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Republican Sinn Féin is organising a Republican band in the Dublin area.
We need people with previous knowledge of playing drums, whistles etc.
If you have an interest in helping to organise a band in the Dublin area please contact Ard Oifig, Sinn Féin Poblachtach, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 or phone 01-872 9747.
RÚNAÍ
Republican Band Committee
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As you may know three prisoners -- Josephine Hayden (Dublin), Martin McGrath (Donegal) and Seán Moore (Monaghan) -- were released on July 19 from Limerick and Portlaoise jails and a fourth, Robbie McGilloway (Derry) will be released on July 28 after completing their full sentences. No special treatment for them!
We take this opportunity to update you on the conditions of Republican prisoners who stand for a British withdrawal and the All-Ireland Republic. These prisoners will not be getting early release under the terms of any agreement. They are fighting for political status, the same status the H-Block hunger strikers died for. In the Six Occupied Counties the POWs in Maghaberry prison who are refused political status are locked up 23 hours every day for refusing to do prison work.
These issues must be put right and the Republican Sinn Féin POW Department will be continuing the campaign for political status north and south of the Border. We deeply appreciate all your support for the prisoners down the years and we look forward to your continued support. Some of you we have met and thanked. Others we are looking forward to meeting and thanking on behalf of all the prisoners now and in the future. We still have work to do to improve prison conditions for Republican POWs who cannot be bought.
DEASÚN Ó DALTÚIN
Rúnaí
POW Department
Republican Sinn Féin
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I am writing to you to congratulate those involved in the regrouping of Na Fianna Éireann.
Na Fianna Éireann is an historic organisation which is committed to teaching the youth of Ireland our history and culture and also outdoor activities like marching and camping.
Started in 1909 by Countess Markievicz, it has always rejected British rule in all 32 Counties of Ireland and all partitionist governments set up to defy the will of the Irish people expressed in the All-Ireland general election of 1918.
Provisional "Sinn Féin" has rejected these principles and in doing so disassociated itself with Na Fianna Éireann, setting up Ógra "Sinn Féin".
I call on all Republicans dedicated to a 32-County Republic to reject all youth organisations which claim to be Republican and are associated with a party which gladly sits in Leinster House and Stormont so long the pillar of unionist rule in the Six Counties.
I hope that all true Republicans that support a successful youth movement conveying Republican principles can join Na Fianna Éireann or encourage other young people to join to help establish a movement against British rule and show that the youth of Ireland stand firm for a 32-County Republic.
You can get information on joining by writing to Na Fianna Éireann, c/o 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 or by phoning 087-243 7724.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
PÁDRAIG Ó DONNCHÚ
Dublin
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With so much criticism of our youth these days, I found encouragement and faith having witnessed some of our youth attend the Patrick Cannon commemoration held on Sunday, July 16 in Balgriffin Cemetery, Dublin.
A very successful commemoration was held with a colour party of Na Fianna Éireann. Smartly dressed and drilled, these young men gave up a beautiful Sunday afternoon, prepared to show their respect and honour a brave young soldier who gave his life for Ireland. They showed strength and belief in the principles of a 32-County free Ireland as envisaged by all those who have suffered and died.
I put my faith in these young Fianna to carry on the struggle and follow the true and legitimate road of Republicanism as shown by the 1916 leaders and Volunteers.
Congratulations on work well done.
P KING
Raheny
Dublin
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The decision by the [Provisional] IRA leadership to put its arms beyond use and to allow verification of this is the polite way of surrendering to British imperialism. Put whatever spin you wish on this historical betrayal as the media and political commentators have tried to do, it still remains a surrender by the Provisional leadership to British imperialism.
Meanwhile, the guns of British imperialism and those of its allies and collaborators in the RUC, UVF, UFF, UDA, LVF and other loyalist terror groups, along with the 150,000 privately held guns mainly in unionist hands will remain intact and available for use in the 'struggle' to keep the Six Occupied Counties British.
This is what 30 years of political struggle and anti-British rhetoric by the IRA and Sinn Féin has achieved.
