New Year Message from the Leadership of Republican Sinn Féin

'The message of 1916 must be carried forward and acted upon': Republican Sinn Féin extends New Year greetings to its members and supporters, Republican POWs and to all engaged in the struggle for political, social and economic democracy. The past year witnessed a rising tide of resistance by the people of the 26 Counties against the imposition of water charges and the wider policy of economic austerity that has been inflicted upon our people by the Leinster House regime. In the Six Counties Republican POWs continue their fight for political status while the sectarian Stormont regime lurches from one crisis to another. The so-called ‘Stormont House Agreement’ cobbled together before Christmas merely prepares the ground for the implementation of the British Tory-led Government’s neo-liberal economic policies of austerity and social cuts in the Six Counties while issues such as contentious Orange marches and the drafting and implementation of an Irish Language Act remain unresolved. The agreement merely underlines the fact that the Six Counties remain firmly under the control of the British Government with the Stormont Executive merely acting as colonial administrators. Internationally imperialism continues to exert itself. While we welcome the release of the remaining members of the Cuban 5 by the US Government, we urge caution to those rushing to applaud the normalisation of relations between the US and Cuba. Any such normalisation carries with it a price tag set by the US designed to undo the social progress made under the Cuban revolution and to exert US hegemony over central and South America. In the Middle East the Israeli State is waging a war on the Palestinian people designed to break their will. In Gaza the full weight of the Israeli military machine has been brought to bear on the entire population. We reiterate our support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for a viable and sovereign nation state. The coming year presents opportunities to further the goal of establishing a New Ireland. On both sides of the British imposed border the Irish people have shown an appetite for radical change. There are many false promises of achieving such change within the existing partitionist system, however we see in the case of the Provisionals that they speak out of both sides of their mouths. While promising change in the 26 Counties, in the Six-County state they have signed up to implementing the economic policies of the British Tory-led Government. The most recently proposed 26-County political party is simply a re-booting of the right-wing neo-liberal Progressive Democrats. Real transformation will not emerge from either Stormont or Leinster House. Those who promise reform will ultimately end up implementing the same policies they purport to oppose. What is required is revolutionary political, social and economic change. Our policies ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA provide the framework for a New Ireland that would be equal to the principles and promise of the 1916 Proclamation. On March 14 we will be holding a public forum in Belfast to engage in discussion and debate on the merits of ÉIRE NUA as an alternative to both partitionist states. This will be the first of a series of such meetings we propose to hold throughout Ireland in order to promote ÉIRE NUA as the viable alternative to the failed politics and Leinster House. The coming year, as part of the build-up to the centenary of the 1916 Rising, we will be marking the centenary of the famous oration, delivered by Pádraig Mac Piarais at the graveside of the great Fenian Diarmuid O'Donnabáin Rosa. As the only political organisation still committed to the undiluted gospel of revolutionary Irish Republicanism and the re-establishment of the All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week it is our duty to ensure that the message of 1916 is carried forward and acted upon. The forces of reaction and revisionism are attempting to rob us of our history, of its meaning and relevance in order to make our people compliant and subservient to the present day forces of political and economic imperialism. Instead we must reaffirm ownership of that history. The revolutionary generation of a century ago were men and women of vision. They showed us by their example what can be achieved by ordinary people when they unite together on the basis of principle and idealism. The coming year will see a stepping up of the campaign of economic resistance and we urge people to come out and join that campaign. Ordinary people have it within themselves to decide their own destiny for this and future generations. The only effective means of bringing about revolutionary change is political and social activism. Republican Sinn Féin will be taking its place in the vanguard of that struggle. Críoch/Ends

