The Peace Train Organisation was a campaign group set up in 1989 in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in response to the repeated bombing of the Dublin to Belfast railway line (see Enterprise (train) ) by the Provisional IRA .
11-764: The founding Chairman of the Peace Train Organisation was the writer and broadcaster Sam McAughtry while the organisation in the Republic of Ireland was headed up by Rev. Christopher Hudson. Other key figures in the organisation south of the border were the then Workers Party MEP Proinsias De Rossa , Tom French and southern secretary Seán Ó Cionnaith . In the North key figures included Paddy Devlin, Chris and Michael McGimpsey, Dr Liam Kennedy, Mary McMahon and Eileen Bell . The administrator, based in Peace House Belfast,
22-622: A full-time writer. Describing himself as a hybrid unionist McAughtry was a trade union representative and a member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party . Using this political platform he stood unsuccessfully for elections as a non-sectarian socialist. McAughtry was a founding member of the Peace Train Organisation , which protested against the bombing of the Dublin–Belfast railway line and in which he undertook
33-601: A rally addressed by Sam McAughtry, Chris Hudson and IRA torture victim Maurice Healy. There was also a meeting in Parliament Buildings hosted by Harry Barnes MP and Gary Kent. A total of seven trains travelled between Dublin and Belfast from 1991 to 1995 and one from Holyhead to London in June 1991. It was derided as being a Workers Party PR-stunt by many republicans in Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil . Danny Morrison had denounced
44-470: A senior officer it was pointed out to him that his initial posting would be to a rural area, where among his main duties he was to expect to have to help the local farmers fill in their agricultural census in order to record the makeup of their farm. Unimpressed with the prospect he decided not to join the police. He undertook a career as a civil servant , ironically carrying out the correlation of agricultural census papers from rural areas, before becoming
55-553: The Union Theological College , Belfast, he used as the topic for his essay town life versus country life alluding to rural life in Greece from where he'd recently returned and with particular emphasis on how young women were involved in the making of wine by crushing grapes with their bare feet. Having successfully passed the entrance exam his ambition was to become a plain clothes detective , however during his interview with
66-593: The country's partition . He was the son of Marriot McAughtry, a fireman, and Elizabeth Condit. He was brought up in the loyalist Tiger's Bay area of Belfast and was educated at St Barnabas'. He left school at 14 and during the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force . On leaving the armed forces, in 1946 he applied to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary , sitting his entrance exam at
77-458: The Taoiseach . He was introduced on 28 February 1996, welcomed as a rare northern Protestant representative, and made his first contribution in response in which he stated: "It is my dearest wish to see this island inhabited by five million Irish people, living in two jurisdictions with consent, but with institutions established to emphasise their Irishness." McAughtry died on 28 March 2014. He
88-736: The role of chairman. He made many contributions to radio and television programmes, giving his memories of life in Belfast as well as political analysis during the troubles. He was also a regular columnist in The Irish Times . In 1996, McAughtry was elected a member of the Seanad Éireann , on the Industrial and Commercial Panel , succeeding the late Seán Fallon . Others from Northern Ireland such as Gordon Wilson , Maurice Hayes , John Robb , Sam Kyle , Seamus Mallon and Bríd Rodgers were nominated by
99-533: The trains as a 'stunt' and wrote a letter from the H-block to the Irish Times condemning the 'smugness, aloofness and hypocrisy' of the associated peace rallies. Sam McAughtry Sam McAughtry (24 March 1921 – 28 March 2014) was an Irish / British writer, broadcaster and raconteur . Samuel Jamison McAughtry was born at 130 Cosgrave Street, Belfast , Ireland, on 24 March 1921, approximately six weeks before
110-448: Was Jeff Maxwell. Harry Barnes was secretary of the group in London. The organisation organised a Peace Train from Dublin to Belfast - an actual train hired out for the day which brought hundreds of people across the border from all over Ireland as a symbolic gesture to protest the bombing of the railway line. The group marched to Belfast City Hall where an open-air rally was held. The event
121-460: Was not without incident however as a window was broken by a stone-throwing youth and the train was held up by another bomb scare on the line at Portadown. A number of further Peace Train events were held, including a large rally at Oriel Park football ground in Dundalk , Co. Louth. Peace Train passengers travelled from Belfast to Dublin, then on to London to highlight the issue at national level, with
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