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Na Fianna Éireann throughout the year has been a very encouraging sight to see, young men giving their time to the Republican cause, although it saddens me to see so few coming forward to help in the fight against British occupation in Ireland. We would just like to take this opportunity to tell the youth of Ireland that Na Fianna plan to undertake a 24-hour hunger strike to highlight the situation with Officer Commanding Tommy Crossan in Maghaberry prison, Co Antrim.
The fast will commence on May 4 at 2pm and end at 2pm on May 5 when we will parade from the Garden of Remembrance to the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin. We are asking you, the youth, to step forward and give your full support to the brave soldiers who gave their lives for political status, and to those same Irish soldiers who are seeking political status today.
We are looking for members of the general public to help out through the night, as well as supporters throughout the country. By doing this you will let the Free State and British governments know that you will never forget what happened to ten brave men as we mark the 20th anniversary of the hunger strikes of Long Kesh.
If you wish to join Na Fianna you can do so by calling into 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 and leaving your name, age and address c/o the Secretary.
NA FIANNA ÉIREANN
Baile Átha Cliath
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Twenty years ago, almost to the day, Bobby Sands died after a hunger strike of 66 days. Nine of his comrades, all Irish Republican militants, died after him, due to the systematic policy of oppression practiced by Mrs Thatcher towards Ireland, in keeping with her refusal to grant prisoner of war status to members of the IRA and INLA.
His death brought about an immense emotion in world opinion and a reprobation of the policy being carried out by the British government towards Irish political prisoners. Bobby Sands was a deputy in the Westminster parliament and an IRA leader. He and his nine comrades led the struggle for the respect and dignity of the prisoners, thus underlining the long struggle of the Irish people for freedom. They carried out this struggle to the end: death.
2001 marks the 20th anniversary of this event which is now part of history; this is why we are asking all local councils and all elected representatives who showed their solidarity 20 years ago and also all those who were of opinion that the 10 men died for a just cause, to make a gesture by bestowing the name of Bobby Sands (or one of his companions) on a street, place or symbolic place in their commune/district.
As Bretons, we have a duty to remember, as have our Irish partners.
PATRICK CORLAY
Asst Spokesperson,
EMGANN
Movement of left for Independence
Breizh/Brittany
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I wish to thank SAOIRSE for reprinting the account by Michael Traynor of the 1940 hunger strike. This made gripping reading, a first-hand account of what these brave and honourable men suffered and in which Vol Tony Darcy, Vol Seán McNeela and Vol Seán McCaughey gave their lives. There are a few points I would like to make which are relevant to this day.
A chara
Listening to Ulster TV news on April 19 I see where a member of the Provo police from Derry was remanded in custody at the Special Court in Dublin as a criminal, charged with ‘terrorist’ offences. He cannot blame the Brits, it’s his own organisation that signed away political status.
Will his family ask Crown minister McGuinness why their son, a young Provo policeman, is being criminalised and ask him why Patsy O’Hara, Mickey Devive and Kevin Lynch, all young Derry Republicans died on hunger strike? The Free State soldiers suffer from loss of hearing: the Provos suffer from loss of memory. Let the sun shine on you Bobby Sands.
SÉAMUS Ó LOINSIGH
Co Laois
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Since 1974, the US Government has denied visas to Republican Sinn Féin representatives to enter the United States to promote the ÉIRE NUA peace formula.
ÉIRE NUA is a comprehensive Irish formula for a just and lasting peace in the context of a British withdrawal. More importantly ÉIRE NUA is an Irish alternative to the faltering British-initiated Good Friday Agreement, an arrangement that after three years in existence is still ineffective.
Up to now the U.S. government has acquiesced to British demands by summarily denying visas to ÉIRE NUA spokespersons including Ruairí Ó Brádaigh the President of Republican Sinn Féin. The British consider Ó Brádaigh and other targeted individuals, to be effective spokespersons for Irish self determination, and therefore, a serious threat to their unopposed and well managed public relations campaign in America.
In 1978,the Irish National Caucus of New Jersey petitioned Peter Rodino, Chairman of the House Judiciary to investigate the denial of visas to members of The Republican Movement. The inquiry , which was led by Joshua Eilberg (D-PA) and Hamilton Fish (R-NY), took place in Ireland and England in September of 1978 concluded that “all those who applied for visas should be allowed into the United States and none excluded”.
The National Irish Freedom Committee (NIFC) agrees with the above conclusion This damaging US policy is a serious setback to the promotion of the Eire Nua peace formula in the United States. It deprives Irish Americans and the American public at large of an opportunity to evaluate and compare competing schools of thought, and more importantly, it denies US citizens their constitutional rights to free speech
The NIFC is preparing a national campaign that will be launched in the near future. More information may be obtained by checking our website www.irishfreedom.net, or writing to the address below
Fionnán Ó Sé
National Co-ordinator
Visa Denial Repeal Campaign, PO Box 3286
Pittsburgh PA 15230.
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I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without commenting on the latest escapade from former comrades – the display of the Easter Lily at Stormont. The Easter Lily was designed in 1925 by Cumann na mBan to commemorate those who died at Easter Week 1916 and throughout the long struggle for Irish national independence, and Irish Republicans have sold it and worn it for that purpose down to the present day. It was also intended to raise money for such causes as the organisation of commemorative events throughout the country or for the Republican prisoners’ dependants fund. The original lily was hand-made by faithful Republicans who sold it at great risk throughout the country.
