Suspect Sideways Maneuver Device

Man, Grace was this young Irish lass on my freshman dorm floor (Hazeltine House!) who was way too serious to party...Way too smart to drink and drug...Way too activated to fuck...And all of us 18 year old sacks of testosterone thought it was a shame, cuz she was hot and we were fucking unchained for the first time, you know?

Ach, it was a senseless bitch cuz of course there were probably about 20 of the 31 other young women on our floor who weren't as serious as her...

I was just serious enough, often enough, to be friends enough with her to know that Stiff Little Fingers was her favorite band, and she gave me her "Suspect Device" 7" on my birthday that year, and I've still got that 7", and it's still one of the coolest gifts I've ever received.

Grace was/is Irish-Catholic, and proud of it, and as you might expect, she was an Irish Nationalist in favor of a unified Ireland, independent of Great Britain...I was born and raised Catholic, and even though I was a Polack who had lapsed by 18, I still appreciated and agreed with one of her more passionate causes. A free Ireland.

So, I don't know who put this video together, this pairing of "Suspect Device" with riot footage straight outta Belfast circa then, but it almost perfectly embodies how I've remembered Grace through the years...

A serious beauty with her clear eyes focused on violence.

"I'm a suspect device the Army can't defuse...You're a suspect device they know they can't refuse...We're gonna blow up in their face..."

Hotcha! Hank