A further point. Why is it that the tragic bombing in Omagh in 1998 is always in the forefront of our minds and will rightly be never forgotten while the equally terrible and tragic bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 carried out by loyalists in collaboration with the RUC and British army which killed 33 people and injured over 200 are almost forgotten; are never talked about; have never been properly investigated or commented on and the media and politicians in both Ireland and Britain have completely ignored the relatives of those killed and injured? No rugby matches for these people, no fund-raising, no celebrities visiting Dublin and Monaghan.
No. Nothing, except silence. And why, I wonder, has there been a conspiracy of silence about these events?
Because, perhaps, British dirty tricks and Irish collusion in this still has a lot to hide.
CHARLIE WALSH
Pimlico, London
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I attended a function held in the US recently with a friend. I was asked to make a donation to the Republican prisoners fund run by supporters of the 32-County Sovereignty Move-ment. I was given a news-sheet, Sovereign Nation and amongst the names printed were Michael Hegarty, Portlaoise, Josephine Hayden, Limerick, Brendan Burns, Maghaberry.
When I returned to Ireland I read SAOIRSE and Josephine Hayden says she has neither received nor requested any financial assistance from 32-County. I also noted that in the May/June edition of the Sovereign Nation that Michael Hegarty's name was not amongst the list of prisoners.
There is something wrong somewhere.
JOHN SOMERS
Killaloe, Co Clare
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In June two arson attacks on Catholic churches were perpetrated by Unionist bigots who would have been very comfortable in the American Ku Klux Klan.
In the County Antrim attack tires were piled up outside the door of St Mary's church in Cushendall before being set alight.
The blaze spread into the sacristy, causing part of the roof to fall in before it was spotted around 4.am.
On June 5 St John the Baptist Catholic Church on the GarvaghyRoad was also damaged in an arson attack, which damaged the foyer.
One is reminded of the arson attack of July 12, 1998 on a nationalist home in Ballymoney in which three little boys aged eight through ten were burned to death. Fortunately, there were no fatalities in the arson attacks discussed above.
These are only three of the many acts of terrorism that are committed routinely against the nationalist population of occupied Ireland.
They are rarely reported in the international media which much preferred to highlight and label Irish Republican Army activities as "terrorism" during the years the latter waged guerrilla warfare against British rule in the Six Occupied Counties.
If these acts of terrorism against the nationalist population of the north continue, of what real value is the Stormont Agreement? How can it be said that "there is peace when there is no peace."
Surely, it is time for "perfidious Albion" to leave Ireland in order that true peace, peace with justice, will finally come to the people of a united Ireland.
BARBARA FINK
Wisconsin, USA
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The Provisionals are now certainly past their sell-by date as they have locked all of their weapons away under the eyes of two so-called independent inspectors who report back to the British and the 26-County State.
How can members of the Provisionals stay with an organisation that has turned its back on the constitution of Sinn Féin by recognising the partitionist assemblies of Leinster House and Stormont, the institutions that divide Ireland into two States.
This is a call to all true Republicans loyal to the ideals of Pearse and Tone to join together and stand under the one banner of Republican Sinn Féin and force a British withdrawal from the Six Counties.
"If but a few are faithful found they must be all the more faithful for being but a few." -- Terence Mac Swiney.
JOHNATHAN BERMINGHAM
Baile Átha Cliath
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It is some time since Lord Morley made a statement on British imperialist policy. We should all keep it in mind that John the Bull is never too far away. It goes as follows:
First, you push into territories where you have no business to be and where you had promised not to go.
Secondly, your intrusion provokes resentment and in these wild countries, resentment means resisting.
Thirdly, you instantly cry out that the people are rebellious and that their act is rebellion. This in spite of your assurance that you have no intention of setting up a permanent sovereignty over them.
Fourthly, you send a force to stamp out rebellion and fifthly, having spread bloodshed, confusion and anarchy, you declare with uplifted hands that moral reasons force you to stay for if you leave this territory would be left in a condition which no civilised power could contemplate with equanimity or composure.
Lord Morley on British imperial policy.
PÁRAIC Ó CUALÁIN
Co Galway
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