Increased media interest was reflected in prime time RTE and BBC radio and television interviews with Republican Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and other members of the Ard Chomhairle (national executive). There was substantial coverage in Dublin, Belfast and London newspapers and from the international news agencies, Associated Press (US-based) and the Press Association (based in England).
The larger numbers in attendance at the Ard-Fheis, particularly of young people, was remarked on by observers, including the Irish Times (November 10). The Guardian on the same day said that British and Dublin "security sources view an increase in Republican Sinn Féin membership with alarm".
Among the visitors were the Belfast Republicans, Dolours and Marion Price who endured 206 days of hunger-striking and 167 days of the torture of force-feeding in Brixton prison in England in 1973-74 before being granted their demand to be transferred to Armagh women’s jail. Other visitors attended from the USA, Scotland and England.
In his presidential address on Sunday, November 9 Ruairí Ó Brádaigh told delegates that the organisation must oppose the proposed referendum for May 1998 in the Six Occupied Counties "and its accompanying side-show in the 26 Counties". The previous day delegates voted to "actively oppose" the proposed referenda in the Six and 26 Counties "as a copperfastening of Partition and a denial of All-Ireland democracy and that the incoming Ard-Chomhairle gives clear direction on what course of action to take".
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said that regardless of the results of such referenda Republican Sinn Féin will not accept any settlement which seeks to legitimise English rule in Ireland under whatever guise. "The present process will strengthen and update British rule here – not weaken it," he said.
"English rule in Ireland is modernising itself these days, trying to make itself more acceptable internationally by involving as large a section as possible of the nationalist population of the Six Occupied Counties in its workings. ‘What is available,’ (John Bruton’s words) is Sunningdale No2: a reformed power-sharing Stormont with cross-Border committees and possibly a new British-controlled police force," he said.
Addressing to the media before his address to delegates, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said it was possible that although it was taking part in the Stormont talks, the Provisionals could oppose whatever is agreed there, but then agree to work the settlement if it was passed in the referenda. This would not be a principled consistent position.
"If you sup with the devil, you need a long spoon. You are either for British rule in Ireland or against it. You can’t play it both ways."
In the session on political policy delegates agreed that the "Republican Movement will not accept any agreement which falls short of these three basic demands for (1) a British declaration of intent to withdraw from Ireland; (2) the release of all political prisoners and an amnesty for those on the wanted list and (3) a New Ireland negotiated by the Irish people themselves"
A Limerick resolution was passed calling on "all Republicans including those who have been misled in the past to join with us" to work for a British withdrawal and a New Ireland. Proposing the motion Vice-President Des Long said that a section of the Provisionals now knew they had been fooled and misled by their leaders. They had three options, he said: "To go home – like somebody said we were going to do – and forget about the sacrifices made; to form a new body, and if it has the same ideals as the last one, they shouldn’t bother; or to rejoin us in the Republican Movement". They should take their courage in their hands, tell their former leaders they were wrong and the hand of friendship would be extended to them by Republican Sinn Féin, he said.
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh told journalists that Provisionals had left in the previous weeks because of a purge against opponents of the current process. He believed dissidents were being got rid of in bits as opposition was not tolerated. Such resignations were inevitable as a result of the Provisionals heading towards constitutionalism and an acceptance of Partition.
Belfast Ard Chomhairle member, Geraldine Taylor, spoke in favour of a resolution, which was passed, condemning "attempts by former Republicans to intimidate true Republicans by abductions and threats in preparation for an attempt to enforce a British-imposed settlement in collaboration with London, Dublin and Stormont parties".
She said that Republican Sinn Féin would not be intimidated and was going from strength to strength. "They are going to fall by the wayside. They are already crumbling because of people who did not believe in their strategy but remained with them because of loyalty. They were following something that went against their principles and beliefs. Now we see them facing reality. The only way forward is to be true to the Republican cause. You can’t follow individuals, you have to follow the cause," she said.
Republican Sinn Féin delegates also voted to oppose the proposed referendum in the 26 Counties early next year on the Amsterdam Treaty because it militates against neutrality and an independent foreign policy and tightens the grip of the EU on Ireland. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh criticised the lack of debate surrounding this issue and said that the referendums would be a "fair test of peoples anti-violence credentials". Would it be a case of "big bombs OK, small bombs bad?" he asked.
Delegates voted "That this Ard-Fheis unreservedly condemn the actions of the Bogside Residents Association in their pandering to the fascist parades of Orangemen and Apprentice Boys in Derry and demand their replacement forthwith by a truly representative community body and pays tribute to the valiant deeds of the youth of Derry in giving battle to the Crown Forces in July and rekindling the spirit of resistance".
Other resolutions supported the peoples of East Timor and Cuba and condemned the US blockade on the Caribbean nation. The "shoot-to-kill" policy of the Spanish State against the Basque separatist movement was condemned.
