July 5th 1970 BREAKING THE FALLS CURFEW During the Falls curfew the people in the lower Falls were kept in their houses by force. Most houses used gas and electricity metres which had to be paid with shilling coins. This meant that during the curfew many houses had neither gas or electricity unless they had the correct coinage. The residents were forbidden to leave their houses and ,as food was bought on a weekly basis, houses did not have fridges, so food supplies especially for larger families were running low. On the Sunday of the curfew the residents who attempted to leave their homes to go to mass were attacked by the soldiers for even opening their doors. Following a meeting in Andersontown thousands of people, mostly women from West Belfast Andersontown Turf Lodge, Ballymurphy, Beechmount St James, marched down the Falls in a determined attempt to break the curfew. It was act of solidarity with the people of the Lower Falls and defiance of the British Army , thousands of women, many pushing prams loaded with bread, milk and eggs, broke the curfew. They pushed through British Army lines and their machine-guns and eventually British Army commanders to order their men back to barracks. Better than that..... the prams were not empty as they left the Falls, all the IRA weaponry was removed to safety and one or two or maybe a few ‘women’ who marched back up the Falls were indeed volunteers. Below is photographs of the re enactment of the Breaking of the Curfew, with the stars of the show the Curfew Breakers themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:30:22 +0000
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