Saturday 19 April 2014

EASTER SPIRIT OF PADRAIGH HENRY PEARSE

bullet holes at the General Post Office, Dublin,

I spent hours rereading Irish history (from the Great Famine, aka the Potato Famine 1845-1852, through the Easter Rising 1916), and the poems of Padráig Pearse (Patrick Henry Pearse). He was gifted with words, and was chosen to be spokesman for theEaster Rising in 1916. He wrote of a mother’s heart awash in the blood of sons who fought for country in his poem "The Mother," something I can relate to, at least in part. (I have not had a son at war, but I have experienced childbirth, and a mother's heart.)

Padráig, his brother Willie and thirteen others were executed after the rebellion, after being held in the Kilmainham jail. Into our psyche all this bloody history

About the photos: I took the photo at top in front of Dublin's General Post Office in 2007 to document the bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising. When I took the picture, I did not even see the man in the background. Later, someone pointed out the remarkable and eerie resemblance to Padráig Pearse (second photo), who proclaimed an Irish Republic practically on the same spot where the man in my photo stands.

BY RUTH MOWRY

Easter, 1916

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I have met them at close of day

Coming with vivid faces

From counter or desk among grey

Eighteenth-century houses.

I have passed with a nod of the head

Or polite meaningless words,

Or have lingered awhile and said

Polite meaningless words,

And thought before I had done

Of a mocking tale or a gibe

To please a companion

Around the fire at the club,

Being certain that they and I

But lived where motley is worn:

All changed, changed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

That woman's days were spent

In ignorant good-will,

Her nights in argument

Until her voice grew shrill.

What voice more sweet than hers

When, young and beautiful,

She rode to harriers?

This man had kept a school

And rode our wingèd horse;

This other his helper and friend

Was coming into his force;

He might have won fame in the end,

So sensitive his nature seemed,

So daring and sweet his thought.

This other man I had dreamed

A drunken, vainglorious lout.

He had done most bitter wrong

To some who are near my heart,

Yet I number him in the song;

He, too, has resigned his part

In the casual comedy;

He, too, has been changed in his turn,

Transformed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone

Through summer and winter seem

Enchanted to a stone

To trouble the living stream.

The horse that comes from the road,

The rider, the birds that range

From cloud to tumbling cloud,

Minute by minute they change;

A shadow of cloud on the stream

Changes minute by minute;

A horse-hoof slides on the brim,

And a horse plashes within it;

The long-legged moor-hens dive,

And hens to moor-cocks call;

Minute by minute they live:

The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart.

O when may it suffice?

That is Heaven's part, our part

To murmur name upon name,

As a mother names her child

When sleep at last has come

On limbs that had run wild.

What is it but nightfall?

No, no, not night but death;

Was it needless death after all?

For England may keep faith

For all that is done and said.

We know their dream; enough

To know they dreamed and are dead;

And what if excess of love

Bewildered them till they died?

I write it out in a verse—

MacDonagh and MacBride

And Connolly and Pearse

Now and in time to be,

Wherever green is worn,

Are changed, changed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

FOOTNOTES: September 25, 1916

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

NEWRY SOUTH ARMAGH RSF WARN McGUINNESS AS SPY SHOT DEAD

Irish Republican News · April 19, 2014

McGuinness told ‘stay away’ over banquet controversy

Sinn Fein has been urged to stay away from Easter commemorations after Martin McGuinness attended a royal banquet and toasted England’s queen, Elizabeth Windsor.

