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I’d have joined the IRA in a heartbeat, says principal of St Andrew's university
Thursday, 16 April 2009
The first Irish-born principal of St Andrews University in Scotland is ruffling feathers at the famous institution.
Louise Richardson, who was born in Ireland but is a US citizen by adoption, is thought to be the only academic at her level to have admitted that she was once tempted to join the IRA.
However, instead she became one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism.
Dr Richardson took office as the first female principal of St Andrews last March — the third-oldest university in the English-speaking world.
Her arrival in the principal's office is a remarkable journey. In January 1972, she was a 14-year-old Catholic girl, one of seven children, living in the small seaside town of Tramore in Co Waterford when she heard news that 27 civil rights marchers had been shot, and 13 of them killed, by the British Parachute Regiment.
She was already a republican, and Bloody Sunday fired up her sense of injustice so much that her anxious parents locked her in her bedroom to prevent her setting off to take part in a protest in Newry, 300 miles from home.
“I'd have joined the IRA in a heartbeat,” she wrote in the introduction to her book, published in 2006, What Terrorists Want.
Instead, she became the first in her family to go through university. She enrolled in the Protestant-dominated Trinity College, Dublin, working as a cocktail waitress at night to fund her studies.
At university, she and her closest friend were invited to join the student branch of the IRA. Her friend joined but Louise Richardson had decided by then that killing was wrong, no matter for what cause it was done.
She preferred to express her republicanism by using Gaelic as her preferred language.
She applied for a year's fellowship at the University of California. She went, and resolved to return to the US as soon as she had completed her studies at Trinity. She left Ireland on the same day in 1979 that Pope John Paul II arrived in Dublin.
She earned a doctorate at Harvard University, where she took up teaching international relations, and was appointed executive dean of the former women's college, Radcliffe, which she helped transform into a respected institute for advanced study. She set up a course on terrorism, at her students' request, in 1996.
She married a US doctor, with whom she has three children. When the youngest was 14, she |decided to look for other opportunities. Of all the offers St Andrews was the most attractive, though it involved leaving America.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks had pitched her into the public arena as one of the few academics able to talk knowledgeably about terrorism. She gave lectures, and testified before a Senate committee.
In her book, directly contradicting what Americans had been told by George Bush, Dr Richardson asserted that the world had not changed on September 11, but American foreign policy had. She also said that to contain terrorists it was necessary to understand what motivated them.
She also pointed out that the 3,000 casualties inflicted on 11 September by al-Qa'ida were dwarfed by the number of Americans who are murdered by fellow citizens, or who commit suicide, die in car crashes, or drink themselves to death each year.
When Dr Richardson's publishers read her completed manuscript, they pleaded with her to remove the chapter that discussed September 11. She said she would rather return her advance and cancel publication. They gave way ... as others may have to.
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Comments
46 Comments
Oh, and can I invite whoever wrote this to explain why they state that Louise Richardson is 'ruffling feathers at the famous institution'?
The article mentions this nugget of information but then fails to elaborate on this. One could even deduce from this appalling journalism that her views as a teenager are what is 'ruffling the feathers' when of course nothing could be further from the truth.
The reason Dr Richardson is 'ruffling feathers' is actually because she has put the cat amongst the pigeons by removing University sponsorship of the Kate Kennedy club. This club does not admit women to its ranks and thus Richardson has correctly argued that it does not warrant university support in an age of equality between men and women. The toffs are falling over themselves at this action and its hilarious to watch.
Posted by Cathal | 20.04.09, 14:44 GMT
Louise Richardson is one of the world's foremost authorities on terrorism.
This quote is of course taken out of context and it is surprising (or perhaps not) that so many here make blanket statements about what she thinks and what she stands for based on a one line excerpt from the introduction of what is, by all accounts, one of the best books you will ever read about terrorism.
So if any of you really care about the new principal of the University that I happen to attend, go and read her book. You won't regret it.
One must also wonder at the level of journalism that is prevailing at the Belfast Telegraph when it uses a quote taken from a 3 year old book to stir a little bit of controversy over an appointment of a principal which was reported on in Scottish newspapers around a year ago. Someone from the Kate Kennedy club got an axe to grind perhaps?!
Posted by Cathal | 20.04.09, 14:33 GMT
Spud
Congratulations on filling Mickeys' well worn shoes with a series of ignorant sectarian remarks! Try reading the article first (and then momentarily forget that really don't like catholic/nationalists),,,you might find that your comments don't come across as bitter and il- informed as they currently do....just a suggestion
Posted by mark | 17.04.09, 13:04 GMT
Typical character assasination of someone who certain nationalist and republican posters on this website don't agree with. Mickey ignore the rampant bigots.
As for this "academic" she certainly may have a piece of paper saying she has a PhD however she obviously never lived in Northern Ireland or has been affected by these evil IRA savages judging by her naive and romantisied comments about the "non-combatant" killers of the IRA.
Posted by Gary | 17.04.09, 10:19 GMT
A person in her position should be more sensitive to the views of others.She seems a typical American" I want my cake and eat it,because I'm cool and like to cause alarm".A person more concerned with herself than a balance view of her duties.Most unsuitable for the post she holds.