RSF Ard Chomhairle sets the record straight

Statement from the Ard Chomhairle of Republican Sinn Féin: We wish to place on record the facts relating to the events which followed the Ard Fheis. In her resignation statement Cait Trainor attempted to portray her resignation as being based on a point of principle. Coupled with this she also attempted to create a narrative in which she and others were persecuted because of a resolution put forward by her cumann at the Ard Fheis. All of this is entirely false. Firstly, far from viewing her position as being untenable within Republican Sinn Féin in the aftermath of the Ard Fheis she instead accepted positions on a number of Ard Chomhairle committees. Her decision to do so contradicts the attitude she adopts in her statement. Secondly, the charges that were brought against her were done so because of her behaviour during and following the Ard Fheis. Her right to support and speak on her cumann’s resolution was respected at all times and had absolutely no bearing on the Ard Chomhairle’s decision to bring charges against her. We point out that members of the Ard Chomhairle who had supported her cumann’s resolution also supported the levelling of charges against her. The charges brought against her were on the following grounds: A) That she engaged in conduct unbecoming a national officer of Sinn Féin by her conduct at the Ard Fheis on Sunday November 9. Her walk out of the Ard Fheis without explanation was a calculated insult to the Ard Fheis, the office of An tUachtarán and to the leadership of Sinn Féin. The position of a national officer and Leas Uactarán carries with it great responsibility. It is also a position of respect and consequently good example should be set by the office holder. Cait Trainor’s behaviour undermined that position. (B) That by posting a status on Facebook on Monday November 10 Cait Trainor was inviting public attack and ridicule on the organisation thereby undermining both Sinn Féin and its leadership. This was in gross violation of her trust as a national officer to safeguard the well being and good name of Sinn Féin.” The facts of the matter are these: a contentious motion was put to the Ard Fheis as was the right of the proposing cumann. Full rights were accorded to both sides and an open and democratic vote was taken following a full and open debate. However instead of accepting the democratic decision of the Ard Fheis certain sections of those who led the debate in proposing the motion that was rejected were not prepared to accept the democratic decision of the Ard Fheis. Instead the Ard Fheis was snubbed, with the actions of Cáit Trainor designed to send out a clear signal of contempt for the democratic decision of the Ard Fheis, the supreme authority of Sinn Féin. We are an open and democratic organisation, members can of course disagree and debate issues in an open and democratic manner. Where good will and sincerely held views are held by both sides reconciliation and comradeship will always follow. However when people are not prepared to engage in open and democratic debate and accept decisions that have been democratically arrived at and instead engage in open attacks on the integrity of our movement then we are faced with a threat to our organisation as a whole. When Cáit Trainor went on to facebook on November 10 she was inviting attacks on Republican Sinn Féin and its leadership. Her actions were an encouragement to the internet trolls to attack Republican Sinn Féin. This was a calculated decision and a throwing down of the gauntlet to the leadership of Republican Sinn Féin. Faced with such a challenge the Ard Chomhairle was left with no choice but to act decisively in order to protect the organisation. To do otherwise would have been a dereliction of our duty as a leadership and in violation of the mandate given to us to safeguard Sinn Féin.

No cooperation with British Forces of Occupation! Build RSF in North Armagh!

Statement from the Thomas Harte Cumann, Republican Sinn Fein In statement, the PRO of the Thomas Harte Cumann Republican Sinn Féin Lurgan/Craigavon, responded to allegations made in public against members of the Cumann in recent days. In the statement, the PRO of the Thomas Harte Cumann said that no one in Republican Sinn Féin in general and in the Thomas Harte Cumann in particular has any intention to ever seek permission from the British Occupation Forces to march on the streets of Ireland. Instead, the Thomas Harte Cumann is actively building a strong and revolutionary Easter Commemoration on the Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016. The statement read: “Contrary to myths spread in public over the recent days, the status quo remains the same. This status quo was and is that no member of the Thomas Harte Cumann has any intention to cooperate with the British Occupation Forces in any way. Republican Sinn Féin is determined to resist British Rule at all times and by all means necessary. One of the main areas of this resistance to British Rule in Ireland is on the streets of Ireland. “In previous years, dozens of Irish nationalists and Republican activists were charged for attending marches in support of then-internee Martin Corey and Easter Parades organised by Republican Sinn Féin in Lurgan. These were attempts to break the Republican spirit of Lurgan and drive Irish people opposed to British Rule in Ireland off the streets of Ireland. “The Thomas Harte Cumann, supported by the nationalist community in North Armagh, successfully resisted these attempts to silence political opposition to British Rule in Ireland. Consequently, in the last two years, the Thomas Harte Cumann rebuilt successfully the Easter Parades in Lurgan. This resulted in one of the most successful parades for many years on Easter Saturday 2014. “Lead by a masked Colour Party, hundreds of supporters from all over North Armagh, other parts of Ireland, and from abroad marched together with two Flute Bands, one travelling to the Parade from as far as Scotland. Sunday papers carried this parade on their front pages. This parade sent a clear and revolutionary message across Ireland and abroad: The Republican Movement is alive and well in the Occupied Six Counties; the British Forces of Occupation will not succeed in driving Irish people off the streets of Ireland. Republican Sinn Féin in North Armagh and the Thomas Harte Cumann will resist any attempts by the British Forces of Occupation to criminalise those marching on the streets of Ireland. “The Thomas Harte Cumann is determined to build on the success of the Easter Parade in 2014. The Thomas Harte Cumann stresses that neither the Cumann nor any individual member of Republican Sinn Féin will seek permission to march at Easter in Lurgan. “Our aim for the coming two years is to build the Republican Movement in the North Armagh area and organise a large and successful Easter Parade marching through the streets of Lurgan on the Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016. Only a successful Easter Parade, led by a strong and well-organised Republican Sinn Féin organisation will send a clear revolutionary message throughout the world: One hundred years after the Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside the GPO in Dublin, the Republican Movement is alive and well in the Six Occupied Counties.” Críoch/Ends