The first published report of resignations from the Provisionals military organisation was in the Irish Independent of November 6. It headlined on page one that "key activists, including a former chief of staff and the quartermaster general" had resigned from the Provisionals at an "extraordinary army convention" in Donegal during October. Twenty senior personnel including those responsible for engineering and weapons storage were involved.
Sunday Business Post columnist Tom McGurk reported (November 9) that six of the 12-person executive of the Provisionals’ military organisation had resigned. According to the Irish Independent, two of these were the quarter-master general and his girlfriend, who is the sister of an IRA hunger-strike martyr who died in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in the summer of 1981.
The same evening there were public resignations of County Louth members of the Provisionals’ political organisation. Fra Browne, a former Sinn Féin councillor said that up to 30 members of the organisation in the county had resigned both at the meeting and over the following day, constituting most of the members of three of the four Cumainn (branches) in Dundalk.
He said the resignations arose from the Provisional leadership’s refusal to call a special Ard-Fheis (national conference) on the Mitchell Principles, which were signed up to by the Provisionals earlier this year. The chairperson of the Louth executive, Owen Hanratty, who was also the Provisional candidate in the 26-County general election in June last, was among those who resigned. Fra Browne told the Dundalk Argus newspaper that by signing the Mitchell Principles the Provisionals had "committed the party to an internal settlement which contravenes the constitution of our party". The decision to sign up to the Mitchell Principles was taken by the leadership without consultation with the grass-roots. "The party is locked into that process now and cannot escape," he said. An internal settlement is the only outcome under the Mitchell Principles and such a settlement will not work, he added.
Rory Dougan, another of those who resigned, said that he had been strongly opposed to the attempts by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to obtain office facilities in the British parliament and Westminster after they won seats there earlier this year. "For me that was the first step towards recognition of the parliament. How can you take up office facilities and not recognise it?" he said.
On November 8 it was claimed in the Irish Times by a source close to the Provisional military organisation "dissidents" that key personnel in the general headquarters staff (GHQ) had left, including those in charge of finance and explosives. The paper said there was no significant transfer of allegiance from dissident Provisionals to the militant Continuity IRA or Republican Sinn Féin. The concern of the dissidents were the decision by their army council that although the Mitchell Principles were deemed "unconstitutional", a "special dispensation" was given to their political organisation to accept them.
The dissidents called for an extraordinary army convention and when the meeting in Donegal upheld their army council’s ruling, the resignations followed. Like the political dissidents, they felt the Provisional leadership was preparing for a sell-out of Republicanism and an "internal settlement" in the Six Counties. Another concern was that demands would be made to decommission some arms at a later date.
The same newspaper reported on November 12 that 35 members of the 1st Battalion of the Provisionals south Armagh Brigade had resigned following a meeting with their leadership on Saturday night, November 8. This would form the bulk of the membership of the battalion, said to cover the area between Crossmaglen, Bessbrook, Forkhill and Camloch. The spokesperson for the dissidents refused to discuss their plans for the future but the report, by a usually well-informed Belfast journalist constitutes a serious blow to the Provisionals’ military organisation, involving as it does grass-roots members in a strongly Republican area.
Poleglass man Patrick Martin, who was jailed in July of this year for 35 years for conspiring to cause explosions between January and July 1996 made his complaint to the governor of Long Lartin in the closing days of October. However in the early hours of the following day, Martin’s cell was raided. He was stripped of all his clothing, bundled into a van and rushed to Belmarsh prison to be thrown into a padded cell.
Speaking on November 4 Martin’s wife Francine said that her husband had been removed from his classes on a number of occasions and subjected to "spontaneous and unwarranted strip searches".
She claimed her husband had been denied clothing for four days, wearing only his underpants. "The children haven’t seen Pat since he was arrested in July of 1996. I only had my first open visit in September, but I hoped he would be back for Christmas.
"It isn’t as if the authorities would be doing us a favour – under European law from 1992 they have to bring prisoners close to their family," Francine Martin said.
The treatment of political prisoners has deteriorated since the beginning of the ‘peace process’. Their political leaders will continue to compromise with Ireland’s enemies for the sake of positions in the reformed Six Counties British colony. Meanwhile the political prisoners will remain as hostages suffering the most barbaric conditions until they and their political leaders prove themselves docile servants of empire.
The Remembrance Sunday ceremonies are held annually to commemorate soldiers who died in the service of the British State.
Meanwhile in Dublin, 26-County president-elect Mary McAleese joined a Royal British Legion Remembrance day service in St Patrick’s Church of Ireland cathedral.
Maginness began his term of office as Lord Mayor earlier this year by promising to represent "all sections of the community in Belfast. Can we therefore expect him to turn out at the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast on Easter Sunday, 1998 wearing an Easter Lily to commemorate all those who died for Ireland?
Already the Provisionals have called for the disbandment of the RUC on the grounds that they are a sectarian police force, and their replacement with a Neighbourhood Watch scheme consisting of former RUC members and former Volunteers. You will notice they do not call for the RUCs disbandment on the grounds that they are a British colonial police force. That would be to let the cat out of the bag.
