BBC
21 June 2006
Prominent Catholic clergyman Monsignor Denis Faul has died at the age of 74 following a long illness.
He first came to prominence in 1969 when he spoke out against the judiciary, claiming Catholics felt judges were biased against them.
While he campaigned against the ill-treatment of prisoners, he also was an outspoken critic of IRA violence.
Archbishop Sean Brady said he "stood up for what he believed in, for the distraught" regardless of background.
Tributes to Monsignor Faul
"With valour and hope he unstintingly gave his advice, assistance and support, never counting the cost or risk to himself," the Catholic Primate of Ireland said.
"He realised clearly that justice is not a casual by-product of peace, but something anterior and fundamental to any lasting peace.
"His whole life was an eloquent testimony that justice requires consistent courage, and that peace must be underpinned by morality at all times."
Renowned
A teacher for more than 40 years, many of which were spent at St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon, Monsignor Faul was renowned for his outspoken views.
He was Catholic chaplain at the Maze prison during the H-Block hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981.
Monsignor Faul was a teacher for more than 40 years
While he strongly opposed the fasts, he also urged the government to introduce prison reform to defuse the crisis.
His efforts in organising meetings of the hunger strikers' families was viewed as instrumental in bringing the protest to an end.
Back in 1969, his criticism of the judiciary in 1969 brought him a rebuke from the then-Catholic Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Conway.
He was strongly critical of the Army and the RUC, while also condemning the Provisional IRA.
In March 1977, he described the IRA campaign as spurious and directly contrary to Catholic teaching. |
Daily Ireland
By Eamonn Houston
Two former republican prisoners who took part in the Long Kesh hunger strikes last night described Monsignor Denis Faul as a man of complex character whose legacy will endure.
Tommy McKearney spent 53 days on the first hunger strike protest in 1980 and Lawrence McKeown was taken off the second fast the following year after 70 days.
As the British government dug in its heels over the prisoners’ demands, Monsignor Faul sought to end the hunger strike by persuading the prisoners’ families to intervene.
On July 28, 1981, as Kevin Lynch approached the 69th day of his fast, Fr Faul met some of the prisoners’ families.
He told them he believed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would not make any further concessions and that nothing could be gained by more deaths.
In earlier years his role as chaplain in Long Kesh won him the respect of prisoners and their families. As the authorities in the North clamped down on republicans with internment and brutality, Monsignor Faul was outspoken in his criticism.
However, for republican prisoners Monsignor Faul’s intervention in the 1981 hunger strike was viewed as a betrayal.
Mr McKearney knew Monsignor Faul all of his life and was taught by him at St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon.
He said that republicans should take a balanced view of Monsignor Faul’s role in Long Kesh and his human rights campaigning in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.
“I don’t think that we should see him purely as a critic of the IRA and republicans,” Mr McKearney said.
“There was another side to him. He campaigned very staunchly for human rights for republicans on a huge number of occasions. We need to take a look at both sides - not just the one.”
Lawrence McKeown remembers Monsignor Faul smuggling cigarettes, tobacco and pens to prisoners on the H-Blocks. He would also keep the prisoners up-to-date with football scores and developments outside the prison, but things changed.
“I do think that the steps he took to intervene in the hunger strike were totally reprehensible in the extent to which he went to manipulate the families of those on the fast.”
It was also significant, according to McKeown, that in later years Monsignor Faul became a vocal opponent of republicanism.
“He was a bit of a conundrum. He had a flawed side of his character, but we can’t take it away from him - in the 1970s he took a forthright stand on torture and brutality. The community looked to him in the 1970s, but didn’t in the 1980s.” |
CAIN - Hunger Strike 1981 - Chronology
Click to view
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Monday 22 June 1981
Michael Devine, then an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoner, joined the hunger strike.
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Irish Hunger Strike 1981 Website
Mickey Devine Joins Hunger Strike
22 June 1981
'TWENTY-seven-year-old Micky Devine, from the Creggan in Derry city, was the third INLA Volunteer to join the H-Block hunger strike to the death.'
Read Mickey's biography >>>here
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IRSM
Fallen Comrades of the IRSM - Michael Devine
'Michael James Devine was born on 26th May 1954 in Springtown, just outside of Derry city. He grew up in the Creggan area of Derry, where he was raised by his sister Margaret and her husband after both parents died unexpectedly when he was age 11.
Mickey was witness to the civil rights marches of the late 1960s in Derry in which civilians were often brutally attacked and the trauma of Bloody Sunday. In fact, Mickey himself was hospitalised twice because of police brutality. In the early 70s, Mickey joined the Labour Party and the Young Socialists. Then in 1975, Mickey helped form the INLA.'
>>Read on
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An Phoblacht
Mickey Devine
 The twelfth man to join the 1981 Hunger Strike was Mickey Devine from Derry. He was the third INLA member to join the 1981 Hunger Strike and had assumed the role of INLA O/C in the Blocks after his friend and comrade, Patsy O'Hara, commenced his hunger strike and he continued in this position even when on the protest himself.
Photo: 1981 Hunger Strike: Mickey Devine from Derry
Mickey was born on 26 May 1954 into the slum that was Spring Town Camp on the outskirts of Derry, a former US military base in the second world war. The sectarian Derry council of the time used it to house impoverished nationalist families in the most appalling of conditions. Mickey Devine's sister Margaret recalled that the huts were ok during the summer but leaked during the winter. One of Mickey's earliest memories was lying in bed with a stack of coats over him to protect him from the rain.
Perhaps a sign of the single-mindedness and determination of his character was that he supported Glasgow Rangers throughout his youth, a difficult course of action for anyone growing up in nationalist Derry.
Devine was present at the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry in February 1972 and it had a profound effect on him. He said at the time, "I will never forget standing in the Creggan chapel staring at the brown wooden boxes. We mourned and Ireland mourned with us."
Micky was assaulted by the RUC on two occasions in 1969, around the same time as the infamous assault on civil rights campaigners at Burntollet. He joined the Stickies in 1971 and people who remember him from that time recall an able soldier who was 'game for anything'. Increasingly disillusioned with the Sticks, he defected to the INLA in 1974 and was a founding member of that group in Derry city.
Devine fought the brave fight despite the overwhelming odds arrayed against his fledgling organisation. He was eventually captured after an arms raid in Donegal. He made it back to Derry only to be captured and eventually, on 20 June 1977, sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. Devine immediately joined the blanket protest and 22 June 1981 he went on hunger strike.
It is an indication of the principled and committed nature of Mickey Devine that at the commencement of his hunger strike in 1981 he had only 13 months of his sentence remaining. |
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