Republican Sinn Féin Kildare

 

Boycott 26-County election

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton

The forthcoming 26-County Presidential election is a costly distraction from the very real issues confronting the people of Ireland such as the fact that political and economic sovereignty have been signed away to the unelected and unaccountable elite of the EU/ECB and IMF.

Our people are being sacrificed in order to bailout the undemocratic EU Superstate and its failed currency. While essential services such as health and education are being slashed €20 Million is being spent on a meaningless election to a meaningless position.

We are calling on people to register their rejection of the failed politics of a failed state by boycotting this election. It is time for a New Ireland based on the principles of the 1916 proclamation and the reestablishment of: “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”.

Statement in Spanish ‘El R.SF propugna el boicot a las elecciones presidenciales en los 26 Condados’ . . .

Statement in German ‘Republikaner rufen zu Wahlboykott auf’ . . .

Beware false prophets

A time of economic crisis provides a moment in time when the revolutionary can more readily get the ear of the people. At such times people are open to the possibility of radical change. It is of such a juncture that Lenin wrote: “A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation” however he also warned “not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution”.A climate of economic crisis not only opens up possibilities for the genuine revolutionary but also for the false prophet of racism and fascism. Germany in the 1920s and early 30s is an oft-quoted example of the kind of conditions that breed such hateful ideology. The pattern is the same the world over however: find a scapegoat for joblessness, poverty, cuts in social spending etc. Such a scapegoat will usually differ from the majority in skin colour, religion, language culture, nationality or gender. These false prophets then go to work on increasing paranoia and bigotry among the majority against the minority based on the false premise that salvation of the majority lies in the destruction of those that differ from the rest. The purpose is always the same to climb to a position of political power and hold it by creating fear among the population towards each other thereby ensuring their control by the state. All of this is anathema to the very ethos and philosophy of Irish Republicanism. When Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell, Samuel Neilson and others came together to found the Society of United Irishmen they were explicit as to what its purpose was to be: “This Society is likely to be a means the most powerful for the promotion of a great end. What end? The Rights of Man in Ireland. The greatest happiness of the greatest number in this island, the inherent and indefeasible claims of every free nation to rest in this nation. . . The greatest happiness of the greatest number – on the rock of this principle let this Society rest; by this let it judge and determine every political question, and whatever is necessary for this end let it not be accounted hazardous, but rather our interest, our duty, our glory and our common religion. The Rights of Man are the Rights of God, and to vindicate the one is to maintain the other. We must be free in order to serve Him whose service is perfect freedom.”

This is why it is all the more reprehensible when those who masaqurade under the banner of Irish Republicanism attempt to hide their hideous mantra of hate, bigotry and intolerence under such a noble standard. People should be awake to those who attempt this sleight of hand and treat them with the same contempt and suspicion one would any imposter or confidence trickster. Indeed I would argue even more so for such characters are worse than any fraudster because by their words anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd deeds they bismirch the very name of Irish Republicanism.

Irish Republicanism is no narrow insular dogma – it is an international philosophy of freedom and democracy drawing on the best and noblest instincts of human nature rather than the lowest. Our cause is the cause of humanity. Again we are back to Tone: “Let the nations go abreast. Let the interchange of sentiments among mankind concerning the Rights of Man be as immediate as possible”. It is a philosophy which invites people into the brightness of enlightment and progress rather than the shaows of fear and intolerence.

Taken from Des Daltons Blog thesingingflamedesdalton.blogspot.com

 

 

Voices of the POWs must be heard

The release of Brendan Lillis was welcome news and is a testament to the tireless and unrelenting campaign for his release led his partner Roisin Lynch. However it should also be noted that Stormont ‘Justice’ Minister David Ford ominously dangled the ‘Sword of Damocles’ over Brendan Lillis with a warning that if his health improved the original charges could be brought again. There seems to be no end to the pettiness and vindictiveness of the British and their surrogates here in Ireland.However we have no time to rest on laurels but focus must now return to the POWs currently on ‘Dirty Protest’ in Maghaberry prison. All this year we have been marking the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes. The fact that thirty years later young Irishmen are being forced to engage in a similar protest against an attempt by the British Stateto criminalise them and by extension their cause tells us we have not travelled very far. The very presence of political prisoners in the Six-County State is a declaration for all who wish to see that it is an abnormal state. The big obstacle faced by all campaigners for the Republican prisoners is the paper wall of silence, which Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House have erected around Maghaberry, and the wider issue of political prisoners. Since the right of political status in the Six Counties was signed away under the terms of the 1998 Stormont Agreement the official line is that there are no political prisoners in Ireland. In the years since 1998 their willing messengers within the media peddled this line to such an extent that among the mass of people it has become an accepted fact. Thus the big lie is repeated over and over until it is believed. The first hill to climb consequently is to establish in the public consciousness the very fact that today in the Ireland of 2011 there are political prisoners in both the Six and 26-County States and why they are there.

Breaking this artificial wall of silence around Maghaberry will allow the voices of the POWs to be heard and disturb the cosy consensus of the elites.

 

 

Deaths of the Hunger Strikers shone a spotlight on Ireland’s fight

Speaking at Republican Sinn Féin’s commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the 1981 H Block Hunger Strikes held in Cork City on Saturday August 20th the President of Republican Sinn Féin said:

“This year we mark the 30th anniversary of the deaths on hunger strike of ten young Irishmen in the H Blocks of Long Kesh. The heroism and idealism shown by these otherwise ordinary young Irishmen was anything but ordinary. It was of a magnitude few can match. Their deaths made the world sit up and see that here in Western Europe was a small nation still struggling under the yoke of colonialism and imperialism.

