Siobhán O Hanlon – A Sound Woman
SIOBHÁN O'Hanlon, had presence. It’s a special quality. It arrives early and evolves, shaped by the circumstances of a life. Leaders can have many qualities which set them out. Not all of them have presence. Siobhán had both. And the power and influence that comes with presence. And she used this influence to good effect wherever her presence was felt.
‘Siobhán O Hanlon – A Sound Woman’, by Gerry Adams and Richard McAuley, reflects this presence throughout the book.
It begins with the care and attention Siobhán gave to her brother, Rory, 15, when, although wounded, he survived a loyalist murder bid that claimed the life of his 16-year-old friend Michael Turner, in October 1972. Rory couldn’t do things for himself: “Siobhán looked after me, ironing my clothes and generally making sure I was comfortable.” She was ten-years-old.
On one of the two occasions that Siobhán was in Armagh’s Women’s Prison she arranged with the prison authorities to be moved to the same wing as her school friend Kathy Staunton was in so she could help with Kathy’s two-month-old baby, Kathy Óg.
Siobhán walked Kathy Óg around the prison yard daily and at night-time she would sterilise the child’s empty bottles in time for lock-up. It was a big help for the child’s imprisoned mother.
As part of Gerry Adams’ West Belfast constituency team Siobhán used her vast number of contacts and most importantly her determination, “to secure permission for six children orphaned by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster to stay in Belfast instead of having to live in an orphanage.” That’s how Marie Magee, the organiser of the charity, Children of the Fall Out, described Siobhán – “such a special person.”
Siobhán after her release from prison
She took the same approach to helping families affected by the scandal involving missing children’s body parts, assisting Down Syndrome children in a theatre group called ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ to perform on Broadway, fundraising for an orphanage in Pretoria for abandoned babies and for young and old children and arranged for a very ill boy from Ballymurphy to get treatment in Cuba.
Siobhán contrived secretly with Danny Morrison, then in prison, to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend Leslie. Leslie, opened it on Christmas morning. It was a ring that Siobhán and Leslie had spoken about on a Siobhán organised ‘random’ trip to a jeweller in Belfast.
Reading life-long friend Eibhlín Glenholmes’ tribute to Siobhán in the book, I suspect she was visiting Eibhlín, who was living in exile. On one of her visits they listened to a song; ‘Get Here If You Can’ by Oleta Adams. The lyric says it all, ‘You can reach me by caravan, Cross the desert like an Arab man, I don’t care how you get here, Just get here if you can’. “She always did”, wrote Eibhlin.
When Rita O’Hare got breast cancer Siobhán was with her for the diagnosis. She made Rita laugh to distract her and visited her regularly. Rita lived in Dublin. Siobhán lived in Belfast. Rita lived ‘on the run’. She couldn’t return home. When her father Billy was dying Siobhán organised everything to ensure that Rita secretly visited him in a nursing home in Newcastle.
There are many tributes in the book about Siobhán’s love for her son Cormac and for Pat her husband. I think Rita sums it up well; “She so much wanted to live, particularly for Cormac, the child she had longed for and cherished. I will never forget her joy at his birth and the love and care she gave him. These were the great loves of her life, Pat and Cormac.”
Siobhán, second right, as part of the Sinn Féin negotiating team in Downing Street
The other great love in Siobhán’s life was the freedom struggle. With the ubiquitous pen, notepaper and skilled shorthand she provided a meticulous record of the discussion of meetings and the action points. Especially the action points. Because Siobhán was a ‘doer’. She got things done.
She was a key member of Gerry Adams’ ‘Kitchen Cabinet’, and the Negotiation Committee, chaired by Ted Howell; she dealt directly with officials from the Irish and British and US governments and was on the first delegations that met Tony Blair at Castle Buildings and Downing Street.
Although a very private person Siobhán planned and spoke at a conference in West Belfast to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Siobhán had been diagnosed with breast cancer the previous year. Gerry Adams cried as he listened to “one of the most moving public contributions I have ever heard”.
Siobhán’s presence reached beyond the traditional republican base. Christy Moore said he loved getting a call from Siobhán, “she always brightened up a day”. The Irish government diplomat Ray Basset wrote, “She had tremendous integrity, and I was very glad that I had the honour of working with her.”
The book on Siobhán by Gerry Adams and Richard McAuley
From one remarkable person to another Fr Des Wilson commented: “Like all those who love people rather than profit she knew her own personal comfort would often suffer in the service of other people. And it is this acceptance that one’s own comfort must often be sacrificed to other people’s need that makes of the best of lives”. Siobhán was made of the best of life.
Siobhán O Hanlon – A Sound Woman is available at An Fhuiseog; 55 Falls Road, BT12 4PD and www.sinnfeinbookshop.com
