Gerry Fitt has died.
This reduces by one the world’s stock of stubborn, iron-principled eccentrics.
Gerry was a Catholic socialist Irish nationalist from the Belfast slums,
instrumental in founding the Social Democratic & Labour Party in 1970. A
fierce opponent of the Sinn Fein/IRA terrorists, Fitt was on their hit list
for years. An IRA mob invaded his home at one point, and Gerry held them
off with a handgun. A few years later, while Gerry was away from home, the
bold freedom fighters had more success, and his house was burned to the
ground, with loss of all his possessions. He never moved an inch from his
position against violence as a solution to Northern Ireland’s problems.
Geryy had six daughters, whom it was his pleasure to refer to as “the Miss
Fitts.” R.I.P.