The Six-County Deputy First Minister infuriated republicans last week at the event at Windsor Castle in honour of 26-County president Michael D Higgins.The strongly worded statement by Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) accuses McGuinness of being a “lackey of her majesty”
In advert placed in weekly newspapers in the Newry and south Armagh areas, it said the RSF message was directed “to the Provos and their leader Martin McGuinness”.
“Stay away from the graves of our departed Irish Republican Volunteers,” it read.
“Your presence and that of your ‘dressed-up’ Brit-loving leader, is a contamination of the sacred places, where the hunger strikers and our other revered patriots rest.
“The Provo leader... was seen lately on TV wearing full evening uniform of white tie and tails, toasting his queen”
“He is not an Irish republican but a very highly paid lackey of her majesty”.
The statement is signed by Republican Sinn Fein Newry and south Armagh.
RSF is one of a number of republican groups who will hold Easter Rising commemorations at republican plots across Ireland this weekend.
The party was formed in 1986 by a number of people who left Sinn Fein in protest at the decision to allow members to take their seats in the 26-County parliament in Dublin.
The organisation’s main commemorations at Milltown cemetery in west Belfast on Sunday will be addressed by party leader Des Dalton. A spokesperson said the leadership had no issue with the sentiments expressed in the advert.
But Sinn Fein Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy claimed the advert was “pathetic”.
“They represent no-one and indeed the only time you hear of them is when they put an ad containing an anti-Sinn Fein rant into the local papers once a year,” he said. “It’s really rather pathetic.”
ROYAL AFTERSHOCKSIn a wider debate over the state visit, socialists have criticised the “fawning” by Ireland’s ruling classes over English royalty and royal ceremonies.
Over 50 journalists and crew were dispatched from Dublin by Irish state-run broadcaster RTE to cover the state visit, which received relatively little attention in the British media. Coverage of the event in the mainstream newspapers was strongly sycophantic.
Commentator Eamonn McCan said that the state visit was not about “cementing relations”, but about the Irish elite celebrating their acceptance into an upper layer of society.
“They believe they have now been liberated from any need to pretend dislike for the flummery and pomp which deep down – not all that deep, as a matter of fact – they have envied and aspired to,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, historians have also railed against the Dublin government’s attempts to use the state visit as a springboard for a new anti-nationalist programme, including an ‘Anglo-Irish’ commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising -- the event which directly led to the independence of the 26 County state from British rule.
In two years time, events to mark the centenary of the Rising and the executions of the 1916 leaders are set to include a British royal -- either the queen herself, or her son, Charles Windsor, the commander-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment.
Historian Prof Diarmaid Ferriter has questioned the decision, which he said had bypassed an expert advisory group on the centenary which the government itself had appointed.
He said he was concerned that the presence of the British royal family will end up “distorting history quite significantly”.
“I’m worried that we are heading towards something that is full of holes as to the historical reality at the time,” he said.

Irish Republican News · April 19, 2014

Former CIRA man shot dead in west Belfast

A man expelled from the Continuity IRA for criminal activity was shot dead yesterday [Friday] at a diesel depot he operated.

Three men ran from a car and opened fire on Tommy Crossan in a daylight attack off the Springfield Road, shocking shoppers and mass-goers. The car used in the attack was found burned out a short distance away, at Beechmount Grove.Known as ‘Teflon Tommy’ for his ability to escape arrest despite openly trading in illegal fuel, Crossan was expelled from the Continuity IRA three years ago. There were allegations he was pocketing funds raised in the organisation’s name, and he was also accused of acting as an informer after the PSNI made a number of arms finds.
The dead man had been recently linked with a group which used the name ‘Irish Volunteers’ before it was ordered to disband by the larger breakaway group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Oglaigh na hEireann have been active recently and claimed responsibility for a unrelated attack at a licensed premises in north Belfast earlier this month.
The group said they were acting in response to “demand from the community” after allegations of criminality and anti-social activity in the vicinity of the bar. The statement said that “individuals frequenting the bar” had been warned about ongoing criminality but that had “gone unheeded”.
Despite facing death threats from a number of sources, Crossan remained active in the heart of west Belfast until Friday’s brazen attack.
The killing has been condemned by nationalist politicians. The SDLP’s Colin Keenan said there was a “real sense of shock”. “We have long hoped that the shadow of death had been lifted from west Belfast,” he said.
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness sympathised with the family of the dead man. “Nothing that is claimed by the criminals responsible can justify it,” he said.

Irish Republican News · April 11, 2014

High-profile arrests and prosecutions as OTR furore continues

Well-known loyalist Willie Frazer attempted to personally “arrest” a republican he alleged was ‘on the run’ from a conflict-related prosecution this week. The victims’ campaigner tried moved towards mourners at a funeral in County Down, but was blocked by a line of PSNI police.

