and opened up all streets. It had been pouring down. Not good weather for fighting. Frank Power’s brother Seán arrived from Dublin, worried sick, looking for him. I took him up to Rockmount Road to someone who said they’d seen him in Girdwood Barracks and he was beaten up. We came back down the road and met my mammy who told us Frank had been released. But we couldn’t find him. I got Seán a lift to Clonard Monastery where they’ll give him a room for the night.
Heard shooting from Beechmount tonight. This time is was the IRA.
1971 AUGUST SATURDAY 14
Heard that Frank Power had hitchhiked into the city centre and got the train to Dublin. During all the rioting I never got saying goodbye to our Geraldine who’s gone to live in England and get married. Peter and I walked into town. In Harrison’s record shop I bought 'Avalon' by Mathew Ellis and in Eason’s 'The Irish Republic' by Dorothy Macardle. ■
