An
activist, a scholar and a leading human rights advocate, Kevin Boyle has left a
legacy of impacts and memories working on behalf of others both in Ireland and
internationally. Boyle is a figure who witnessed and was part of the growth and
direction of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland in the 1960s; was
instrumental in the development of the Law Faculty and Human Rights Centres at
NUI Galway and later at University of Essex; as well as leading major
international NGOs, and later working alongside Mary Robinson at the United
Nations in 2001. Boyle's archive of over 120 boxes of manuscripts includes letters, records of
legal cases, academic research, notebooks, as well as ephemera from major
international political and social events around the world.
Available
at the Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, the Boyle archive is an insight into the
life and career of activist scholar, Kevin Boyle. This podcast is an overview and introduction to the archive
of Kevin Boyle and of the documentation of a career and life spent working in
law and human rights, from Northern Ireland in the 1960s to the United Nations
in the post 9/11 world.
The recent stepping away from active political life by Martin McGuinness and from his role as Deputy First Minister, signalled a polemic shift in the political landscape in Northern Ireland, His passing today, aged 66, has further intensified the consideration of his life and role in Northern Ireland, and his journey from conflict to peace, over many decades.
The perhaps unknown role that Martin McGuinness played, over many years, in negotiating a peaceful and sustained end to conflict in Northern Ireland can be seen within the archive of mediator Brendan Duddy. Brendan Duddy was born in Derry on 10 June 1936. He became a businessman in his native city, and by the early 1970s he owned and managed two fish-and-chip shops, one in Beechwood Avenue (Creggan) and another in William Street. Duddy knew Martin McGuinness in the 1960s when McGuinness worked for a supplier company delivering burgers to Duddy's shops - at a time when McGuinness's interest in politics was not yet kindled.
Screenshot of "Walter" material, Duddy Digital Archive, NUI Galway
At the time it would have been impossible for anyone to predict the central roles both men would play over the course of the following decades.
One section of the Duddy papers pertain to a figure known as ‘Walter'. These items, now digitised and available from the Hardiman Library, reveal the extent of efforts by "Walter" - the active code-name for Martin McGuinness - and particularly his and Duddy's period of close co-operation in 1993. The files include detailed draft and final correspondence and memoranda sent by Brendan Duddy to McGuinness, which show the level of tense and prolonged discussions regarding the Peace Process of the early 1990s and the later Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The files also include other items such as relevant newspaper cuttings focusing on McGuinness.
Telex from Duddy to McGuinness, 1999
Examples include a dossier of three letters from Brendan Duddy to Martin McGuinness, previously sent 21 March - 19 June 1999, copied by telefax to an unidentified recipient in September 1999, detailing the central role and importance played by McGuinness in peace talks. As key mediator in this long process, Duddy, here codenamed as “June”, writes to McGuinness, stating “The War is indeed over and I sincerely hope you can deliver the peace.”. Further letters from Duddy to McGuiness discuss the problematic process of decommissioning of weapons and as recent as June 2006, a letter from Brendan urges McGuinness to “keep driving the Peace Process forward as you have been doing over the last twenty years.” (pol35_585)
Typescript of letter from Duddy to McGuiness, 1999
The Duddy archive offers an indispensable account of understanding and of previously unknown information about the arduous and lengthy and also at times unsuccessful attempts at stabilising peace in Norther Ireland over nearly forty years. The role of Martin McGuinness in this process can be understood in a broader capacity as this archive is digitally available:
This new online resource contains digitised items from the archive of Brendan Duddy, the Derry businessman who maintained and operated a secret channel of communication between the British government and the IRA Army Council for twenty years. Duddy was a key figure in the 1975 ceasefire negotiations, the 1981 Republican Hunger Strikes, and ceasefire talks between 1990 and 1994 and was the subject of Peter Taylor's BBC documentary 'The Secret Peacemaker'. The digital archive makes available documents such as secret communications concerning the 1975 ceasefire; 'the Red Book', being Brendan's diary of transcribed phone negotiations to help bring a resolution to the 1981 Hunger Strikes and also documents relating to critical moments from the Peace Process of the early 1990s.
