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Updated
Friday, 4th June 2021, 1:37 pm
Independent Republican Richard O’Rawe speaking at the commemoration for the 1981 hunger strikers and the anniversary of Volunteers George McBrearty and Charles ‘Pop’ Maguire, held at Rathkeele Way on Sunday afternoon last. DER2122GS - 009
The new ‘Tree of the Republic’ - a native silver birch - was embedded beneath the George McBrearty mural in Rathkeele Way to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing of George and Charles by undercover British soldiers at the bottom of Southway on May 28, 1981, at the height of the H-block protest.
Speaking to the ‘Journal’ this week, Mr. O’Rawe, said: “The whole commemoration was very poignant and moving. This one had something very special about it. It was so well done.”
What we least expect in life can suddenly occur and impact us like a crashing wave.
Niall O’Dowd, Publisher,
Irish America
Such was the impact of the COVID-19 virus that arrived like a medieval plague in early 2020 spreading contagion and death to the four corners of the earth.
Suddenly, what we had only imagined through historical accounts of other plagues was upon us forcing a crisis like none other. The world faced its gravest crisis since World War II with a defenseless population in over 140 countries suddenly in a fight for their very lives.
At the beginning most efforts seemed like those of King Canute seeking to hold the very waves of the ocean back.