Mr Frazer said he believed the man was among 187 republicans who received “letters of comfort”, telling them they were not wanted in connection with any crimes.“When I asked police and named him they said they weren’t aware of him being wanted for any crime,” he said. “I said if they didn’t want to arrest him then I would make a citizen’s arrest, but they wouldn’t let me up the road.”
Mr Frazer also complained about the number of police at the funeral. “I have been to large funerals before but I have never seen the number of police that were there yesterday,” he said.
Meanwhile, former PSNI chief Hugh Orde has denied that he came under pressure to release republican suspects following claims by retired senior RUC detective Norman Baxter of political “interference” in prosecutions.
Last week Baxter, notorious among republicans for engaging in ‘political policing’, ironically accused British officials in London of attempting to pervert the course of justice by asking for the release of republicans Vincent McAnespie and Gerry McGeough after their arrest in March 2007 for IRA actions in 1981. The request, Mr Baxter told a Westminster parliamentary committee, was prompted by a phone call by Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
But Orde refuted the claims, and said that calls from Downing Street officials conveying complaints made by senior representatives from both sides of the political divide were frequent but “at no time did No 10 ever try to influence my decision making”.
He added that he would not have been surprised if Mr Adams had rung Downing Street to complain.
“It was not unusual for politicians of all sides to complain about what the police service was doing, both loyalist and republican,” he said.
OMAGH PROSECUTIONA spate of historical cases have been reopened in recent weeks amid the controversy over the letter given to OTRs. Most notably, County Monaghan republican Seamus Daly was this week charged in Armagh with involvement in the 1998 Omagh bombing. The bombing, directed at the commercial centre of the Tyrone market town, took one of the worst tolls in the history of the conflict when two telephoned warnings failed to clear the area around the bomb.
There have previously been two failed prosecutions against alleged members of the ‘Real IRA’ unit involved, despite their vehicle being tracked and mobile phones monitored as the attack was allowed to proceed.
A statement in 2008 by the former PSNI chief Hugh Orde indicated that no further prosecutions were likely in the case. One man, Colm Murphy, was previously tried, convicted, and then released after it was revealed that the Gardai forged interview notes used in the case. Mr Murphy’s nephew, Sean Hoey, was also tried and found not guilty.
FLORIDA CASE REOPENEDThe PSNI has also said they are to reinvestigate controversial claims that the Provisional IRA brought guns from the US into Ireland in the late 1990s. It follows a BBC Spotlight programme that alleged a senior member of Sinn Fein was involved in a gun-running operation from Florida.
It was alleged in the programme that Sean ‘Spike’ Murray, now a senior Sinn Fein strategist, was involved in smuggling guns before and after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Mr Murray has denied the allegations.
MCCONVILLE ARRESTMeanwhile, the sister of Sinn Fein Assembly member Fra McCann has been arrested in connection with the abduction of informer Jean McConville in December 1972. Geraldine Rogan was arrested at her west Belfast home before being released without charge. The PSNI said it is preparing a report for Crown prosecutors. Hers was the third such arrest in the case.

April 19, 2014

ANGLO BOSS GOES FREE

The disgraced chairman of Anglo Irish Bank has been cleared this week of hatching a highly illegal loans-for-shares plot months before the bank’s collapse. Two of his colleagues were found guilty.

British statement on the past angers victims

Theresa Villiers, who implements British Direct Rule in Ireland, has set out a sharply pro-unionist agenda for her government in dealing with the past conflict in the Six Counties.

Former CIRA man shot dead in west Belfast

A man expelled from the Continuity IRA for criminal activity was shot dead yesterday [Friday] at a diesel depot he operated.

McGuinness told ‘stay away’ over banquet controversy

Sinn Fein has been urged to stay away from Easter commemorations after Martin McGuinness attended a royal banquet and toasted England’s queen, Elizabeth Windsor.

Easter commemorations face PSNI harassment

Colour party uniforms belonging to Republican Sinn Fein due to be used during an annual easter commemoration in Lurgan this Saturday have been seized during police raids in Craigavon.

Loyalist racists confront Irish language demo

Loyalists greeted members of an Irish language rally last weekend with Nazi salutes.

Banquet gesture draws Tory hate

Efforts to boost reconciliation between the 26 County state and Britain during the formal visit to London by 26-County President Michael D Higgins were undermined by a leading Tory’s call this week for the murder of Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness.

Governments working together to manage Rising commemorations

The Dublin and London governments have signalled a major effort to combat nationalist sentiment in the run-up to the anniversary of the 1916 Rising following this week’s heavily promoted state visit to London by 26-County President Michael D Higgins.