17:00 Interviews with Duddy family members: Shaun, Larry and Patricia Duddy, and Éamonn Downey, with Dr. Niall Ó Dochartaigh 18:00 - 18:30 Questions and Answers/ Discussion 18:30 - 18:40 Launch of archive and introduction: John Cox, University Librarian, with Professor Lionel Pilkington speaking on the digital archive and its value to scholarship 18:40 Demonstration of digital archive by Aisling Keane, Digital Archivist 18:50 Reception - Venue G011
Press cutting from the Sunday Times 21 April 2002 The Brendan Duddy Papers
The funeral of Father Alec Reid took place yesterday, giving
us pause to reflect on the key role he played in the Northern Ireland peace
process, and on the importance of dialogue in times of conflict. In among the Brendan Duddy papers, we came
across a newspaper clipping profiling Father Reid, and his work in brokering
peace in the Basque region. Here in
Ireland, he is remembered most as being a key figure in bringing The Troubles
to an end, and as an icon for peace in one of the most enduring images from The
Troubles, where he is photographed praying over the bodies of two British
soldiers. Father Reid was a powerful ambassador
in convincing people that dialogue was the only true way to resolve
conflict. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
In the intense and tragic state of modern conflicts, few were as severe as the conflict in Northern Ireland that grew into The Troubles. Lines were drawn which staunchly divided families, communities and cities and which resulted in violence, deaths and a history between Ireland and Britain that would forever be remembered solely as a dark time in our shared consciousness.
Throughout twenty years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland a secret channel of communication linked the IRA to the highest levels of the British government. At the heart of this channel was a single intermediary, Brendan Duddy. His house was the venue for secret negotiations between the British Government and the IRA throughout 1975. He managed the intense negotiations over the Republican hunger strikes in which ten men died (1980-1981) and he was at the heart of the contacts (1991-1993) that culminated in a secret offer of a ceasefire that was a precursor to the public IRA ceasefire of 1994.
Deposited at NUI Galway in 2009, the papers of Brendan Duddy provide a unique insight into this channel from the perspective of an individual who operated at the intersection of the two sides. They include coded diaries of contact kept by Duddy throughout 1975 and early 1976 and a diary kept for several months in 1993 when communication between the British Government and the IRA was at its most intense, as well as documents exchanged between the British Government and the IRA. Taken together with the Ruairí Ó Bradaigh papers, also at NUI Galway, these archives provide a window on the secret back-channel negotiation that was one of the most intriguing aspects of the Irish peace process.
To mark the launch of this incredible collection of papers, the James Hardiman Library has digitised a selection of items from the Duddy Archive. Three documents are taken from three key times in Duddy’s intervention between the IRA and the British government. The first item dates to 1975 as an initial cease fire was negotiated. Second, from 1980/81 marks a period when Duddy listed code words used during telephone conversations between the British Government, the IRA hungerstrikers in the Maze prison and the IRA council. The third represents a period of the early 1990’s when Duddy was again called upon as discussions focused on the Provisional IRA and Sir Peter Brooke, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
It took Druid theatre a mere seventeen years to make it to a century of productions. In the mid 1970’s when Druid was first established, it would go on to set a precedent for producing and promoting the work on new Irish writers and playwrights as well as producing relevant revivals of classic Irish and international works.
Straw mask as worn in the play
The piece chosen to be Druid’s 100th production in October of 1992 was At the Black Pig’s Dyke and was written by Vincent Woods. The play is a dark, terse and engaging piece that traces the experiences of a life marked by violence and with questions of identity along Ireland’s border between north and south.
'The Black Pig’s Dyke' is a fortified series of divisions and ramparts along the boundary of the historic province of Ulster in old Gaelic society. The people who inhabited this area are known as ‘mummers’ and are presented here at straw-masked tribal warriors. The play is teaming with folklore and stories native to the border region. These ‘mummars’ wander from village to town and entertain those who they meet with local songs and music, all the while dancing and providing a visual spectacle dressed in their towering straw masks, boots and straw skirts dotted with poppies – the first instance of blood imagery and lust for violence.
Original play poster
Quickly the play descends into fear and violence. The wedded union of a catholic girl to a Protestant man sets in motion the cyclical motion of revenge and killing. The sectarianism is a direct and unashamed commentary on the conflict and killing experienced by those in the North. The fact much of this story is based on inherited folklore highlights the sad connection that for many in the North and indeed the South, their inherited legacy was that of fear, distrust and killing. The fact the play is set at ‘the Black Pig’s Dyke’ along the border between north and south sets the play in a void between the sectarianism and where identity and connection with the self as a citizen is blurred.
This 100th production by Druid received headline reviews in national and regional press in the North and South and includes “A remarkable mix of passion and despair”, “The unmasking of brutal violence in stunning new play” and with comments such as “Masked men, eyes glittering fantastically through slitted hoods immediately herald horror. We had and have on our North/South border such disguised murdering avengers who hunt their prey under the cover of darkness”
The play is a supremely important commentary in Irish theatre on the despair, passion, killing and loss suffered for generations in Ireland’s North and its border regions. The play was produced at Druid Lane theatre, Galway and toured nationally to co, Galway, Armagh, Derry, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Cavan, Antrim (Belfast) Meath, Mayo, Tipperary Clare, Offaly, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Waterford and Kilkenny.
The Druid theatre archive contains original documents from the production including programmes, posters, photographs, sketches of costumes and masks, tour handbook for cast members and extensive press file of reviews, cuttings, articles and commentary.
For more information on this production and tour by Druid click here
