• Richard McAuley looks down after the British Army attempt to burn down 51/53 Falls Road with a flaming car in August 1980
A PAPER ON-THE-RUN BY RICHARD McAULEY There are some dates that stick in everyone’s memory. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Historical events. One such for me is the date of the first edition of the merged An Phoblacht/ Republican News (AP/RN) which was published on 27 January, 1979. I remember it well. The previous day, I had gotten out of Long Kesh. That’s
the real date I remember. AP/RN is incidental. However, two weeks later, I was in the AP/RN office at 170 Falls Road - which doubled up as the Republican Press Centre. I was working for both. For a time in the Kesh, I was the camp PRO with responsibility for writing statements on behalf of the prisoners, letters to
anphoblacht UIMHIR EISIÚNA 4 - 2020 - ISSUE NUMBER 4
the media, and, occasionally, articles for those outlets that would take them, including Republican News. Somebody, somewhere decided that that made me a fit for AP/RN and the Press Office. The previous year, the Brits and RUC had arrested the Republican News editor Danny Morrison and others in an attempt to close down the paper.
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