UDA violence linked to Larne arrests

The unionist paramilitary UDA are understood to be planning riots this weekend in the town of Carrickfergus, in County Antrim following serious disturbances last night.

Belfast language protest as Irish speaker faces court

Recent protests over discrimination against Irish language speakers in the north of Ireland are to reach a climax on Saturday with a major demonstration through Belfast city centre.

High-profile arrests and prosecutions as OTR furore continues

Well-known loyalist Willie Frazer attempted to personally “arrest” a republican he alleged was ‘on the run’ from a conflict-related prosecution this week. The victims’ campaigner tried moved towards mourners at a funeral in County Down, but was blocked by a line of PSNI police.

McGurk’s report to be released uncensored

Families of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar massacre have succeeded in forcing the British authorities to release an unedited report into the bombing, it has been confirmed.

Calls for recognition of Travellers’ distinct identity

A committee of the Dublin parliament has recommended that Travellers be recognised as an ethnic minority to combat discrimination as the issue begins featuring in local election campaigns in the 26 Counties.

The Battle of Clontarf

A struggle to free Ireland of foreign domination resulted in a heroic victory -- but the death of a great Irish leader -- a thousand years ago this week.

Five things we know after last night in Windsor

Relations between Britain and Ireland have now entered the realm of the surreal.

On meeting monarchy

It is obviously a matter for Sinn Fein who they meet but from the outside this looks like another ‘leadership initiative’ which has nothing to do with improving the material conditions of the working class or advancing towards the Republic.

Friday 18 April 2014

CLONTARF 1014 CONTINUITY IRA 2014

We know from our history that Brian Boru was about 73 years old on Good Friday, 1014, so it was his oldest son, and not he, who led the Irish legions into the battle of Clontarf while the aging High King prayed in his tent. We further understand that Brian Boru gave a rousing address to the assembled troops from horseback, before the bloody battle, with a cross in one hand and a sword in the other. This is the moment described in the Annals of Innisfallen. Commemorate Clontarf 2014 today.

The Battle of Clontarf was a success beyond understanding, without being familiar with keeping the Faith and the love of Ireland, that has motivated Irishmen and women, warriors all like King Brian, to pick up the sword, the sling or the cross, praying for the courage to defend and liberate their island from foreign invader as they continue to do today in British Occupied Ireland.

LORD LONDONDERRY DINES & WINES ON HUNGER STRIKERS BLOOD

Paula Brain hahaha, he represents the Shame Finn! Thanks chara, your pics are always great, TAL!

Brian Clarkefamily Go raibh maith agat Paula, your comments always nail it !

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
Sinn Fein have made many compromises to secure peace and that was necessary! Unionists have compromised too! I do NOT support Republican Sinn Fein! I do not want to go back to the days of tit-for-tat violence that scarred the 1980s and early 1990s! Let's respect each others differences and move forward in the interests of peace!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
A 32 county Socialist Republic is a nice ideal but unfortunately it is not achievable at the present time! For f**k's sake ACCEPT THAT and MOVE ON!!

Paula Brain You're talking like a neoliberal, Conor. A socialist republic is achievable, but it needs compromise and it needs to be built. I prefere MOVE ON, like you said, but right to a socialist republic. Look what neoliberal politics did with Ireland, Spain or the countries of the Third World. And how can be peace with the English forces in the six counties and with so many political prisioners? What are you talking about???? There can be no peace without freedom. What differences do you want to respect, those proposed by loyalists?? How can you move foward in the interests of peace when you have murderer squatters occupying the six counties???

Paula Brain And what about the Irish republicans interned in Maghaberry concentration camp? We move on and leave them behind??

Brian Clarkefamily Anyone who is genuine about peace knows full well that there must first be basic justice ! Its not rocket science !

Paula Brain That's right Brian, freedom, then peace; and justice, then peace.

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
Paula, Brian please understand that I am NOT opposed to a 32 county Socialist Republic (depending of course on what we mean by Socialist - I wouldn't want an Irish equivalent of the regime of the late Enver Hoxha in Albania for example!). However there are over a million Unionists on our little island and their needs and wishes must also be accommodated. I think that the Belfast Agreement although flawed was a fair enough compromise!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
And I am NOT a f**kin' Neo-Liberal!!

