I’ll miss Joe.

I always considered him a friend. Whether I asked for it or not, Joe always gave me good advice. And I always took it.

I’ve been reading a lot of the news stories about Joe.

One BBC news headline read, “Cahill’s life was like a Hollywood movie.”

Well, I hope some day they do make a movie about Joe’s life. An honest one.

But, Uncle Joe’s life was not a Hollywood movie. Joe’s life was reality.

It was the harsh reality of living under British imperialism.

Joe lived through it all. The discrimination, harassment, demonization, the pogroms, internment, juryless courts, and prison. Just as all nationalists did in the north. But we’re stronger today because of people like Joe who fought back. However, the fundamental reality has changed little. Under the guise of fighting “terrorism” the imperialists can implement internment and the Diplock court system again at any time. These laws are still on the books. Joe fought to put an end to these injustices.

Joe fought against them every day of his life. He was a lifelong revolutionary and enjoyed every minute of it. He loved getting one over on the bosses whether they were the heads of factories or countries. When he came over in 1998 he told everybody at the meetings he addressed: “Imagine, a convicted murderer walking the halls of Stormont and getting a visa to enter the country from the president of the United States himself.”

But what impressed me most about Joe was that he never lost his class consciousness. Joe knew that the enemy of a united Ireland was not another religious organization but the system that kept the north of Ireland a colonial state for so long.

Joe grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Belfast, worked as a printer and later a joiner. The Outdoor Relief Riots of the ’30s where thousands of nationalists and Protestants went on strike together made a big impression on him. He also worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast where it was almost impossible for nationalists and Catholics to find work. Joe’s co-workers knew he was a Catholic and didn’t even mind when his picture turned up in the newspaper at an Easter Commemoration. That shows the solidarity he had built and the respect he won from his co-workers.

Although he escaped the noose of the British hangman, it was that job that gave him the asbestosis that finally killed him. And even just a few months ago he fought along with his co-workers in a law suit against the shipyard for exposing them to asbestos and successfully won that fight. Joe fought against the system that was trying to divide the working people of Ireland on religious lines till the day he died.

I recently read that a U.S. reporter had once asked Joe, why he didn’t wear neck ties. Joe just winked and said, “Nothing goes around my neck.” Which reminded me of a quote from Bobby Sands, who said, “You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea.”

Nowadays anyone who stands up to injustice is called a terrorist, the best thing we can do is to follow Joe’s example and never bend our knee to imperialism—be it British or American—anywhere around the globe.

And if we can have a laugh while we do it, well, Joe would like that too.

Larry Quinn
Socialist Workers Party
former editor of ‘Irish People’
 
 
Related articles:
Belfast: thousands honor Irish republican Joe Cahill
New York event pays tribute to Joe Cahill  
 
 
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