SEARC'S WEB GUIDE - Dolours Price (born 1951)

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20th Century Ireland - Delours Price (born 1951)

Dolours Price was born in Derry. She was educated at St. Mary's Teacher Training College, Belfast where she joined People's Democracy. On November 15th, 1973 she, together with eight others, including her sister Marian Price, Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly, were sentenced at Winchester Court to life imprisonment plus twenty years on charges of causing explosions at the Old Bailey and Great Scotland Yard Police Station, London on March 8th, 1972.
The Price sisters were imprisoned in Brixton Prison, London where they went on hunger-strike in demand of political status and to be transferred to a gaol in Northern Ireland. They were on hunger-strike for a total of 213 days during which time they were force-fed for 166 days until June 15th, 1974 when the British Government conceded to their demands. On March 18th, 1975 they were moved to Armagh Gaol and were released in April, 1980. she regularly contributes to the on-line journal The Blanket,[1] This poem was composed while Dolours Price was in Brixton Prison.©

Moving from Brixton to Winchester
The light has gone out of my existence
No reason left but the great one,
The one that overrides all others,
That takes my whole being
Reserves and demands it.
Still there is a longing for the little ones,
The wave of your hand
That stirs my heart and makes me smile
To think that for me it is there,
The sound of your voice,
That I know from among many
That too is one of the little,
Perhaps it is the little that is great,
The great just is.
And I could say such things to you,
Could tell you of my dreams,
How once there was a little girl
Who danced in the summer streams,
And sat upon a mountain,
And thought that she was God,
Knowing in her innocence,
All wrongs that she must solve.
Then I could show the woman,
Still so much the child
Who needs to hold your hands in hers,
If only for a while.
And would you gladly give yourself
To one who soon may die...
The child upon the mountain,
Looking at the sky.
Knowing the whole world's secrets,
Seeing them at a glance,
And having seen her destiny
Was able still to dance.

© Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008

20th Century Ireland (1947-2000)
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