Don’t let them steal our history

The recent ceremony held in Glasnevin cemetery on July 31 marking the centenary of the beginning of the First World War - attended by representatives of both the 26-County State and the British State - was but part of a wider campaign designed to normalise British rule in Ireland by sanitising our history. Within the media the cheerleaders are already in full voice. Joe Duffy, from his bully pulpit launched a scathing attack on Republican Sinn Féin and its protest held at Glasnevin. Duffy refused to engage with the issues and instead went on a rant describing the protesters as “yobs” and seemed fixated on their clothing for some bizarre reason known only to himself. When I came on the air to talk about our protest and the issues underlying it on August 5, Duffy refused to allow any meaningful discussion or debate. At one point, when I put it to him that I didn’t come on to his programme to be lectured he said he would never lecture Republican Sinn Féin as he claimed he would be “afraid ”to. While refusing to engage with the ideas and ideology of the protest he was quite content to demonise an entire political organisation. Such tactics are as old as the hills. In 1858 in West Cork a local newspaper editor wrote about the drilling and marching which Fenians in the Skibbereen area were engaging in. He called on the British colonial police to arrest the men. Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa described the action of the editor as “felon setting”. (The ‘Treason Felony Act of 1848’ which remains in force, was used against the Young Irelanders and the Fenian Movement).Irish history was unkind to the ‘felon-setters’ of 1858 and all who assumed that role ever since. Joe Duffy’s words and actions are merely a modern manifestation of this ignoble practice. Republicans should be aware that this type of felon-setting often precedes a wave of coercion. A narrative is being crafted that places the First World War on the same plane as the 1916 Rising and attempts to incorporate it into our national story. This process involves sanitising our history to the point that it is denuded of any real meaning. It is rarely I find myself in agreement with Ronan Fanning however I cannot but agree with his analysis of the process of “massaging history” that is being practiced by the political establishments: Writing in The Irish Times on August 16 Fanning states that what is happening is: “…the propagation of a bland, bloodless, bowdlerised and inaccurate hybrid of history, which if carried to extremes is more likely to provoke political outrage than to command intellectual respect, let alone consensus.” An example of this is a listing in the National Museum at Collins Barracks in Dublin of all Irishmen killed between April 24 and May 12 1916. No distinction is made between those who died in arms opposing British rule in Ireland and those killed while serving in the ranks of the British army in the various theatres of the First World War. Thus for example James Connolly is simply listed among other Irishmen killed while serving in the ranks of the British army on the same day. This is not only unhistorical but does a disservice to those trying to grapple with the complexities of this key period in our history. How are our young people expected to come to an understanding of their history if such a distorted and confused narrative is given to them by the National Museum? By simply listing those killed without any context or explanation the whole period becomes a blur of militarism with nothing to distinguish those who died opposing imperialism from those who served in its ranks. Reading this list of names there is noting to tell the visitor that James Connolly died facing a British army firing squad in defiance of empire and in defence of Irish national independence. It is impossible to imagine any other self-respecting nation allowing its history to be diluted in such a manner. Such a way leads to the theft of any meaningful national narrative from this and future generations. Can you picture for instance France listing off the names of those who died in the Vichy forces or who collaborated with the German occupation alongside those who died in the French army or with the French Resistance? Would the United States honour those who served the British forces against the Revolutionary Continental Army? All of this may be uncomfortable and does not fit into the new orthodoxy of the so-called peace process but it is our history nonetheless. We should not have to apologise for it. Those Irishmen who died during the First World War were victims of a political class who viewed them as expendable. Many were economic conscripts forced by circumstances into the ranks of the British army while others were duped into believing that by volunteering to serve in the British army they would hasten the granting of Home Rule. The leaders of constitutional nationalism such as John Redmond enticed young men to sacrifice their lives so that they could prove that their nation was worthy of Home Rule. This is a blood sacrifice we hear little about from the revisionist historians. James Connolly was very clear about what was going on, in an article entitled ‘Tell the Truth: A Challenge to Mr Birrell’ published in The Irish Worker on November 28 1914 (Augustine Birrell was British Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916) Connolly boldly declares: “Let the truth be known! Count every corpse that the Empire requires us to pay for its victory; add up the total the wrecked human lives of the wounded soldiers, let us know the sum of the tears that the women and children must shed in oceans that Britannia might rule the waves and browbeat the nations.” Unfortunately today we are instead being subjected to a nostalgia fest of militarism based on the myth of the “war for the freedom of small nations”. It is a revisiting of what Connolly described in 1914 as a “…carnival of English jingoism.” Connolly warned that the consequences of embracing this cult of empire would be: “…the abandonment of all the high hopes and holy aspirations that sanctified Irish history and made the sacrifices of the past the foundation of noble achievements in the future.” That is exactly what is going on today. We are being asked to abandon the high ideals that inspired that revolutionary generation of a century ago and instead embrace the mythology of empire. It is evident that in the decade of centenaries the political establishments of Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster are determined to draw a line under Irish history. By demonising and isolating Irish Republicanism and refusing it access to public debate they hope that it will simply fade from the public consciousness, robbed of historical or political legitimacy. Joe Duffy’s column in The Irish Mail on Sunday on August 10 refers to “our war dead”. The First World War was not our war, our war was fought here in Ireland for the freedom of Ireland. The First World War was an imperialist slaughter in which sadly many of our countrymen were caught up. They were victims of empire but alas they cannot be numbered among the pantheon of our patriot dead. “Oh, had they died by Pearse's side or fought with Cathal Brugha Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep, 'neath the shroud of the foggy dew.” Canon Charles O’Neill