Allsún Ní Masún "I think that the Belfast Agreement although flawed was a fair enough compromise!"....bull sh*t, it was a complete sell out....they gave up everything they stood for. SF leadership is a disgrace. Many lost their lives and for what? A Got F*ck All Agreement...many lie in their graves while Martin McGuinness shakes hands with the queen, etc. I'm not against peace, but to say it is a fair compromise is an understatement when you have Irish people in gaol, peoples homes being raided regularly and smashed up children's toys, arrests, some get beaten, still we have the diplock courts without a jury, POWs getting strip searched and beaten up to six or more times a day, gaol for secret evidence, constantly stopped and searched from day to day, police still sectarian, evidence tampered with....does this look like normalisation?....a fair deal? I can't speak for the south, but the north is far from normal when people are harassed all the time.

·
Paula Brain Now you're saying that you're not opposed to a 32 county socialist republic, but before you said that the socialist republic is not achievable, and you invited us to accept it and move on. Your message is ambivalent. And you talk like a neo-liberal. Can you talk about another things, not just about the Belfast Agreement? What do you have to say about the POWS? And about the occupation? And about the prolonged and inhuman isolation of the Irish prisioners (political prisioners)? And about the oppression and the repression? And about all those who gave their lifes for freedom, justice and political status? You can't look foward without looking backwards before.

Allsún Ní Masún This video is from an hour ago...it sounds like another house raid again. Sounds of frightened children....http://www.derry32csm.com/.../rucpsni-traumatising...

RUC/PSNI traumatising children.... as usual | Derry 32 County Sovereignty Movement www.derry32csm.com

Paula Brain I hate those scum bastards and cowards. A picture is worth a thousand words... I hope the frightened children of today are the freedom rebels of tomorrow. What kind of peace can you get with RUC/PSNI, Conor?

Paula Brain And Allsún, well said. I make mine all your words.
Peter O'Kelly · Friends with Gerard Banks and1 other
I'd say it's a charade

Paula Brain I don't.

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
I don't accept that there are any "political prisoners" in Ireland today North or South!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
Marian Price (who is now free according to wikipedia) is a former bomber who supports terrorism! The authorities have in the past imprisoned her on the basis that she was a danger to the public!

Paula Brain Terrorist is the British government, not men and women who fight for the liberation of their country. Repression and oppression carried out by British rule is responsible for the violence. I can't believe what I'm reading. You can't be Irish. Or you're English or you're a fucking loyalist.

Paula Brain You don't accept what??? You're a scum sellout bastard.

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
I am 100% Irish! Just as Irish as you and yes, even a Republican (I am in the Dun Laoghaire Green Party by the way! but my views are my own!!). I might even be more Irish than you - your facebook page says you are from Buenos Aires! And by the way I am NOT "scum", I am a human being who is just as entitled to his views as you are!! You won't get public sympathy by calling people who disagree with you "scum" or "bastard"! And by the way I am not intimidated by you!! You can shoot me dead because you disagree with me if you like but there will be others after me and you can not shoot us all dead!! That is why Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy

How does the 32 County Sovereignty Movement or Republican Sinn Fein seek to justify the murder of a Pizza delivery person at an army barracks or the murder of 29 innocent people and the injuring of over 200 others in Omagh in 1998 just months after the country had overwhelmingly endorsed the Belfast Agreement with over 80% support in the 32 counties! Surely the will of the people as expressed in 1998 overrules the will of the people as expressed away back in 1918!!
terrorists lose!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
I prefer to see McGuinness shaking hands with the Queen rather than shooting her dead even though I don't approve of her wealth and privilege! She is the English head of state and when visiting Ireland she laid a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance in memory of those who lost their lives in 1916! Of course it would be better if England had a democratically elected president but I don't know that English public opinion agrees with me!!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
If you believe there are "political prisoners" then please name them!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
I am sorry that we disagree so much but we should respect our differences!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
If you have a genuine case that there are political prisoners, I am willing to listen! I mean it!!

Conor Scott · Friends with Margaretta D'arcy
I am upset that you would call me "scum" by the way! You don't know me!

Paula Brain Well, it's so late at night and so many beers ran, but I try to comment every thing you said. I'm not Irish, I'm from Argentina. You're the one who is not behaving like an Irish.