As part of this process, Provisional councillor Robin Martin welcomed the British colonial police (RUC) to a committee meeting of Fermanagh Council at the end of October. Martin, who chaired the meeting, shook hands with two RUC officers and held a closed-door conference for two hours along with his fellow Provisional Geraldine Cassidy and other councillors. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph on October 28, Martin said he did not believe his actions would cause friction in his organisation, despite the fact that the Provisionals had previously refused to formally meet RUC members. Now their colleagues in the pan-nationalist alliance, the SDLP, have put in a submission to the Stormont talks using identical language calling for a new police service that could command the support of both unionist and nationalist communities. This new service "means serving and protecting the community as an indigenous part of it, and in turn being protected by the community".
The document stresses "it means active involvement of nationalists as well as unionists in policing . . . For nationalists it is the granting of allegiance, for the first time, to a system of policing with which they can identify politically and ideologically. That is a quantum leap that the nationalist community must make".
The Six Counties of Ireland’s north-east remain a colony of Britain which means that all institutions of that State are colonial bodies. Replacing a sectarian colonial force (RUC) by a ‘parity of esteem’ force cannot change the fact that it will still be a British colonial police force and it will be used against Republicans and nationalists.
The decision follows the release of three of the accused loyalists the previous week after charges of murdering the father-of-three were dropped. Three others accused of Hamill’s killing are still in custody pending a decision as to whether a prosecution will be continued. Lawyer Rosemary Nelson confirmed the family will continue to pursue an independent investigation as well as action through the colonial courts.
Nelson said she and a priest had received anonymous phone calls regarding colonial police members who were in the Land-Rover at the time of Robert Hamill’s death. She claims to have received details of colonial police activities on the day of the incident, these officers are still engaged in their normal activities she said.
None of the police officers have been suspended pending an investigation. Twenty-nine-year-old Hamill was beaten to death by an Orange fascist mob on April 27 last. He died from his injuries at Belfast’s Royal Victoria hospital. The family claims that British colonial police in a Land-Rover at the scene did nothing to prevent the killing. At a press conference Robert’s sister Diane said: "The authorities seem to want to brush it under the carpet and that is making it worse for us".
Leading Human Rights campaigner Fr Joe McVeigh said: "The case raises very serious questions about the role of the RUC in our society and in this instance, and also the role of the judiciary because the decision last week to release three loyalists charged with murder is clearly in my mind a political decision.
Kerr, known as RJ, was suspected of involvement in a number of UDA British-backed death-squad sectarian killings, particularly in the late 1970s. The home of Kerr’s partner, Muriel Richardson, was the scene of an arson attack in August last. That attack was believed to have been carried out by the LVF.
Raymond McCord’s body was found dumped in Ballyduff quarry in the town having suffered horrific injuries to the head. McCord’s father placed the blame on the UDA/UFF. "The UDA has tried to kill myself several times, they tried to shoot me, they left me for dead badly beaten with flag-stones. When I got out of hospital they tried to get me again".
"They shot my wife’s house up, they beat two of my sons up and now I have a son dead". He said his son Raymond had been beaten up by loyalists several times before. McCord claims the colonial police denied any UDA/UFF involvement in the death of his 22-year-old son. "They say there is no official UDA involvement – how do they knew that," he said. "UDA members were able to tell me about the murder before I knew about it".
Raymond McCord had not been seen since friends drove him to his Alexandra Park Avenue home at 5.30pm on Saturday, November 8.
The father of an RIR soldier castigated the regiment for the sectarian maltreatment of his son. Speaking on November 10 the man claimed that his son had been subjected to a stream of abuse from a colour sergeant because of his Catholic religion. He claimed his son, one of a small number of nationalists in the regiment had been threatened with physical abuse and called a "bead-rattling bastard". The incident is said to have occurred early this year.
Because of strain over his father’s triple heart by-pass operation, the soldier applied for a discharge. He later changed his mind but was demoted to a part-time soldier. His father said the treatment meted out to people from the nationalist community by the regiment shows the "bigotry and bias" of the RIR. "It is a sectarian regiment. If you complain and you are a Catholic, you will go no further".
He described Crown Forces treatment of his son as a "warning not to be caught again".
Pride of place was given to the Bruce True Blues band whom residents claim to have links with the sectarian Orange Order. Bellaghy residents announced their decision not to stage a counter demonstration after the colonial police (RUC) gave the British Legion and Bruce True Blues band permission to march the entire length of the town. All opposition was stifled as colonial police in riot gear lined the route.
Meanwhile it has emerged that members of the Bellaghy Concerned Residents group received death threats over their opposition to the Orange supremacist band chosen to lead the parade. The wife of one leading member was warned in a telephone call at 7am – the day of the parade – that her husband would share the same fate as other people murdered by pro-British death squads. A spokesperson for the residents said, "The Bruce True Blues band is unacceptable to the vast majority of Bellaghy residents because of its involvement in sectarian parades". The spokesperson added that the death squads were a cause of worry not only to the intended targets but their families as well.