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Summer School

The inaugural Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Summer School will take place at the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon on June 6,7, and 8. The event will involve discussion and debate covering a range of topics and issues which were central to the life of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh such as the history and development of Irish Republicanism, the Irish language, the international dimension of the Irish struggle in the context of global anti-imperialism and the Éire Nua programme for a New Ireland of which Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was an architect and champion. The summer school will also include a reflection on the life of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh by people who were comrades and friends over many decades. Among the speakers are Professor Robert W. White, biographer of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Desmond Fennell, Dr Kevin Bean, Dr Marisa McGlinchey, Maura Harrington and the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton. The weekend will culminate with a commemoration at the graveside of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in St Coman’s Cemetery on Sunday June 8 at 12 Noon where the oration will be given by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton. The weekend will be a celebration of the life of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and a forum for engagement with the issues which motivated and inspired him throughout his life. Críoch/Ends

Republican Sinn Féin Treasurer arrested for speaking Irish

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton: The actions of the RUC/PSNII in arresting and charging Diarmuid Mac Dubhghlais a National Treasurer of Republican Sinn Féin for speaking Irish, serves as a reminder that the nature of British Rule in Ireland has not changed. He is charged simply with insisting on his right to converse in the Irish language, reinforcing the point that within the Six-County state it remains a crime to speak Irish. So much for the Strormont Agreement’s commitment to: “full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, social and cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens. and of parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities.” Such actions expose this for the empty rhetoric that it is. The Six-County state is an abnormal and undemocratic entity whose relationship with the nationalist people is that of a coloniser. Consequently the very markers of a distinct Irish identity such as out language are regarded as a threat to the Six-County state. Despite promises to introduce an Irish Language Act for the Six Counties nothing has been delivered and that was always the intention of the British Government. Former British Six-County Direct Ruler Peter Hain let ‘the cat out of the bag’ regarding the British government’s real attitude to the Irish language. The newspaper Gaelscéal in 2012 reported Hain as admitting that the promise of an Irish Language Act for the Six Counties was off set by moving its ratification from Westminster to Stormont where, Hain proclaimed there would be an “inbuilt majority” against it. The attempted criminalisation of Irish speakers is only what is expected of a colonial state whose intention is the eradication of any vestiges of Irish nationality, culture or history. We call on Irish language organisations, civil liberties bodies and activists to speak out against this assault on the right of Irish people to speak their native language in their own country. This should be recognised for what it is and no amount of sophistry or spin by the Stormont regime and its apologists should be allowed to obscure the truth about what is happening here. It is simply the suppression of the most basic civil and human rights, the right to a distinct cultural and national identity. As we are reminded by Pádraig Mac Piarais. “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.” Críoch

The only fitting way to honour 1916 is to build a New Ireland

T New Year Statement from the Leadership of Republican Sinn Féin: Republican Sinn Féin extends fraternal New Year greetings and solidarity to our friends, supporters and comrades both at home and abroad. The coming year will be one of ongoing struggle for working-class people in Ireland and across the world. Ireland’s struggle for national independence is not an isolated one but is part of the wider fight against imperialism across the globe. It is this realisation which must inform our thinking and also gives us heart as we once more take up the banner of Irish Republicanism in 2014. The recent Haass talks were served up by the British and Stormont political establishments as a distraction from the real issues. No amount of political window -dressing can disguise the fact that the Six-County State is an abnormal and undemocratic political entity. The right to political protest is denied to those who refuse to conform to the parameters of the Stormont Agreement. For the Stormont regime and its British masters civil rights only apply to those who accept the writ of the British Crown in Ireland. The age-old methods of repression continue to be used, such as internment without trial and internment by remand. Special laws and special prisons are used to silence and contain any voices that advocate any alternative to the failed partionist system. We extend our greetings to the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry who refuse to allow themselves or their struggle to be criminalised and pledge them our continued support. We call for the unconditional release of Martin Corey who in now entering his fourth year as a political hostage, imprisoned without trial or sight of any evidence against him. We believe that ÉIRE NUA provides the best means of breaking the logjam and creating the basis for a just and lasting peace. It is a political programme that is based on true All-Ireland democracy empowering people in a real way in contrast to the undemocratic sectarian carve-up that is Stormont. In the 26 Counties the economic and social struggle must be an integral part of the drive for a New Ireland. The policies of the Leinster House regime are designed to force our young people to emigrate and to disenfranchise those who remain at home. The social infrastructure of the 26-County State has been sacrificed in order to prop up the neo-liberal economic system of the EU. As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising the only fitting way to commemorate that historic event is to complete its task by re-establishing the All-Ireland Republic as set out in the 1916 Proclamation. In this decade of centenary our history has become part of the battle-ground as the 26-County Administration attempts to politically neutralise the coming generation by denying them access to the inspiration of their revolutionary history. Already we have calls for the GAA to commemorate World War One as part of an attempt to dilute the meaning and message of 1916 in a torrent of imperialist nostalgia. There is no equivalence between the 1916 Rising and the First World War. The 1916 Rising was part of a democratic revolution to secure national liberation for the Irish people and to establish the ownership of Ireland for the people of Ireland. Its radical and progressive programme set out in the Proclamation of Easter Week still resonates with people in the Ireland of the 21st Century. World War One on the other hand was a war of imperialist conquest, fought out between the imperial powers of Europe, turning the continent of Europe into a charnel-house for the working-class. Its aims were neither democratic nor progressive but merely about consolidating the grip of the big imperial powers. James Connolly was very clear about the nature of that war: “Would it not be better for all capable of bearing arms to resolve to fight, and if need be to die, for Freedom here at home rather than be slaughtered for the benefit of kings and capitalists abroad?” This year we will commemorate the centenary of the founding of Cumann na mBan and the landing of arms in Howth and Kilcoole as part of the build-up to 2016. We are engaged in a fight not only against political and economic imperialism but also a cultural imperialism which seeks to rob us of the very markers of a separate identity such as our language and history. In the forthcoming 26-County Local Elections our candidates will be standing on a revolutionary and truly democratic programme. Due to the undemocratic political test oath Sinn Féin have been precluded from contesting local elections in the Six Counties. This effectively disenfranchises those who wish to support candidates standing on a truly Irish Republican manifesto. We in Republican Sinn Féin stand unequivocally for the re-establishment of the All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week. We reject any dilution of Ireland’s right to national independence. In our political, social and economic policies ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA we have a programme that realises the dreams of the revolutionary generation of a century ago and importantly meets the needs of the Ireland of the 21st Century. ENDS

