Local republican legend passes away

Legendary New Lodge republican Billy Kelly sadly passed away last weekend Saturday February 28 aged 71.
Billy Kelly spent over a half a century involved in the republican struggle.
Billy was born in North Queen Street into a republican family. Winifred Carney, stationed in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising, had stayed in Billy’s parents house in North Queen Street and was his mother’s bridesmaid.
Billy joined the IRA in 1955 and was interned for three and a half years from 1957 during the Border Campaign .
Involved in the Civil Rights campaign Billy was to the forefront of the IRA’s efforts to defend nationalist areas during the late ‘60s and ‘70s.
He and his brother John, a former Sinn Féin MLA?who died in 2007, travelled to Dublin along with Free State Army Captain James Kelly to brief Taoiseach Jack Lynch on the situation in the North.
Billy remained active in the IRA in the North during the early ‘70s.
In October 1973 an IRA-commandeered helicopter landed in Dublin’s Mountjoy Gaol and IRA Chief of Staff Séamus Twomey, IRA Quartermaster JB O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon boarded the chopper as part of an IRA early-release initiative.
Billy Kelly was arrested after the daring escape in Dublin and taken to the Bridewell, where he was accused of being one of those on the helicopter which broke out the IRA volunteers.
Eventually captured in the North Billy was interned again. After his release he took a back seat for a time in the struggle to care for his wife Kathleen and five children.
However, the blanket protest and hunger strikes threw Billy back into the Republican struggle, organising marches and demonstrations.
Billy’s daughter Kathy was jailed in the 1980s for possession of explosives. She later served as a Sinn Féin councillor and MLA.
Billy remained a strong republican and supporter of the struggle to the end of his life. In an interview last year with Nuacht an Tuaiscirt he supported tough decisions made by the Republican leadership.
“I am optimistic, you have to be. I think the current direction is the only one that could have been taken.”