No Irish Republican ever sought a permit from represent-atives of either of the Partition assemblies, be it Leinster House or Stormont, and sold and displayed them proudly wherever they could. In fact the first people to seek and get permits were the Workers’ Party (the Stickies) sometime in the late 1970s. The Provisionals followed them down that road in the 1990s.The Easter Lily was never intended to be brought into a British assembly and those who have done so have once again shown the brazen treachery which has been their trademark since 1986. The support they received from a former loyalist death squad member of the Stormont assembly (who by the way said he and his comrades had not killed enough Republicans during their murderous campaigns!) exposes the many contradictions in their policies.
Let it be put on the record: those who died in Easter Week and since, including the H-Block hunger strikers, died for the establishment of a 32-County Irish Republic and they didn’t believe that could be found through a British assembly or parliament. In the words of a well-known song:
Take it down from the mast, Irish traitors
It’s the flag we Republicans claim!
Those who are willing to sit in the Stormont assembly, with the Union Jack (the Butcher’s Apron!) flying over it, have lost the right to display or sell the Easter Lily and should cease to do so.
Líta Ní Chathmhaoil
Tamhlacht, BÁC
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I watched with amazement Mitchell McLoughlin (Provo spokesperson) on RTÉ’s Later with O’Leary programme making excuses for the 1916 Rising and trying to explain how proud he was at the Provos displaying and wearing Easter lilies in the British Stormont.
What planet is he living on? Does he not know that the people that the Easter Lily represents and stands for fought and died in 1916 to abolish British rule in Ireland and to send home to the British a direct message that they revolted against everything that was British in this country (all of Ireland).
They did not die for the likes of McLoughlin and his fellow Provos to dishonour the memory of 1916 by wearing Easter Lilies in Stormont. It’s not even funny anymore.
BALLYLONGFORD REPUBLICAN
Co Kerry
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So much time has been devoted to arguing about the mostly irrelevant subject of police badges and symbols that more important points have been left out.
Provo spokesmen never seem to make calls for the repeal of the repressive special powers acts in both the 26 counties and the Six Counties from which the police draw their power to act. Absent from the two Provo Crown ministers are calls to curtail police special powers.
The EIRE NUA plan can have the inspiration to have the inclusion of police powers on the reform agenda.
There is a lack of political thought on the subject by the political parties on this island. there is no reason why the people of Ireland should have so poor a police service on this island.
Peadar Ó Cléirigh
Tallaght, Dublin
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I attended the Easter Sunday 2001 commemoration at the GPO in Dublin organised by the Republican Movement. Towards the end of the main speaker’s address a smoke bomb was thrown at the crowd of several hundred by an unknown individual. Despite the presence of dozens of Free State Special Branch defectives, this individual was able to make off on foot with no one in pursuit.
Hasn’t there been a sustained pipe bombing campaign by loyalists against innocent northern nationalists who are Irish citizens also in recent times? Questions must be asked of the Dublin police. This incident had it been reported in the mainstream press I am sure would have shook public confidence in the cops.
Bryan O’Hanlon
Manchester
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This Easter, as every Easter, Republicans paid tribute to the patriot men and women who sacrificed all for Ireland. While honouring the past we might also look to the future, taking courage from the integrity of their ideal, succour from their dedication to the cause and exult in the legacy left for us to carry forward. Preparing ourselves for the coming day when all the people of Ireland will have an equal voice in administering a United 32-County Republic, crystall-ising our patriot’s visions into reality. Then our honoured dead can rest in peace, duty done, dream realised.
SÉAMUS WALSH
LONDON
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Tax evasion and encouraging others to engage in tax evasion is wrong, says Bertie Ahern. By definition then the tax amnesty programme introduced to facilitate tax evasion for the privileged few was wrong and the devisers of this programme acted wrongfully. The lines between legality and illegality become increasingly blurred. No law for the ultra rich and the letter of the law for others.
The disproportionality to this scenario is breathtaking. I am in receipt of a Common-wealth Superannuation Pension related to my working life in Australia. The pension is directed to me via the offshore venue being the venue created principally for the tax amnesty set. Unlike the fat-cats with whom I share a berth offshore if only momentarily my income, such as it is, does not come under the amnestied arrangement being considered fair game by the Revenue Commissioners.
A fair game though requires adherence to rules. In this Theatre of the Absurd scenario which is the offshore venue all rules appear to be off.
They should not though be off for those of us who find ourselves unwittingly and through none of our own devising in the company of those to whom definition of status and data information in their names would be anathema since anonymity is essential to the programme initiated so conscientiously on their behalf. Definition of true status can only be connected to correct data information.
Which brings me to my point if somewhat circuitously. Documents I had acquired through the Australian Freedom of Information Act and copies of which I had addressed to the Irish Revenue Commissioners before they taxed my income had provided them with evidence of major trans-gressions in the formulation of data information in my name.
The Commissioners were aware that I had been afforded no opportunity to have the data corrected.
Incorrect data remains incorrect data wherever you are and whomsoever you present yourself to and the right of the individual in question to have the data corrected must take precedence over any other consideration or process be it taxation process or otherwise. This is what it says in the Irish Constitution and in the Data Protection Act which has international application. I believe the revenue Commissioners in my case acted in contravention of the law.
The law that is as opposed to the jettisoning of even the precept of law by the State on behalf of the tax amnesty set.
JOHN KELLY
Mullingar, Co Westmeath
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