MRF revelations show Britain engaged in war of colonial repression

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton: The BBC Panorama programme revealing the activities of the British Army’s Military Reaction Force (MRF) in Belfast, screened on November 21, should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed events within the Six Counties since the early 1970s. These death-squads were operated as a matter of British Government policy in occupied Ireland, and their activities expose the myth, propagated by the British Government, that their presence in Ireland was a neutral one. On the contrary it shows that they were engaged in a colonial war of repression against the nationalist population. None of this is new and only the names of these forces have changed over the years. The same British Army regiments that were used to fill the ranks of British Intelligence’s notorious ‘Cairo Gang’ during the Black and Tan War in 1920 supplied soldiers to the MRF and its successor Force Research Unit – linked to the murder of Human Rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Today undercover British Army units continue to operate within the Six Counties such as the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, again underlining the abnormal and anti-democratic nature of British rule in Ireland. Indeed the calls by the Six-County Attorney General, John Larkin on November 20 for an end to prosecutions for any killings prior to 1998, including those carried out by the British State must be viewed with great suspicion and smack of a state attempting to protect itself.

Don’t Let them Fool You

The hysteria whipped up by the media and acted on by the 26-County police, resulting in two Roma children being separated from their families, in what must have been the most traumatic of circumstances, is an episode that is symptomatic of all that is wrong with this state. What is most frightening about this case is the arbitrary nature in which a journalist passed on a piece of anecdotal evidence to the Gardaí and within hours a child is taken from her parents. In the midlands a call from a member of the public resulted in another child being separated from his parents, again with little if any evidence being presented of a crime having been committed. Pavee Point quiet correctly describes this as “racial profiling in the extreme”. In each case the children were taken from their parents as a matter of first resort rather than last resort, as would be the norm in all but the most extreme cases of child protection. The targeting of both families on the basis of their ethnicity as Roma should make us all uneasy about the direction in which our society is heading. Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of the Immigrant Council says both cases are worrying because: “they involved members of a particularly marginalised community and we would worry about people being targeted because they are part of a particular ethnic group.” Denise Charlton pointed out that the events of the past week came on the back of comments from the 26-County Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton in which she indicated that half of social welfare fraud was carried out by immigrants, something which the Immigrant Council say is not supported by any evidence. This targeting of minorities is nothing new in times of economic hardship and collapse. Marginalised groups are a convenient means of distracting the populace from the real source of their social and economic woes. What occurred here exposes the supposed concern of the Dublin Administration for the welfare of children as only so much empty rhetoric. It is easy to play to the gallery on such issues but let it be on their actions that they should be judged. Marginalising the vulnerable and stoking the flames of racial prejudice and stereotype are to borrow a phrase the last refuge of the political charlatan. Targeting the weak in order to protect the powerful. Don’t be fooled people, recognise who your real enemies are. The bankers, financiers and their friends in the political class. Those who have robbed us all and continue to do so. In the words of the great Woody Guthrie: Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.

