I mentioned Father Raymand Murray and Father Denis Faul both campaigners for social justice and human rights in the six counties in an earlier post. I was influenced gratefully by pamphlets they wrote documenting abuses in the 1970s.
I was very pleased to find that Father Murray (now a Monsignor) is still with us. Here’s a link to a very good article in the Irish News about his work and that of his colleague Father Faul (now deceased):
“SAT behind the his little Olivetti typewriter, tapping at its keys as yet another sheet of paper circled the roller, Fr Raymond Murray could have been any other priest preparing his homily or parish bulletin.
“Yet Fr Murray was emphatically not ‘any other priest’.
“Throughout the Troubles he was at least as likely to be producing another pamphlet, article or book detailing the excesses of the state and human rights violations as he was anything more directly related to the worship in Armagh’s cathedral parish.
“Over the years he has authored dozens of such publications, many of them with his colleague the late Fr Denis Faul.”
Both Murray and Faul condemned violence from ANY quarter in the troubles and painstakingly documented the facts at the time. Real lives and real people. He says in the interview:”
When you read 19th century Irish history, so many of the stories were dependent on British papers and sources and were one-sided,” he says.
“That is why I wanted to record what was happening. I asked myself, ‘In 50 years’ time who will people believe? This pamphlet? Or another source?'”
“I’m pleased to have one of his original pamphlets hammered out on the Olivetti myself.
Link to full article:
https://www.irishnews.com/…/monsignor-raymond-murray…/
Bernard Moffatt
AGS Celtic League (4th July 2021)