Paula Brain I repeat, I'm not a terrorist, British government is. Why do you think I'm going shoot you? Because I said to you what I think? That makes me a terrorist? You should be more afraid of PSNI than of me.

Paula Brain How can you be agreed of shaking hands with a woman ok the crown responsible of the Irish famine- the Irish genocide- and the death of the hunger strikers??? Would you shake Hitler's hand?? Bobby Sands is a terrorist for you?

Paula Brain The list of political prisioners is well known. No one in that list is a POW for you? What do you have to say about Christine Connor?

Paula Brain And I don`t know you but you let me know your words and your thoughts. And if you say that there aren't political prisioners in Ireland, that makes you a scum bastard, and if you're agreed of shaking hands with the British queen, that makes you a sellout. It's not what I say, it's what you say and what you are.

Paula Brain And finally, you don't have any respect for Irish prisioners (you are saying they even don't exist) and for those who gave their lifes for Irish freedom. It's not about differences, it's about being in the right side. I think you're inmoral and ungrateful. And I think POWS are in prision for you and the Irish people.

Paula Brain If I'm here in Argentina, and I know the extensive list of political prisioners, and you don't, how much Irish do you are?

YES AND I AM HERE IN ASIA AND EVEN THE PEOPLE HERE KNOW THE POLITICAL PRISONERS ON THAT LIST ALONG WITH THE GOOD PEOPLE OF ARGENTINA!

SO WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN IRELAND ARE THEY ALL CENSORED BRAINWASHED ROYALIST ZOMBIES?

Thursday 17 April 2014

ROYALIST SINN FEIN EAT CAKE

"Dressed in white tie and tails, like all the other male guests, Mr. McGuinness looked like a perfect member of the British establishment. And indeed that is just what he has become. True, there was a protest outside the banquet by relatives of people murdered by the IRA, including a father whose 12-year-old son was killed in the 1998 bomb attack in Omagh. Even the fact that Mr. McGuinness's erstwhile terrorist organization in 1979 had murdered the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and his 14-year-old grandson, failed to dampen the festivities. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are consummate professionals, and invite to state occasions those worthies who the British political establishment advises them to invite.........Mr. McGuinness was also interested in "liberty" and "rights" of a kind. When he headed an organization that killed people by their hundreds, he said the group was fighting for the "right" to be free of British "occupation"—a claim that sounds even more ridiculous now than it did then. For not only is the situation now exactly what it was when the Provisional IRA restarted its campaign of ultraviolence in the 1970s; it was never the case—as moderate, nonviolent Nationalist and Republican citizens kept on proving—that to get to a devolved assembly in Northern Ireland you had to plant bombs." WSJ

Republican Sinn Féin

Republican Sinn Féin believes that the historic Irish nation is a distinct, coherent unit and is entitled to exercise its own independence. It believes, using the words of one of the 18-Century founders of Irish Republicanism, Wolfe Tone, in the urgent need to “break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils”. It stands for the complete overthrow of British rule in Ireland.

Principles

Republican Sinn Féin is abstentionist. It does not recognise the legitimacy of the Six or 26-County States in Ireland, both of which were created by acts of the British parliament in Westminster as a denial of the wishes of the Irish people. Therefore, it does not give voluntary recognition to either jurisdiction.

Republican Sinn Féin believes in the establishment of a reign of social justice based on Irish Republican Socialist principles in accordance with the Democratic Programme and the 1916 Proclamation.

It stands for the complete separation of Church and State. It believes in the central importance of the Irish language to the Irish identity.

Republican Sinn Féin believes the growing European Union is becoming a world superpower in its own right and will become involved in the “resource wars” of the 21st Century. It does not believe that Ireland, with its history of being a colonial possession, should involve itself in the oppression of other nations that the growing EU will eventually mean.

Republican Sinn Féin is internationalist. It has a sense that we all have a common identity as human beings, as members of the great family of peoples. It wishes to play a role in this wider world community on the basis of equality and respect for the rights of others. In particular, it seeks to eliminate the kinds of international trade and international debt that impoverish the peoples of the Third World. It advocates neutrality in respect to military alliances and power blocs and feels a sense of solidarity with all peoples who are struggling for freedom and justice.


Ruairí Ó Bradaigh Former President	Des Dalton President

Supporting Republican Sinn Fein

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``Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.''

Bobby Sands (1954-1981), on hunger strike in 1981