26-County Budget - latest salvo in a war of economic imperialism

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton: Once again the Leinster House political elite have targeted the most vulnerable members of society in order to protect the interests of the wealthy. The singling out of the elderly and the young unemployed exposes the harsh reality of the neo-liberal economics that drives the economic and social policy of the 26-County Administration. Cutting access to a full medical card to thousands of people over seventy as well as the renewed targeting of the young unemployed, leaving many with no other option but to emigrate, is reminiscent of the ‘Poor Law’ mentality of the 1840s when starvation or the coffin ship were the only options that were provided. The ability to care for the old and provide for the young define what is a civilised society. The barbarians have breached the gates. The Leinster House political class are collaborating against the interests of their own people in order to prop up the economic agenda of the EU power elites. This budget is just the latest salvo in a war of economic imperialism being waged against ordinary people, workers, the unemployed, the rural and urban poor, the young and the old across Europe. The budget as an exercise is largely a media event, as the major decisions are already made by the political and economic masters in Brussels and the European Central Bank. This is the new face of imperialism and people must awake to the reality that they are now locked in a struggle for the very survival of the norms of a civilised society not only in Ireland but across Europe and beyond. Críoch/Ends

A stalwart of Irish Republicanism

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton: It was with sadness that Irish Republicans received the news of the passing of Joe O’Neill on October 2. Joe was a stalwart of Irish Republicanism throughout his adult life and remained an active Republican right up to recent weeks. Joe O’Neill was born into a strong Republican family. His father Frank from Pomeroy, Co Tyrone was active in 1916 with the East Tyrone IRB. They had mobilised outside Coalisland when the order from Headquarters came to demobilise. The order was brought to them by Nora Connolly, daughter of James Connolly, who travelled to Carrickmore on the GNR railway. Joe’s mother Agnes from Dungannon was also steeped in Republicanism and was very active. She was also very active in the GAA, founding the first camogie team in Dungannon. From the 1950s onwards Joe O’Neill served the cause of Republicanism in a variety of capacities at both local as well as national level. On both occasions when a reformist clique attempted to hijack the Republican Movement, in 1969/70 and again in 1986, Joe O’Neill was steadfast in his fidelity to the All-Ireland Republic of 1916. Taking his place in the leadership of Republican Sinn Féin he was elected to the Ard Chomhairle in 1971, where he was to remain up to his death. He was proud to serve alongside close friends and comrades including Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Dáithí Ó Conaill and Pat Ward. He served as National Treasurer of Republican Sin Féin for many years up to 2009 when he became a Life Vice-President. The Éire Nua programme for a free and federal Ireland was championed by Joe as the key to bringing about a just and lasting settlement for all of the Irish people. For him it represented the best opportunity of fulfilling Theobald Wolfe Tone’s aim of uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter as Irish men and Irish women. It was due to the untiring work and sacrifice of Joe O’Neill that the memory of the hunger strikers of 1981 was suitably honoured each year in Bundoran despite numerous attempts by the 26-County State to disrupt it. As a member of the Bundoran Hunger Strike Committee Joe and the committee erected the beautiful Garden of Remembrance as a most fitting and lasting tribute to the hunger strikers. Joe gave unstinting service to his community for almost thirty years as a local public representative. He was co-opted on to the Ballyshannon Town Commissioners in 1963. He was later elected to Bundoran Town Council where he was to serve for over 25 years. Joe embraced all aspects of Irish culture, including its music and history. He had an enduring love of Gaelic games. Joe was a lifelong member of the GAA. For Joe O’Neill there was no shortcut to a free Ireland. He believed that as long as Ireland was partitioned and occupied by the British State there could be no lasting peace. He was a man of high principle with a burning sense of justice. It was this sense of justice that informed his political activities at both a national as well as a local level. He leaves a gap in the ranks of Republicanism that will be hard to fill. However it is because of the lifetime dedication of men and women like Joe O’Neill that there is a new generation there to take up the torch of revolutionary Irish Republicanism. Críoch/Ends

GAA act as recruiting Sergeant for RUC/PSNI

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton: The inclusion of a recruitment advertisement in the match programme for the Minor and Senior All-Ireland Football finals on Sunday last (September 22) for the RUC/PSNI, marks yet a further step in the hijacking of Irish sporting and cultural bodies in order to normalise British occupation in Ireland. The leadership of the GAA is allowing itself to become a recruitment sergeant for a British Colonial Police force, whose primary role is to enforce and uphold British Rule in the Six Counties. Coming on the back of the staging of Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉireann in Derry in August it shows the insidious nature of the campaign of normalisation. The very badges of our separate identity as a nation are being inverted in furtherance of a political agenda, which seeks to rob us of that very cultural, social and political identity which our music, games and language symbolise. This is a form of cultural imperialism that seeks to use Irish culture as a weapon against the very concept of an independent 32-County Irish Nation. Shame on those who collaborate and allow our cultural and sporting organisations to be hijacked for such a base purpose. Críoch/Ends