“The background to the 1981 Hunger Strike lies in the British Government’s policy of criminalising Ireland’s historic fight for freedom and the determination of Irish Republicans to resist.

“Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscadh or Cealachan. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender.

“As a political weapon it first came to the fore in the early 20th Century. The Women’s Suffrage movement employed hunger strike as a means of protesting their imprisonment and this was a method of resistance soon adopted by other political activists most notably in Ireland and India.

“On September 25 1917 Tomás Aghas became the first Irish Republican to die as a result of Hunger Strike whilst being forced fed in Mountjoy prison.

“In all 22 Irish Republicans have died on Hunger Strike in British and Free State prisons and internment camps in the years from 1917 to 1981. Each succeeeding generation of Republican prisoners have asserted their status as political prisoners and in doing so asserted the political nature of the struugle they are engaged in.

“Cork City too saw its Lord Mayor place his body on the altar of freedom. Terence MacSwiney endured a hunger strike of 74 days dying in Brixton Prison in London on October 25 1920. Like that of Bobby Sands 61 years later MacSwiney’s sacrifice and death threw the spotlight of the world on Britain’s occupation of Ireland.

“In a letter to Cathal Brugha written as he began his hunger strike MacSwiney gave a glimpse of the inner peace and resolution he felt about the sacrifice he was about to make: ‘If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah Cathal, the pain of Easter Week is properly dead at last.’

“Four other sons of Co Cork would like MacSwiney use their bodies as the final weapon of resistance to British Rule. Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Denis Barry and Andy Sullivan.

“Each of the 22 who paid that ultimate sacrifice from Tomás Aghas to Mickey Devine – the 30th anniversay of whose death we remember today – did so not only to vindicate their right to political status but also to vindicate Ireland’s right to take her place among the nations of the earth.

“In 1998 the Provisionals under the terms of the Stormont Agreement signed away the rights won on the back of the sacrifice of Bobby Sands, Mickey Devine and their comrades. As a result today young Irishmen in Maghaberry Prison are enagaged in the same struggle against the same enemy for the same principle. Locked in their cells for 24 hours a day, these young Republican POWs are engaged in a ‘Dirty Protest’. They are being denied the right to legal or family visits. Even their right to post letters has been denied them. In August of last year an Agreement – independently mediated – laid the basis for a just settlement. Despite this the Stormont Justice Minister and his regime reneged on this Agreement and have instead forced the Republican Prisoners to return to protest. We are calling on people to come out in support of their right to political status and rally behind their demand for an end to the dehumanising practice of strip-searching and controlled movement.

“Events over the past months have told us more about the reality of British Rule in Ireland than any words we could express or write. The arrest and charging of the President and Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin on July 6 in relation to a march for Republican veteran Martin Corey held in Lurgan on January 23 is part of a deliberate targetting of Republican Sinn Féin by both the British and 26-County States. Our newly appointed Publicity Officer Geraldine McNamara had her home in Tipperary raided by the 26-County Special Branch on June 30 and her mobile phone siezed. In May two members of Republican Sinn Féin were arrested and charged with an interview they gave to Channel Four News in September of last year. Other members are also being chraged with participating in the same march while the RUC/PSNI have issued warning letters regarding the Easter 1916 commemorations in Lurgan and Armagh. An attempt to silence the message by locking up the messanger.

“When Loyalists attacked nationalist homes in Belfast’s Short Strand in June the response of the RUC/PSNI was to arrest two nationalists while within days Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson was negotiating with the UVF who carried out the attacks.

“We welcome the release of veteran Republican Brendan Lillis on August 18. But we also point out that he should never have been imprisoned in the first place. He was held in appalling conditions in Maghaberry Prison for no other reason than the vindictiveness of the British Government and the Stormont Regime. His internment without trial was a gross violation of his most basic human rights.

“We repeat our demand for the immediate release of Martin Corey – another veteran Republican – who has been interned without trial since April 2010. At the end of July he was told that he must serve a further four years in prison. Martin Corey served 19 years in Long Kesh making him the longest serving prisoner there. Despite this he is in Maghaberry today simply because he refuses to compromise with the occupier of his country.

“In the last week in July five nationalists were arrested in a high profile swoop, which the British Colonial Police trumpeted as being linked to the death of RUC/PSNI man Ronan Kerr in April. All were released within two days without charge. One of the men was in the US at the time of the attack in which Ronan Kerr was killed. Yet another case of ‘round up the usual suspects’.

“The Six-County State can never be either normal or democratic. It is inherently sectarian and a stumbling block to a New Ireland.

“If we wish to truly honour Bobby Sands and his comrades we can only do so when we remove the last vestiges of British Rule from Ireland along with the new imperialism of the EU/ECB and the IMF who seek to enslave our people politically as well as economically. A New Ireland based on the federal proposals set out in Éire Nua can make the All-Ireland Republic of 1916 a reality for all of the Irish people.
Irish Republicans are the true revolutionaries capable of fanning the flame of freedom and in the words of Terence MacSwiney: ‘scorching up hypocrisy, deceit, meanness, and lighting all brave hearts to high hope and achievement’.”

An Phoblacht Abú