Posted by Robert | 16.04.09, 23:49 GMT
I can easily understand Louise's strong Republican sympathies resulting from the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, but ut she is completerly wrong when she tries to rationalise the murdering of 3,000 innocent New Yorkers on 9/11. One important lesson to be learned from Bloody Sunday is that the sooner all aspects of G.F.A. are fully impleminted, the better for all at both sides of the Border, also for the British.
Posted by Seán MacCurtain | 16.04.09, 22:45 GMT
It's maybe a moot point, but I wonder if these people who "would have" joined the IRA would now be working inside SF offices or outside attacking them? Hmm.
Posted by Steve | 16.04.09, 22:34 GMT
Yeah but what we all do in the spur of a moment or in response to an extreme situation should not be seen as the mark of us....I scratch my bum, but that does not define me as a human being....so grow up and stop sensationalising everything!!!!!!
Posted by Malachy Mulligan | 16.04.09, 22:11 GMT
A tough decision to make."Do I join the IRA or opt for the nice cosy suroundings of American university life." She did what a lot of the others did and probably sat crying into her pints of green guinness,shouting out wee bits of Gaelic now and again.And I bet she's watched Slumdog Millionaire 32 times-and cried every time!
Posted by Daniel | 16.04.09, 20:16 GMT
Belfast Telegraph! I'm very disappointed that you misrepresented my last comment here.
I did not say that the good Dr Richardson was "a self-absorbed, empty-headed". I said that she was "a self-absorbed, empty-headed t***". And I only said it because it is true.
Please be good enough to rectify this and print an apology.
Posted by spud | 16.04.09, 20:15 GMT
Nothing wrong in her comments- at least being an expert in terrorism, she would have learned all about the IRA. No decent catholic joined the IRA that I knew growing up as a kid, and as for her stats, the IRA killed more catholics than all the other groups put together. So, I doubt if the IRA could ever be called freedom fighters.
Posted by canuck | 16.04.09, 20:08 GMT
she is an academic, she's a Free Stater and she spent a large slice of her life away from home. Hardly the most qualified to comment on the six counties as she's not from there. you can find people like these on internet forums. it's the equivalent of having someone from Surrey or Kent wax lyrical about their little colony!
Posted by Greg | 16.04.09, 18:17 GMT
nice to know the boss of one of the most notable universities in Britain has such great morals and community spirit.
Posted by Jim | 16.04.09, 17:31 GMT
Steven 73 - the point of this article, it seems to me, is that to admire the IRA was/is not unusual if you belong to any group other than north of ireland unionists. That seems to include huge swathes of the world's population.
Posted by flynn | 16.04.09, 17:22 GMT
As Mickey's psychiatrist can I extend his gratitude to all who have mourned his absence from this site. Unfortunately things have taken a turn for the worst. Since he came off the medication his delusions have returned. I don't kmow what you people have done to him but once again he believes himself to Princess Diana, caught in a loveless marriage to Michael Collins and uncertain about is the father of his little baby boy - Eoin Quigg.
You people need help.
Posted by Dr Erasmus | 16.04.09, 17:06 GMT
What exactly was the point of this article?
Louise Richardson was born and grew up in Ireland, moved to the US and now lives in Scotland? So she's Irish with a US citizenship, no crime there.
Also, who cares if she was tempted to join the IRA, I'm a Unionist, but if I'd been a Catholic teenager at the time of Bloody Sunday I'd probably have been very tempted to join the IRA, as I'm sure many young Catholic teens were.
I'm sure there are lots of senior academics, politicians and businessmen who were tempted as teens to join the IRA, but its not relevant for them to express this publicly, Louise Richardson however has made a career out of being one of the few academics able to talk knowledgeably about terrorism, so of course she wants people to think she understands what it is all about, big deal.
She has not committed a crime, why would she resign? Printing this rubbish article however is a crime against journalism.
Posted by Steven 73 | 16.04.09, 16:49 GMT
She and many others were shocked when they saw what happened on Bloody Sunday. Anyone with a twitter of wit knows it was the greatest recruitment event for the IRA in all the troubles. But if she had joined she would have been looking to kill soldiers in the British Army, while you David would have been looking to kill Catholics. I'm a Catholic but didn't take up the gun and join the IRA as i still believed that killing anyone was wrong. However i and other decent Catholics held our nerve, and today we can thank people like John Hume for his input, that has at last brought us peace.
Posted by Spot_On | 16.04.09, 16:21 GMT
lots of people joined the terrorist groups because of the actions of the british bloody sunday was one of the top recruiters of the 70s along with internment she has done wonderful for herself congrats to her lots of u people still sign the bru it must be mickeys bru day then bookies and pub nothing changes
Posted by ray .. usa | 16.04.09, 16:06 GMT
Regardless of Mickey's dodgy opinions I for one thinks its great that he's dragged himself away from his computer for the Easter hols. I find more humour than offence in his comments most of the time anyway
Wherever you are Mickey - have a good one!!
Posted by John | 16.04.09, 16:00 GMT
I hear the Taliban are still recruiting...Could she not just sprout a beard and join that instead?
Posted by Plannisaurus Rex | 16.04.09, 15:27 GMT
46 Comments