Everyone tells me I’m a feminist. All I know is that I’m just as good as others…and that especially means men. I am definitely a socialist and I’m definitely a Republican. I believe in a united socialist country…definitely socialist. Capitalism can offer our people nothing, and yet that’s the main interest of the British in Ireland.’ —Mairéad Farrell.

Mairéad Farrell, born in Belfast in 1957, joined the IRA at the age of 18 immediately after leaving school. She came from a traditional republican family. Mairéad's grandfather was a member of the Tan War (1919-1921) and was imprisoned in 1920.

In the women's prison at Armagh, Mairéad Farrell became a "commanding officer". Of this, she said: "There's no real honour in this. I had to make decisions which affected all of the prisoners. And there were times when I felt very alone, even though I had the support of all the other prisoners."

On December 1, 1980, Mairéad Farrell and Mary Doyle began a hungerstrike. When the hungerstrike in the H-Block ended on December 18, the women also called off their strike one day later. But the British government did not meet the strikers' demands. So another hungerstrike was started in the H-Block. Again, a decision had to be made as to whether the women would also take part in the action. After long and controversial discussions, it was decided against this. For Mairéad, this is the "worst time in prison: waiting for death."

On March 1, 1981, Bobby Sands began a hungerstrike, and thereafter other prisoners joined in. They demanded: their own clothes; an end to forced labor; free hours together with other prisoners; a visit, letter, or package once a week; self-organized free-time and education and prison term curtailment, as with "normal" prisoners.

Despite a massive national and international mobilization, the British government would not fulfill the demands. In total, 10 prisoners died between May 6 and August 20, 1981. The hungerstike finally ended in October, and Bobby Sands' funeral was attended by 100,000 people. At the end of the hungerstrike, one of the demands was met: the prisoners were allowed to wear their own clothes.

Later, Mairéad studied political science and economics while still in prison. When she was set free in 1986, after 10 and one half years of internment, she was accepted into Queens University. Mairéad also became active in the political campaign against the strip searching of women in prisons. She also began attending meetings and holding lectures all across Ireland.

"Everyone tells me I'm a feminist. All I know is that I'm just as good as others, and that especially means men. I am definitely a socialist and I'm definitely a Republican. I believe in a united socialist country, definitely socialist. Capitalism can offer our people nothing and yet that's the main interest of the British in Ireland."

"I am oppressed as a woman, and I'm also oppressed as an Irish person. Everyone in this country is oppressed and yet we can only end our oppression as women if we end the oppression of our nation as a whole. But, I don't think that that alone is enough. This isn't the first time that women have been seen as secondary, but women today have been through so much that they won't just let things be. I hope I'm still alive when the British are driven out. Then the struggle begins anew."

Mairéad Farrell was murdered by an SAS unit in Gibraltar on March 6, 1988. A meticulously planned ambush by the British Army's Special Air Services (SAS) in Gibraltar, known as Operation Flavius (or Death On The Rocks) saw the execution of three Oglaigh Na hEireann volunteers: Daniel McCann (30), Seán Savage (24), and Mairéad Farrell (31).

One eyewitness testified that when Mairéad and Daniel saw guns pointed at them, they raised their hands in surrender. The SAS opened fire, anyway, finishing off the three volunteers as they lay helpless on the ground. Seán was shot 16 times, Daniel 5, and Mairéad 8.

Thousands attended the funeral of Mairéad Farrell, Daniel McCann and Seán Savage. Hanging back from the mourners, with his tangled, shoulder length black hair, was the distinctive figure of Michael Stone. In his satchel he carried seven grenades, a Browning semi-automatic pistol and a Luger pistol. His objective, he said later, was to kill leading Sinn Féin figures Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Danny Morrisson. But his efforts to reach them were frustrated because there were too many women and children in the way. Instead, just as the last of the three coffins was being lowered into the ground, Stone lobbed grenades towards the republican plot surrounded by the IRA colour guard. The spectacle of horrified mourners diving among the tombstones for cover was captured by television cameras and the pictures flashed around the world. Pursued by some of the crowd, Stone began retreating across waste ground towards the M1, shooting and throwing missiles at his pursuers. The crowd caught up with Stone, kicking him unconscious and he would undoubtedly have been killed himself had not police arrived and, at gunpoint, rescued the gunman. Stone later asked police how many victims he had claimed. He was told there were at least two and he replied: "Brilliant!". On March 3, 1989, following a 10 day trial at Belfast Crown Court, Stone was given six life sentences for six counts of murder, with a recommendation that he serve at least 30 years. As well as the three cemetery killings, he was convicted of three earlier sectarian murders of Catholics.

The European Court of Human Rights was convened in September of 1995 to review the unmerciful killings. It was decided by the court that the Gibraltar Three were unlawfully killed in breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It was shown that the British Army had once again violated law by using "unreasonable force".

“I am oppressed as a woman, and I’m also oppressed as an Irish person. Everybody in this country is oppressed, and yet we can only end our oppression as women if we end the oppression of our nation as a whole. But I don’t think that, that alone is enough. This isn’t the first time that women have been seen as secondary. But women today have been through so much that they won’t just let things be. I hope I am still alive when the British are driven out. Then, the struggle begins anew.”— Mairéad Farrell.