Write a comment2018 will offer an opportunity to deliver on the lasting legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland, so said MLA Justin McNulty at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement which was set up in 1967.
The Newry and Armagh Assembly Member was speaking as his party launched a Civil Rights Committee which will plan commemorative events as part of the movement’s 50th Anniversary in Derry.
SDLP party leader Colum Eastwood announced that former Deputy Leader Bríd Rodgers will lead the party’s commemorative committee charged with planning a series of events during 2018.
Mr McNulty said, “The movement for political, social and economic rights for every citizen in the North was a watershed period in this island’s history. The broad coalition of activists – Hume, Devlin, Cooper, Currie and others – changed this place through the politics of persuasion. Their fierce endeavour took on a unionist establishment consumed with the denial of rights and they broke down that edifice.’
“The Civil Rights Movement belongs to no one person and no one party. But it undeniably played a pivotal role in the history of the SDLP. We are a party born out of the Civil Rights Movement and that’s something we are immensely proud of. We will be marking the 50-year anniversary with a series of commemorative events.
“But it would be wrong to simply mark the Civil Rights Movement as a footnote in our history. The struggle for economic equality, fairness in housing, marriage equality, respect for language diversity and on many other issues continues. They are today’s fight. We must all be prepared to take on the legacy of Hume, Devlin, Cooper and Currie and deliver on the civil rights fights of our generation.”
