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Protesters are primed for Thatcher By Leslie Gray Streeter Dispatch/Sunday News |
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The York Dispatch |
"She pretty much gets protested wherever she goes." |
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When former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher speaks in York next week, about 100 Irish activists from across the state and the country are expected to be there. |
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James McGuigan, of the York County Division 1 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, said that people from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey will protest Thatcher's treatment of Irish prisoners worldwide. |
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"This protest is not only about Margaret Thatcher and what she did in office, but also about the types of things going on in Ireland and in the United States now," he said. |
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Thatcher will speak at the Strand-Capitol Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday at 7:30, as part of the Junior League of York's "In the Spotlight" speaker series. |
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The demonstration is being organized by the Hibernians, which promotes Irish culture and heritage, and the Irish Northern Aid Committee, a New York-based nonprofit organization that raises funds for the families of Irish political prisoners in Ireland, Britain, and the United States. |
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"Part of it is to let her know we haven't forgotten what her policies were while she was in charge and to let people know what's going on," said McGuigan, a Hanover resident. |
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Choice not political: |
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Yvonne Bland, chair elect for the Junior League's public relations committee, said she was informed of the planned protest yesterday by reporters. |
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She said that the choice of Thatcher as a speaker was in no way a political statement. |
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"The Junior League is presenting Lady Margaret Thatcher as a cultural and educational opportunity for the community," Bland said. "It was not meant in any way to endorse or support any political position." |
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McGuigan said his group holds Thatcher responsible for the deaths of 10 Irish political prisoners who died in a hunger strike in the Long Kesh prison in 1981. |
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The prisoners were protesting their loss of political prisoner status, on Thatcher's authority, he said. |
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"Their basic points were that they wanted permission to wear their own clothes, to freely associate with other prisoners-they were literally caged up," he said. "It was nothing worth dying over." |
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The group hopes to raise awareness in the U.S. of the terse situation in Ireland, something he thinks is lacking. The most recent cease fire between Protestant and Catholic factions ended earlier this year. |
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McGuigan, one of 35 members of the local Hibernians, founded in 1995, said he had called the Junior League office to inform them of the protest but had only gotten a recording. |
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"I don't blame them," he said. "I know they do good work for kids and things, and they're trying to generate good money and get a good speaker. Last year I hear they had Colin Powell. I would have preferred him to her." |
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McGuigan said his group was particularly upset that Thatcher will appear two days after the 16th anniversary of the death of Irish activist Bobby Sands. |
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Thatcher has spoken other places on or around the anniversary of Sands' death, although McGuigan said he couldn't say if that was intentional. |
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"She pretty much gets protested wherever she goes," he said |
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The Ancient Order of Hibernians started in Ireland in the 1500s as a secret society to protect Catholic priests from English soldiers seeking to arrest them. |
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It was established in this country in New York, in 1836, during a period when Irish immigrants "weren't really welcome in the U.S.," McGuigan said. |
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"The way I look at it, there's not a whole lot we can do regarding Margaret Thatcher," he said. "Her time is over, although she's still kinda influential. We want to get people to know about what's happening now." |
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The former prime minister will be just one of the notable national and international figures to appear in York as part of the Junior League's speaker series. Other speakers include Powell, humorist Art Buchwald and Olympic speed skater Bonnie Blair . |
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The York Dispatch |