He Always Said Yes

I have just returned from the wake and funeral Mass in New York for Father Daniel Berrigan, S.J. He was a moral giant and like Father Des Wilson, Father Raymond Murray and Father Joseph McVeigh, a brother and great friend of the Irish in the North who want to rid England of its last colony, forever. He will be sorely missed.

Father Daniel Berrigan traveled with me to the North of Ireland twice in the early 1980s. When I first called him and asked if he could help us in our struggle to get better conditions for Irish prisoners in British jails, he said, “Of course. I have been waiting for your call,” although we had never met nor spoken to one another. During those trips, Dan, along with his two brothers Philip and Jerry, championed the rights of Irish republican prisoners and those who suffered under British rule in the North of Ireland. The trips took place during the H-Block struggle, which culminated in the deaths of 10 men on hunger strikes in Long Kesh prison. Back in New York, Dan was arrested as part of his support for the prisoners’ five just demands. 

Dan also helped us to start the Irish Political Prisoners Children’s Fund in America, which brought these same prisoners’ children and siblings to our shores for a vacation every summer. Whenever we—the New York H-Block/Armagh Committee and the Irish Political Prisoners Children’s Fund—asked him to help, Dan always said yes.  Dan continued to help us over the years and never forgot us, and never forgot Ireland. It is no coincidence that his wake was held on May 5th—Bobby Sands Day—which marks the anniversary of the first man to die on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison. 

George McLaughlin

Providence, R.I