“GOODYEAR Leeson Street, Belfast Dear Sir, The fundmentals of…”
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GOODYEAR 49, Leeson Street, Belfast 12. 18/11/70.
Dear Sir, The fundmentals of this letter were submitted some five weeks ago to the Belfast Telegraph for publication, but for some reason or other I have yet’ to see it in print. So I am writing to you, in the hope that P.D. will perhaps, say, do, or even print something of the injustice, which I, and many like me, believe has been done.
It concerns a young woman, Mrs. Margaret Fennell who is six months pregnant, and the mother of three small children. She has for the last six weeks been in prison awaiting sentence, being found guilty ona charge of knowingly having in her possession a firearm, found in her backyard. Charged with her is a young man, Desmond Downey, a victim of circumstance whose only crime was in going to visit his girlfriend's sister, but had the misfortune to be caught in (how shall I put it) an instant curfew, which was imposed on the lower Falls early in July of this year, and was forced to remain there.
In all sincerity I ask you: what was this woman found guilty of? Was it because she did not attempt to stop armed men as they made their escape through her house? Or because she did not turn her house upside down to look for a firearm, which one of the men concealed in the hope of perhaps returning later? Or, was she guilty of not visiting the outside toilet in the backyard (or 'courtyard', as the learned Judge chose to describe it), even though a grenade had been thrown outside her door causing a large hole in the wall, a small item which was omitted at the trial?
Ask any woman what her actions would be, if placed in this position, and the only answer is, that Armagh