'Finish the job' - Eastwood urges people to use civil rights movement as inspiration

by Gareth Cross

SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood has urged the people of Northern Ireland to use the civil rights movement as an inspiration to end the political stalemate.

Mr Eastwood was speaking at Derry's Guildhall last Thursday as he launched plans for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the movement next year.

At the event he named former SDLP Agriculture Minister Bríd Rodgers as chair of the committee planning the commemorations.

He said that a number of events were planned leading up to the anniversary and that people would be impressed with the programme.

Mr Eastwood said it was important to mark 50 years since the city of Derry 'stood up'.

"It is essential that we tell the proper story and recognise people like John Hume, Ivan Copper and (Austin) Currie," he said.

"People came together from all backgrounds to march for the rights of people who needed them most.

"These people achieved fundamental change with two years of peaceful protests.

He stressed that future SDLP members were not the only people involved in the movement.

"We want to work with everyone who was involved in the civil rights movement," Mr Eastwood said.

"It belongs to no one person and no one party and we acknowledge the contribution of people like Eamonn McCann, Bernadette Devlin and Eddie McAteer."

"The civil rights movement is at the heart of the DNA of the SDLP and everything we do."

Mr Eastwood said that the aims of the civil rights movement had not been fully achieved.

"50 years ago the civil rights movement protested against University funding and funding for roads to other parts of Northern Ireland," he said.

"I look around and see there is still unfinished business and it is our job to finish it.

"To do this we need the Executive back and we need it to do radical things.

"Sinn Fein and the DUP have not delivered over the last ten years.

"People need to learn the history, make connections and take ownership of it. We need to give people something to believe in.

"We need to look to Hume, Cooper, and the rest and finish the job."

Chair of the new Committee Bríd Rodgers said it was 'radical thinking' that made the difference during the civil rights era.

"I was just a young housewife when I first got involved," she said.

"I saw the need for change, to do things differently.

"We got people together on the basis of equality and in two short years we changed the whole direction of Northern Ireland without firing a bullet or planting a bomb.

Mrs Rodgers said that people could look to the civil rights era to solve the problems in Northern Ireland today.

"Today, people seem to have gone back into their tribal trenches," she said.

"People need to work together to finish the job off.

"It's been the same old, same old for the last ten years."

The former Agriculture Minister admitted that she was 'disheartened' with the current political situation in Northern Ireland.

"When I started at Stormont I could see John Hume's vision starting to be experienced," she said.

"As Agriculture Minister I was a hate figure for Unionist's but things changed and people began to see the value of working together.

"I saw it beginning to work and people beginning to reconcile with the idea.

She said that people politics had moved away from the principles of the Good Friday Agreement.

"The last ten years have seen almost a hardening of tribalism and sectarianism which Sinn Fein and the DUP seem to thrive on," she said.

"They are not using the Good Friday Agreement in the way it was intended.

"It is not following John Hume's vision and that is really disappointing."