Bernadette Devlin
Bernadette Devlin
Josephine Bernadette McAliskey, usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish socialist and republican political activist. She served as a Member of the UK Parliament from 1969 to 1974 for the Mid Ulster constituency. She lost her seat to John Dunlop of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, after coming third in a four-sided contest in the general election of February 1974...
jesus hate names
One American said that the most interesting thing about Holy Ireland was that its people hate each other in the name of Jesus Christ. And they do!
horse bored silence
I got quite bored, serving in the bar. Since I was there, the customers wouldn't talk about women, and with half their subject matter denied them, it was: horses, silence; horses, silence.
letting-go jobs sacrifice
Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I've allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom.
church use half
But I make a distinction between the doctrines of the Church, which matter, and the structure invented by half a dozen Italians who got to be pope and which is of very little use to anybody.
school years thumbs
I went to a very militantly Republican grammar school and, under its influence, began to revolt against the Establishment, on thesimple rule of thumb, highly satisfying to a ten-year-old, that Irish equals good, English equals bad.
should-have racism prejudice
It did not seem to me that prejudice, poverty, discrimination, repression and racism were confined to the North of Ireland. I could see them everywhere I spoke and still cannot comprehend the mentality that argues that I should have pretended not to see them, because it wasn't my business.
interesting not-good-enough saint
I'm not good enough to be a saint and not bad enough to be interesting.
letting-go long people
It wasn't long before people discovered the final horrors of letting an urchin into Parliament.
done life-is politician
My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.
catholic rosary beads
Irish Catholics are more interested in the rosary beads than in the rosary ...
hippie sacrifice sacrificing-everything
To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else
unjust born grows
We were born into an unjust system; we are not prepared to grow old in it.
religion bitterness christianity
... in Northern Ireland, if you don't have basic Christianity, rather than merely religion, all you get out of the experience of living is bitterness.
courage time struggle
Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.