A month after losing his Westminster seat in West Belfast to Gerry Adams, Gerry Fitt's house in Belfast was damaged by fire. Jim Cusack reported on his return from London shortly before he accepted a peerage. –
JOE JOYCE
Mr Gerry Fitt, who returned to Belfast yesterday to survey the damage caused in an arson attack on his home at the weekend, refused to make any comment on the growing speculation that he will receive a peerage in the British Government’s dissolution list.
When asked whether or not he would accept a peerage if offered one, Mr Fitt replied: “Aha, I thought I’d be asked that question. I have absolutely no comment to make about a peerage.”
Mr Fitt did not say what his exact intentions were for the future, but said he hoped to stay in public life and to do what work he could in Northern Ireland. He said the burning of his home would not intimidate him out of Northern Ireland and as far as he was concerned it was “absolutely not the end for Gerry Fitt in Belfast”.
Mr Fitt and his wife have spent most of their time in a London flat over the last few years, but stayed in the house when they returned to Belfast. About two weeks ago Mr Fitt moved many of his remaining belongings from the house and a security camera above the front door was also removed.
On his return yesterday Mr Fitt said he was saddened to see the damage to the house which held many happy memories for him. The Fitts and their five daughters lived in the Antrim Road house for almost 19 years. They moved in on July 12th, 1964.
On Sunday evening Catholic youths from the New Lodge area behind Mr Fitt’s house broke in through the rear security fencing. They set fires at the bottom of the staircase and in two or three rooms and ransacked fittings and furniture.
The Fitt’s home became the target for attack from Provisional IRA supporters in the New Lodge area when Mr Fitt began to make his opposition to Republican violence clear at the beginning of the 1970s. The attacks escalated to stone throwing by mobs when he opposed the Provisionals’ blanket and dirty protests in the Maze, and reached a climax when he criticised the motivation behind the hunger-strike. At one stage during the hunger-strike era a mob invaded his house and Mr Fitt had to draw his legally held gun to hold them at bay.
While examining the damage he criticised the SDLP and its leader, Mr [John] Hume, saying that if the SDLP had not opposed him in West Belfast he would have won against Mr Adams. He said that Mr Hume’s maiden speech at Westminster had been viewed as a “Brit’s Out” speech and had no impact at Westminster.
The attack on Mr Fitt’s home was condemned yesterday by Mr Joe Austin, the unsuccessful Sinn Féin candidate in North Belfast at the last election. He said the attack gave credibility to a man who had no credibility.
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