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Remembering Lily Fitzsimons – a proud United Irelander

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The Sinn Fein team going into City Hall. Lily Fitzsimons is flanked by Alex Maskey, Tish Holland, Sean McKight, , 
Fra McCann is hiding behind Alex; Paddy McManus, Joe O'Donnell, Sean Keenan, Mick Conlon and Joe Austin  
Former west Belfast MP and Party President Gerry Adams has expressed his deep sorrow at the death of Lily Fitzsimons.
He said: “I want to extend my deepest condolences and solidarity to the family of my friend and comrade Lily Fitzsimons.
Like many other residents of Turf Lodge Lily was originally from North Belfast where she was born in 1937. After she married she moved to Turf Lodge.
Lily’s politics were shaped by her family, her community, her class, her gender and her life experience. She was inspired by Máire Drumm and Marie Moore and the hundreds of women who daily challenged the actions of the RUC and British Army. In July 1970 she was one of thousands of women, led by Máire and Marie, who broke the British Army’s curfew of the Falls.
She was a strong immensely able woman. She was a key activist in the Political Status campaign in the 1970s and during the subsequent Hunger Strikes when her son Sean was on the Blanket Protest. Lily, along with many other Turf Lodge mothers, sisters and wives took to the streets to highlight the conditions under which republican POWs were being held. She travelled widely to Britain and the USA to highlight the appalling conditions in the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s Prison.
The Relatives Action Committees took over buildings and blocked streets and when the British Army and RUC were sent in to beat them off the streets, the women faced them down.
Lily said of that time: “We endured a lot of harassment and threats from the British Army and RUC during these times, but instead of intimidating us, it made us all the more determined to carry on.''
In 1985 Lily was elected for the Upper Falls as a Belfast City Councillor along with Alex Maskey, Sean McKnight, Bobby Lavery, Sean Keenan, Gerard McGuigan and Tish Holland.
It sparked a vicious campaign by unionist Councillors to deny Sinn Fein representatives any real say in the running of the council. Lily and her 6 comrades ran a daily gauntlet of physical and verbal threats and abuse. They were denied speaking rights in the Chamber. They were shouted down. Deodorant and other sprays were used against them.
Lilly and Tish were especially targeted by some of the largely male unionist Councillors. But they never backed down. They fought their corner and represented those who elected them. Today Belfast City Hall is a different place because of the resilience of Lily, Tish and their comrades.
Lily was hugely respected and loved. She stood strong in defence of her community at a time when Sinn Fein Councillors and activists and families were being attacked by unionist death squads. Three Sinn Fein Councillors and 14 party activists were killed during the time she was a Councillor. Family members were also killed when homes were attacked.
Lily loved Turf Lodge and the people of west Belfast. She believed passionately in the rights of citizens and she brought that passion to all of her work.
She was an unapologetic united Irelander. A woman of compassion – who believed in equality and in citizens’ rights.
Lily was also a wife, a mother, a grandmother. She was a writer who wrote insightfully of the role of women in the struggle. And she was a great singer whose party piece was Crazy by Patsy Cline.
I want to extend my condolences to Sean, Bobby, Margo, Gerard and the wider family circle.


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