Oration at the gravside of Ruairí O Brádaigh

Oration by Des Dalton, President, Republican Sinn Féin at the grave of Patron Ruairí O Brádaigh, St Coman’s Cemetery, Roscommon, June 8 Speaking at the graveside of O’Donovan Rossa, Pearse restated the principles which had fired the soul and intellect of O’Donovan Rossa and restated the determination of his generation to take up the torch of freedom from Rossa and his generation: “I propose to you then that, here by the grave of this unrepentant Fenian, we renew our baptismal vows; that, here by the grave of this unconquered and unconquerable man, we ask of God, each one for himself, such unshakable purpose, such high and gallant courage, such unbreakable strength of soul as belonged to O’Donovan Rossa. Deliberately here we avow ourselves, as he avowed himself in the dock, Irishmen of one allegiance only. We of the Irish Volunteers, and you others who are associated with us in to-day’s task and duty, are bound together and must stand together henceforth in brotherly union for the achievement of the freedom of Ireland. And we know only one definition of freedom: it is Tone’s definition, it is Mitchel’s definition, it is Rossa’s definition. Let no man blaspheme the cause that the dead generations of Ireland served by giving it any other name and definition than their name and their definition.” For Ruairí Ó Brádaigh there too was but one definition of Irish freedom. For him there was but one straight and true path leading to the All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week. We come here to mourn the loss of Ruairí but we also come to celebrate his long and rich life. It was a life marked by unselfish devotion to the cause of Irish freedom. It was a life set apart by his sense of duty, honour and the intellectual rigour that he brought to the Republican Movement. Indeed often would Ruairí quote these lines from Louisa May Alcott, which are inscribed on the headstone of the tireless champion of Republican prisoners and the working class Charlotte Despard: “I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty; I woke, and found that life was duty.” Coupled with all of this was Ruairí’s deep humanity. He was a man whose empathy and compassion for the downtrodden and oppressed knew no boundaries of race or creed. In his biography of Ruairí, Professor Robert W. White of Indiana University, described Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s life as: “…a window for understanding his generation of Irish Republicans and how they received the values of a previous generation and are transmitting those values to the next generation.” In his introduction to the same book, the journalist Ed Maloney described Ruairí as the “last, or one of the last Irish Republicans”. Whilst the tribute was well intentioned the case is quite different. It is because of the life’s work of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh that he is not the last Republican but has rather ensured the continuity of Irish Republicanism, passing on the torch to succeeding generations. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a towering figure of Irish Republicanism in the latter half of the 20th Century. He came to embody the very essence of the Republican tradition, setting the very highest standards of commitment, duty, honour and loyalty to the cause of Irish freedom. Of a proud Republican heritage inherited from both his father Matt and his mother May, since 1950 he served at every level of the Republican Movement, and from 1956 took on the onerous responsibilities of national leadership with only a short intervals, up to the present day. Ruairí was a man of immense capability both as a politician and as a soldier. He holds the unique distinction of serving as President of Sinn Féin, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and from 1957 to 1961 as a TD, representing Longford/Westmeath. At critical junctures in the history of the Republican Movement, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, along with his close friend and comrade the late Dáithí Ó Conaill, manned the gap against the forces of reformism who sought to convert a revolutionary movement of national liberation into a mere constitutional political party, first in 1969/70 and once again in 1986. For Ruairí the essential principles of Irish freedom were clear and marked the political course to be followed. He dismissed any cult of the personality warning always of the inherent dangers of following merely the man or woman over the cause of Irish national independence. At a time when our sense of identity is being steadily eroded, when our people are discouraged from taking pride in their history or culture Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a tireless champion of the Irish language viewing it as the cornerstone of our unique identity as a nation. Like Pádraig Mac Piarais he believed in an Ireland that was: ‘not only free but Gaelic as well; not only Gaelic but free as well’. Gael go smior ab ea Ruairí. Óna chuid ama i gColáiste Mel is i gConamara, d’éirigh leis an teanga a thabhairt leis go han-líofa. Ar feadh a shaoil sheas sé go daingean le cúis na Gaeilge agus d’fhéach chuige go raibh Gaeilge ag an gclann ar fad. Faraoir, le caoga bliain anuas d’aithin an meath a tháinig ar an teanga go háirithe an cúngú sna Gaeltachtaí is sa chóras oideachais. Tá an Ghaeilge i mbaol go mór mura dtugtar áit lárnach di in Éirinn. Mar atá faoi láthair níl áit do theangacha agus do chultúir ar nós na Gaeilge agus ár gcultúr Gaelach atá ag tachtadh ár muintire. Daoibhse atá in eagraíochtaí Gaeilge is gá daoibh an pictiúr mór seo, mar a deirtear, a aithint. Tá an Ghaeilge i mbaol, tá sí á ceil tar pháistí na tire, tá imeallú mór déanta uirthi. The Irish Language has always been dear to Ruairí’s heart. He spoke it on every possible occasion and he saw to it that his children were all immersed in it. Unfortunately during the last 50 years the Irish language has been marginalised, neglected and downgraded in every possible way. The people of the Gaeltacht have been bullied by the politically-powerful and by international consumerism. This bullying has undermined their way of life. The neglect in the Education system now means that Irish is being denied to and hidden from 100’s of 1000’s of Irish children. Who then is responsible for this obliteration of people’s languages and cultures worldwide, including our own Irish? There is no place for own heritage in this neo-liberal agenda, the