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 Email: info@searcs-web.com Searc's Web Guide to 21th Century Ireland - Danny Morrison (born 1953) |
 Danny Morrison |
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Danny Morrison was born and educated in Belfast. He joined Sinn Féin in the late 1960's and
in 1975 he became editor of An Phoblacht/Republican News.
At the 1981 Sinn Féin Ard
Dheis Morrison made his controversial 'Armalite and Ballot Box' speech which lead to the passing of a resolution in favour of contesting elections in Northern
Ireland. In October, 1982 Morrison was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for Mid-Ulster on an abstentionist ticket and was subsequently banned from entering England under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. In the 1983 General Election Morrison narrowly missed being elected to Westminster by 78 votes. He received 91,476 votes in the European Community elections in 1984. Morrison became Sinn Féin's Director of Publicity in 1987 in which capacity he criticised the British Government's 1988 Broadcasting Act which banned Sinn Féin from the electronic media. In August, 1990 Morrison was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting in the false detention of a police informer and was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment in Long Kesh from where he contributed articles to An Phoblacht/Republican News and An Glór Gafa/ Captive Voice. He was released in 1995 and has written two novels, details of which can be found at Danny Morrison's website. This extract is from Morrison's Ireland: The Censored Subject (1989).© The British Government's media ban on Sinn Féin is part of a package of anti-republican measures which were announced last autumn, after a review of security following a heightened level of IRA activity. However, censorship has been an integral part of British policy for the past twenty years. Up until now, successive British governments have relied upon self-censorship by the broadcasters, with senior management expected to know the limits of what was permissible. Even before the imposition of the media ban last October, the British government's patience had worn thin. BBC 2 was pressed by Tory government ministers into banning the screening of a Real Lives documentary in 1985, which contrasted the life-styles of two Derry people elected to the Stormont Assembly - Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and the DUP's Gregory Campbell - of whom the former came across as personable while the latter came across as belligerent. But what angered Thatcher most was the recent Thames TV documentary Death on the Rock which questioned the official view of the SAS executions of unarmed republicans Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Dan McCann in Gibraltar in March, 1988. When the inquest into the deaths of the republicans had brought in a predictable verdict of justifiable killings, the team of journalists who made the programme were suspended for over six months. Thatcher's government has removed the right to free speech for an elected political party of the nationalist community and dealt yet another blow to the British public's right to information. It is a sad commentary on how successful the British government has been - in cowing trade unions, in dividing its opposition and in stamping its authority on Britain - that even the one significant protest planned by the National Union of Journalists, a 24-hour strike, was abandoned in favour of a lobby of the House of Commons, though the NUJ has since launched a legal challenge to the directives. It is also ironic that, at a time when the Russians are exploring their past and uncovering their hidden skeletons as part of the Glasnost process, Britain is burying the truth about the present and past in the North of Ireland. In his statement to the House of Commons on October 19th, Home Secretary Douglas Hurd emphasised one main reason for the ban. He said that representatives of the banned organisations had used occassional appearances on the broadcasting media, 'as an attempt to justify their criminal activities. Such appearances have caused widespread offence to viewers and listeners throughout the United Kingdom, particularly just after a terrorist outrage.' Just a few hours before the formal introduction of the ban, Sinn Féin called a press conference. Party President Gerry Adams MP declared: 'We are not going to take this lying down. We don't intend to go away and our support will not go away.' In my capacity as Sinn Féin's national director of publicity, I said: 'This is an attack on Sinn Féin's democratic right to represent those people in the nationalist community who voted for them. It has nothing to do with support for the IRA, but simply that the British Government cannot answer republican views. More repression and censorship is not the way to resolve the problem and will be vigorously opposed by the nationalist community in the North. Any attempt to censor Sinn Féin, given that we are a legal, open political party will just underline the double standards and hypocrisy of the British government and will lead to considerable and international as well as domestic criticism. It smacks of South Africa.' When challenged that Sinn Féin was seen as being champions of the IRA's armed struggle, Adams said: 'If that is the perception, it is because that has been the issue on which the media has concentrated down the years. Eighty per cent of all statements issued through Republican press centres have been on social, economic and political issues in particular, most of which, incidentally, have been ignored.' Sinn Féin members have never put themselves forward as IRA spokespersons but even at press conferences on such matters as housing or health care the first press question on the agenda was always about the IRA. In an interview with The Independent newspaper, Gerry Adams said: 'The British Government challenged Sinn Féin to contest elections, which we did. We put foreward a very wide range of views. The media tended to concentrate on our position on armed struggle. Essentially the election results displeased the British... What it's about is the denial of our right to express a political opinion and the denial to people in Britain of their right to information... It gives our opponents a major advantage. We have no right to reply in verbal attacks. It will tend here and in Britain to produce more dis-information. It will create an ethos in the media that tends to give only a government or pro-government view... You will have the further growth of a trend - reporters won't want to dig out Sinn Féin views because it will be likely to lead them to being ostracized.' Adams was proved correct. Inquiries to the Belfast Republican Press Centre from those in the British broadcasting media affected by the ban had dropped from 471 in the four months prior to its imposition to 110 in the following four months. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008 |
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