Dear blog reader
Hopefully you will forgive me for a blog post on something at Shandon of particular to interest to me, but sometimes slightly controversial – the peace camp.
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LENNOX HERALD, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
CHRISTIAN PROTEST AT FASLANE BASE BY MARY CULLEN, PICTURES BY BRIAN AVERELL
Members of Christian CND from all over Britain held a Sunday service with a difference at the weekend.
They gathered in bright sunshine and showers at the gates of Faslane to pray for peace and voice their opposition to Trident submarines.
The service was the final act if Christian CND’s annual conference held in Glasgow this year for the first time.
The Faslane visit, by three coachloads of Christian peace activists from as far away as Wales and the south of England, began with a tour of the base which took in Coulport and the new Glen Fruin road as well as a visit to the peace camp at the south gate of Faslane.
Members of the peace camp acted as unofficial guides – an irony not lost on many of them following recent claims that it could be putting tourists off the area.
Many of the visitors were visibly shaken by the sheer size of developments at Faslane ad Coulport, designed to take Trident submarines in the 1990s.
And they were struck by the environmental impact on the countryside around Loch Long and the Gare Loch.
Sister Moira Colette Rudden, a Dominican nun from Canterbury who is also a vice-chairperson of Christian CND said ‘It seems to me that the heart has been gouged out of the hills around Coulport.’
‘I have visited all the bases in the south of England but I have never seen anything like this.’
Sister Moira, who has appeared before magistrates on many occasions for breaking the law during protests at military bases in England, revealed that there has been a significant change of attitude among many religious sisters since the present wave of direct action began.
She said ‘Ten years ago when I was first convicted of breaking the law, members of my own community wouldn’t speak to me for days.’
‘Now I have the support of the vast majority of them and I believe it is important for us to be standing up and protesting against nuclear weapons.’
Shandon People and History 