Paul McCorry (75), who passed away last month, was a veteran community champion, housing rights trailblazer, charity worker and artist whose advocacy and activism helped transform West Belfast.
A former Divis Flats resident, Paul was to the fore in the tenacious campaign to have the high-rise 'slums in the sky' demolished.
He also spoke out fearlessly against discrimination in the workplace at a time when Catholics were two times more likely to be unemployed than Protestants. He was among those who gave evidence to a public inquiry into employment which was convened by people's priest Fr Des Wilson. From that public inquiry was born the West Belfast Economic Forum which went on, in 1988, to publish the Obair report which excoriated the government for the area's endemic unemployment crisis.
In the eighties and nineties, inspired by his daughter Sinéad who was born with a severe brain injury, Paul championed the work of the Gemma Bailey Appeal which focused on helping profoundly disabled children. After the death of young Gemma in 1994, the charity was renamed the Buddy Bear Appeal and went on to host regular fundraisers in West Belfast to help disabled children.
Despite leaving school at 15, Paul became one of the most erudite, articulate and educated advocates for the rights of the West Belfast community.
Two events impacted greatly on his outlook. Firstly around 1968, he was badly beaten by a group of RUC men in Plevna street who only stood back after a woman screamed at them from her bedroom window. Secondly, having married he set up home in Carrickfergus in the early 1970s only to be driven out by loyalists on the basis of religious affiliation.
BIG-HEARTED: A report on the Buddy Bear Appeal in our paper back in 1992
A boilerman and union leader at the RVH where he spent several decades, Paul was a tireless advocate for the working man and woman who didn't shrink from criticising health service management.
In September 2022, Paul recorded a compelling podcast with the Andersonstown News in which he recalled the punishing discrimination in the workplace faced by West Belfast Catholics. He recalled going for a job 'interview' in the shipyard after completing a course in the trade: "I knew they were crying out for welders down in the shipyard and other places," he said. "I appeared at the shipyard, did a welding test and this big gruff, ugly man, said to me, 'where are you from, big lad'? And I said, 'I live up the Falls'. He said, 'well, why waste your time and mine' and walked away."
A former resident of the Falls and Broadway, Paul was no stranger to intimidation either. "When I worked in Andrew’s Mill (in 1971), somebody had painted on the toilet wall, my name, and ‘we'll seal your fate with a .38’," he recalled. "I had a light grey truck and they had written on the truck, ‘Fenian Bastard’."
Though these threats were reported to management, no action was ever taken against those responsible. Paul recalled that during his 14 years in Andrews Mill, the skilled jobs were reserved for Protestant workers. "There were no Catholic lorry drivers, or fitters, or painters, or joiners."
Paul took a case to the Fair Employment Commission only to be made redundant shortly thereafter.
A gifted writer, Paul contributed two articles to the Andersonstown News looking back at the legacy of 30 years of conflict: A reflection on the life of boyhood friend Gerard 'Diggis' McCusker murdered by loyalists in 1972 and a look back at the life of his "good friend" Billy Halligan, shot dead by British Army snipers in 1971.
Former Sinn Féin MLA and councillor Fra McCann, who worked with Paul in the Falls Forum — a coalition of community groups stretching from St James' to Castle Street — said he had left "a great legacy".
"As a community activist, he was without equal," he said. "He never confined himself to one area of community building but got involved in many worthy causes. As a consequence he achieved an awful lot in terms of community betterment and leaves a great legacy. We are also indebted to him for the positive role he played in the powerful H-Block committee in the RVH. In difficult times, Paul was always there for the community. He will be sorely missed."
Paul McCorry is survived by his wife Anne and children Kelly and Paul. He is predeceased by his daughter Sinéad who passed away in 1994. He was a loving grandfather to Leisha, Cerys and Peaches, Ronan and Colm, and loving great grandfather to Isaac and Elias.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.
