Word: sirring
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...revolutionaries managed to oust Sir Eric's warlockracy with the loss of only three lives. On the morning of March 13, 45 members of the opposition New Jewel movement (Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation) stormed Sir Eric's True Blue Defense Force barracks; they arrested 100 soldiers who were sleeping and unarmed. At the same time, Sir Eric's government ministers were routed out of bed and confined in the garden of the local prison...
Although few leaders in the Caribbean had been fond of the flamboyant Sir Eric, they were alarmed by the precedent that might be set by a coup d'état-the first for the English-speaking islands of the area. Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica, Guyana and St. Lucia issued a stuffily worded statement that the coup had been "contrary to the traditional method of changing governments" in the region...
...Grenada's 110,000 citizens are likely to mourn Sir Eric's hasty departure. His popularity as the island's foremost labor leader in the 1950s was soon dissipated by his authoritarian methods when he became Prime Minister in 1967. Following Grenada's independence from Britain in 1974, Queen Elizabeth knighted Gairy, though he had given himself the title of Sir Eric years before...
...Prime Minister himself profited while in office: his holdings included a beauty salon, several hotel guesthouses and the Evening Palace nightclub, where Grenadians seeking the favors of Sir Eric were expected to spend freely. When a 1973 general strike threatened Sir Eric's financial idyl, the Mongoose Gang savagely beat up three opposition leaders, including Maurice Bishop. Two months later, Bishop's father was killed by police during a demonstration...
Back in Grenada meanwhile, members of the new government feared that Sir Eric would try to stage a countercoup. Sure enough, while in New York City last week, Sir Eric vainly appealed to the U.S., Canada and Britain to return him to power. According to Bishop, Sir Eric then began seeking men and arms for a mercenary army that would retake the island...