November 23: Astonished by Limerick protest pictures from 1970

22 Nov 2013

Anti-apartheid protesters march down OConnell Street on the day in January 1970 when the Springboks rugby team from South Africa played Munster at Thomond Park. More than 500 gardai were on duty outside and inside the ground. Many pictures from the day were published in our Wednesday edition this week, the first time they had ever seen the light of day and reader Turlough Hogan recognised his younger self in one of them

I COULD hardly believe my eyes this morning on seeing the Wednesday edition of the Leader (still known to my family as the Penny Leader, even though it costs quite a bit more these days!).

I COULD hardly believe my eyes this morning on seeing the Wednesday edition of the Leader (still known to my family as the Penny Leader, even though it costs quite a bit more these days!).

I had to email you to express my astonish-ment over the many photographs you have published showing the protests in Limerick at the arrival of the Springboks rugby team. There, stuck in the middle of a picture showing the team in a bus at Colbert Station, is none other than myself. I wasn’t even aware that pictures were being taken at the time! So thank you for printing these amazing photographs. I was quite a political left-winger in those days but I feel that all those people who took a stance against apartheid stand vindicated today.