Austin Currie


Life
1939- ; b. 11 Oct., Co. Tyrone (N. Ireland); ed. Dungannon and QUB: MP for E. Tyrone at Stormont, 1964-72; joined Northern Ireland Civil Rights movement; co-fnd. Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP), 1970; mbr. of Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973-75; Chief Whip of SDLP and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning in NI Executive, 1974; victim of loyalist attack on his home in which his wife was seriously injured [q.d.]; elected Fine Gael TD, Dublin 1989; Fine Gael Presidential candidate 1990; Minister of State for variously for Education, Justice and Health in the “Rainbow Coalition”, 1994-97; lost Dáil seat, 2002; issued autobiography, All Hell Will Break Loose (2004).

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Works
Austin Currie, All Hell will Break Loose (Dublin: O’Brien Press 2004), 402pp.

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Quotations
Loyalists: ‘[...] In 1994, Loyalists were fearful of a secret deal between the Republicans and the British government as a part of an IRA cessation. The UDA produced a document proposing re-partition, with three options for Catholics east of the Bann: “expulsion, nullification and internment”. The middle option effectively meant sectarian slaughter. The doomsday situation did not materialise, but not because of lack of effort by the IRA. Nine Protestatn civilians, including two children, were killed by an IRA bomb at a fish shop in the heart of Shankhill Road. The authors conclude that, in the aftermath, “Northern Ireland was closer to civil war than at any time since 1970s.”’ (Review of Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA, in The Irish Times, 20 Nov. 2004.)

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