Irish Times Obituary – Saturday, April 16, 2011
ANNE HOLLIDAY, who has died aged 57, was a founder member of New Consensus, the group which called for the revision of the Republic’s territorial claim on the North and devolved government for the people of Northern Ireland based on “mutual respect, civil liberty and freely given allegiance”.
She also was involved in organising the first rail journey by the Peace Train from Dublin to Belfast, as part of its campaign to end disruption of the north-south rail link by the IRA. In 1991 she helped organise the Peace Train’s journey from Belfast to London via Dublin. The following year, however, the Peace Train and New Consensus went their separate ways.
She remained with New Consensus, which picketed Sinn Féin árd fheiseanna in opposition to republican violence. The group also picketed UDA offices.
New Consensus had its critics. Accused of focusing exclusively on paramilitary violence, the group stated its repugnance at “all cases where agents of the Irish or British governments have killed people who posed no immediate danger to life”. It expressed its support for the existence of the security forces, north and south, but not of paramilitary organisations. In 1994, following the IRA’s ceasefire declaration, New Consensus called for a complete cessation to be reciprocated by loyalist paramilitaries in addition to scaled-down security force activity, north and south.
Anne Holliday was born in Limerick in 1953, the eldest of two daughters of Ralph Melvin Holliday and his wife Vera (née Davis). Educated at Villiers School, Limerick, she became a Simon Community volunteer and also was a founder member of the local Irish Georgian Society chapter.
She became a secretary at the law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice in Dublin where, in the late 1970s, she campaigned to save Wood Quay. A member of Fine Gael, she later joined the Progressive Democrats.
In 1986 she became a Dáil secretary, working for PD deputy Michael Keating. When he stood down she was assigned to Green Party TD Roger Garland. After he lost his seat in 1992 her employment was terminated; a High Court challenge to the dismissal failed.
Having worked for a training company and as a researcher, she joined the Civil Service in 2001. Appointed personal assistant to National Museum director Pat Wallace, she later worked in media relations and special projects at the department of arts, sports and tourism and in the tánaiste’s office at the department of enterprise, trade and employment.
In 1996 she was one of three plaintiffs awarded substantial damages in a libel action against Tim Pat Coogan and his publisher at the High Court. The case arose from Coogan’s allegation in his book, The IRA, that New Consensus had “grown out of the old Official IRA”.
In 1998 she took part in the launch of Reform, a coalition of “new unionists for the new millennium”, describing herself as “a member of the Irish minority that the Belfast Agreement forgot”.
She lived in Drumcondra, where she was active in conservation and residents’ rights issues.
Her first marriage ended in divorce. In 2009, after being diagnosed with cancer, she married her long-time partner Michael Nugent. He and her sister Carolyn Patterson survive her.
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Anne Holliday: born August 21st, 1953; died April 9th, 2011
The Queen, by Roy Garland
The Irish News – 23 May 2011
The presence of Unionist politicians in Dublin during Queen Elizabeth’s visit was encouraging. She helped cut through suspicions and misunderstandings. Hopefully she has opened a new chapter in relationships throughout these islands.
Even in childhood I longed to be Irish as well as British and unionist. This despite the fact that, in the name of Ireland, the IRA seemed opposed to us just for being what we were.
In England my consciousness of an Irish identity with an Orange stripe, grew as I studied near the heart of a once great imperial nation. By the mid 60s I set about finding my roots in the border counties.
This on reflection represented the start of a friendship with people in the Irish Republic but it was with trepidation that I set out from the Shankill Road because the Republic seemed an alien and oppressive place to visit.
At first I defied all this and even attached Orange lilies to the front of my vehicle parked in Ballyshannon Donegal. On my return I was horrified to see people spitting on the lilies. As discretion seemed the better part of valour I then removed the flowers. The bitterness towards Orange lilies was hard to understand when I saw Orange and Easter lilies growing freely side by side in Donegal gardens.
During the early 1960s I was discreetly distributing leaflets bearing Union Flags with a few Protestant Telegraphs. After a Church of Ireland service in Cork the leaflets were accepted by worshipers but was greeted with silent stares. Protestants in those parts had suffered long and preferred keeping their heads down.
I felt proud when invited to join an Orange parade at Rockcurry County Monaghan and was thrilled to find distant relatives there. An elderly lady recalled my grandfather visiting Garland’s Hand and Pen Orange Hall in the 1930s. There I was presented me with a treasured photograph of my parents visiting Monaghan by pony and trap in the 1920s.
Members of my family survived centuries in no-man’s land on the edge of the English Pale. Eighteen were massacred by Irish rebels in 1600. Yet James Garland, described as one of the Pale gentry, was known as “the Earl’s man” (Hugh O’Neill) while his brother Roger fought with Henry Bagenal for the English. As Old English their loyalty was to English Monarch and the Pope in Rome but as Royalists they fought against King Billy.
While I could understand the desire for Irish “freedom” that freedom was not fully extended to dissenters who valued the Union. To this day the Irish Constitution’s Preamble denies pro-Brits in the Republic an Irish identity. Despite this I realised we all needed to cultivate human relationships throughout the island(s).
I played a central role in founding the Guild of Uriel near Dundalk to facilitate friendship between people from divergent backgrounds north and south. The main traditions and dissenters were represented and engaged with us and each other. On one notable occasion the late Garret FitzGerald joined an unusual meeting involving Loyalists, Unionists, Nationalists, Sinn Fein, Official Republicans and others in Newry.
After a submission to the Peace Forum at Dublin Castle I was given a fascinating private tour of the ancient ramparts. I felt privileged to be in that crucible of British/Irish history. Later I accepted an invitation to a private meeting with President McAleese at Aras an Uactharain preparing for the first Twelfth July event. Later I led a Unionist delegation to the Department of Foreign Affairs at Iveagh House, Dublin.
At Glencree Reconciliation Centre, a former 1798 British Army base in the Wicklow Hills, Welsh, English, Scottish politicians joined Irish politicians and activists from north and south. I attended dinners of the Dublin 1916-21 Club but also met Princess Anne with the British ambassador at his residence. I became a proud honorary member of the Dublin based Reform Group, a pro-British Group seeking a place in Irish society.
The reaction of fellow Unionists was not always supportive. I was disciplined and told to get back to the Republic. Yet on the ground I found support especially among Loyalists although a poster appeared near my home damning me as a traitor.
I believe the historic visit of Queen Elizabeth opens up new possibilities and could free us all from old enmities. Both parts of Ireland have changed and are increasingly conceding the right of people to be whatever they choose to be. People can criticize but as Charles Parnell said, “No man has a right to say to his country: ‘Thus far shalt thou go, and no further’”.
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