Post by Shades40 on Oct 23, 2007 12:56:10 GMT
Roy Garland, Irish News)
I first met Sammy Duddy around 1962. His father ran a small printing press near the Hammer in the Shankill area of Belfast. My dad had a small business there too.
While working as a glazier on war damage work in Glasgow my dad saved £100 and set up a small business in oil, paint and glass.
By the 1950s he was also engaged in small scale manufacturing and Sammy Duddy’s father supplied printed labels.
As a youth I visited Duddy’s shop to deliver orders and collect labels. My abiding impression is of manually operated machines that would now be considered museum pieces. He grew up nearby as one of nine children and once when they visited Belfast Zoo, his dad asked for 11 tickets to be told that maybe they should wait there until the animals were brought out to meet them. When I first got to know Sammy his dad had just died.
My dad had also died around the same time and I needed labels which Sammy supplied on a few occasions.
However, his business closed quite suddenly and it was decades later that I met up with him at the launch of a book on UDA history by Ian S Wood to which he had contributed. We reminisced about the old days and he told me that he was only a teenager when his dad died and he was considered too young to take out a lease.
The result was that his means of livelihood was taken from him just as he was starting out in life. Sammy joined the UDA in the early 1970s and became a leading figure who supported the various UDA-linked initiatives and documents such as 'Beyond the Religious Divide’ in 1979 and 'Common Sense’ in 1987.
He also supported the 1994 loyalist ceasefire and moves towards power sharing though he had doubts about the way it was being implemented.
A community worker from another political party told me he was a key figure in the present CTI initiative seeking to redress needs in loyalist communities.
A few months ago the same community worker asked if a meeting could be arranged – possibly on a cross-border basis – with Sammy Duddy and friends. It was arranged that a number of unionists would initially meet with Sammy and some of his fellow CTI workers.
Sammy told us he had retired but returned to support the peace process. He was aware of the risks.
His home had been fiercely attacked and there were concerns about his health but Sammy was a fighter who responded to the need with determination.
Some of the unionists he met were initially uneasy about the meeting but Sammy soon allayed their fears.
His honesty in the face of difficult questions broke the final barriers.
He told how during the Ulster Workers Council Strike he was a door-keeper at their headquarters and under orders to bar anyone arriving late so as not to disturb the meeting. When Ian Paisley arrived late Sammy naturally barred his entry. But Paisley was affronted and asked if Sammy knew who he was speaking to and Sammy replied, “Why, have you lost your memory?” Paisley went away and returned with a note to put under the door but the door opened and he was allowed to enter after a tea break. When the others returned from their adjournment they found Paisley sitting in the top chair. He was asked to move but complained about having been stopped outside by thugs. He then complained of a bad back and said he needed a comfortable chair so they physically lifted him, chair and all, and moved him to a more appropriate position at the other end of the table. Sammy also famously accused the Orange Order of using paramilitaries as a big stick during contentious parades before disowning them and said UDA people were having no more of it. Very recently he set up a meeting for us with CTI in which he was a highly respected figure.
They gave an impressive run down on their work but Sammy, who was under a lot of pressure, couldn’t attend. He would not have disagreed with minister Margaret Ritchie’s aims but sadly is no longer with us to help find a way through the difficulties.
It is precisely because that constituency is such a difficult one that Sammy Duddy’s talents and jovial personality will be seriously missed.
October 23, 2007
________________
This article appeared first in the October 22, 2007 edition of the Irish News.
I first met Sammy Duddy around 1962. His father ran a small printing press near the Hammer in the Shankill area of Belfast. My dad had a small business there too.
While working as a glazier on war damage work in Glasgow my dad saved £100 and set up a small business in oil, paint and glass.
By the 1950s he was also engaged in small scale manufacturing and Sammy Duddy’s father supplied printed labels.
As a youth I visited Duddy’s shop to deliver orders and collect labels. My abiding impression is of manually operated machines that would now be considered museum pieces. He grew up nearby as one of nine children and once when they visited Belfast Zoo, his dad asked for 11 tickets to be told that maybe they should wait there until the animals were brought out to meet them. When I first got to know Sammy his dad had just died.
My dad had also died around the same time and I needed labels which Sammy supplied on a few occasions.
However, his business closed quite suddenly and it was decades later that I met up with him at the launch of a book on UDA history by Ian S Wood to which he had contributed. We reminisced about the old days and he told me that he was only a teenager when his dad died and he was considered too young to take out a lease.
The result was that his means of livelihood was taken from him just as he was starting out in life. Sammy joined the UDA in the early 1970s and became a leading figure who supported the various UDA-linked initiatives and documents such as 'Beyond the Religious Divide’ in 1979 and 'Common Sense’ in 1987.
He also supported the 1994 loyalist ceasefire and moves towards power sharing though he had doubts about the way it was being implemented.
A community worker from another political party told me he was a key figure in the present CTI initiative seeking to redress needs in loyalist communities.
A few months ago the same community worker asked if a meeting could be arranged – possibly on a cross-border basis – with Sammy Duddy and friends. It was arranged that a number of unionists would initially meet with Sammy and some of his fellow CTI workers.
Sammy told us he had retired but returned to support the peace process. He was aware of the risks.
His home had been fiercely attacked and there were concerns about his health but Sammy was a fighter who responded to the need with determination.
Some of the unionists he met were initially uneasy about the meeting but Sammy soon allayed their fears.
His honesty in the face of difficult questions broke the final barriers.
He told how during the Ulster Workers Council Strike he was a door-keeper at their headquarters and under orders to bar anyone arriving late so as not to disturb the meeting. When Ian Paisley arrived late Sammy naturally barred his entry. But Paisley was affronted and asked if Sammy knew who he was speaking to and Sammy replied, “Why, have you lost your memory?” Paisley went away and returned with a note to put under the door but the door opened and he was allowed to enter after a tea break. When the others returned from their adjournment they found Paisley sitting in the top chair. He was asked to move but complained about having been stopped outside by thugs. He then complained of a bad back and said he needed a comfortable chair so they physically lifted him, chair and all, and moved him to a more appropriate position at the other end of the table. Sammy also famously accused the Orange Order of using paramilitaries as a big stick during contentious parades before disowning them and said UDA people were having no more of it. Very recently he set up a meeting for us with CTI in which he was a highly respected figure.
They gave an impressive run down on their work but Sammy, who was under a lot of pressure, couldn’t attend. He would not have disagreed with minister Margaret Ritchie’s aims but sadly is no longer with us to help find a way through the difficulties.
It is precisely because that constituency is such a difficult one that Sammy Duddy’s talents and jovial personality will be seriously missed.
October 23, 2007
________________
This article appeared first in the October 22, 2007 edition of the Irish News.