EU won’t allow it, the two states, even the 26 counties’ Dept of Education, work against the Irish language. ‘Death by a 1000 cuts’ is the effective state policy on Irish whatever niceties may be uttered. To the Irish Language Organisations we say: Be very careful in your dealings with the Northern and Southern states. Stop cosying up to these false promises. They’re only trying to buy you off. 90% plus of the Irish people dearly love our language. They want it passed on propery to our children, they want it central to Irish life not neglected and marginalized. The Irish people need leadership, the Irish language agencies need to give sustained, determined leadership and we as Irish Republicans need to centrally retain our commitment to the Irish language and culture at all times. As an Irish Republican he believed passionately in Theobald Wolfe Tone’s vision of substituting the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter with the common name of Irish man and Irish woman. He played a leading role in formulating the Éire Nua proposals for a Four Province Federal Ireland, which was based on the principles of true decentralisation of decision making with full particatpory democracy involving all sections of the Irish people as trust founders of a New Ireland. Such a democratic template would provide the Unionist minority with a New Ireland with real political power and decision-making. He was among the Republican leaders who met representatives of loyalism and unionism as Feakle, Co Clare in 1974 and later strongly supported the MacBride/Boal talks, which were eventually sabotaged by a 26-County Government Minister. Such was Ruairí’s commitment to the principles of a non-sectarian and pluralist Ireland that he and Dáithí Ó Conaill stepped down from the positions of President and Vice President respectively of Sinn Féin when Éire Nua was dropped as a policy document to further the narrow political agenda of a reformist clique operating within the Republican Movement in the early 1980s. For Ruairí Ó Brádaigh there could be no temporising on the issue of British Rule in Ireland. Drawing on the lessons of Irish history he recognised that it constituted the root cause of conflict and injustice for the Irish people. In opposing the 1998 Stormont Agreement he rightly viewed it as a flawed document serving only to copper-fasten British Rule while also institutionalising sectarianism, thereby further deepening the sectarian divide. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s analysis has since been bourne out by a number of independent studies which have shown an increase in sectarianism in the Six Counties in the years since 1998. The economically and politically oppressed and partitioned Ireland of today is far removed from the vision of a New Ireland, which inspired Irish Republicans such as Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. Standing by Ruairí’s graveside we can only truly honour him by turning our eyes to the future, by pledging ourselves to once more take up the fight for a New Ireland. Today our country is being assailed by the twin imperialisms of British military and political occupation and the economic and social oppression of the EU/ECB and IMF. These represent the old and new imperialisms, representing a threat to the very existence of the historic Irish Nation. In the Six Counties political repression remains the norm and the very fact that there remain political prisoners in Maghaberry, the internment without trial of veteran Republican Martin Corey and until recently of Marian Price, the presence of an armed Colonial police force using the same methods of repression, drawing on the same draconian laws to enforce the writ of the British Government all point to the abnormality of the Six County State. British Rule in Ireland will never be wither normal or acceptable and the lesson of Irish history remains as Ruairí continually pointed out: as along as there is a British military and political presence in Ireland there will always be a section of the Irish people determined to resist it. In the 26-County State our people are being robbed of the very markers of a civilised society, the ability to care for our sick and old, to educate our young and to provide for those on the economic margins of society. All of this is being imposed on our people in order to prop up the undemocratic EU superstate and its baking system. The Irish people it seems are merely fodder to be sacrificed on the high alter of EU finance capitalism. But not only are our people plundered financially but also culturally. It seems that the denizens of Leinster House, Stormont, Westminster and Brussels are intent on robbing us of our identity as a separate people and nation. Writing recently in the Sunday Business Post, Tom McGurk wrote that because the Irish people are being thought that it is wrong to take pride in our history, of resistance, our distinct culture and identity, today they are being denied the very tools of a strong sense of national identity required to stand up to EU Troika in contrast to people’s across Europe who have heroically defended themselves and their societies from the grip of the financial and banking elites. With Thomas Davis we believe: “This country of ours is no sand bank, thrown up by some recent caprice of earth. It is an ancient land, honoured in the archives of civilisation.” The Irish nation is not bound by the artificial borders of the two partition states, The philosopher Dr Mathew O’Donnell writes that nations rather than states, which are simply units of political organisation, bring people together: “For people are not brought together by a state; the state is the subsequent organisation of people who already posses some kind of unity…It is with the nation that one’s loyalty lies. There is no disowning it, no alternative to it. There should be a feeling for the nation, for it is one’s own people. This is the origin for the effective element in patriotism.” In the early 1890s the Irish Revolution began in earnest, speaking in 1892 the founder of Conradh na Gaelige Dubhghlas de Híde spoke of the need to reverse the process of anglicising Ireland: “When we speak of 'The Necessity for De-Anglicising the Irish Nation', we mean it, not as a protest against imitating what is best in the English people, for that would be absurd, but rather to show the folly of neglecting what is Irish, and hastening to adopt, pell-mell, and indiscriminately, everything that is English, simply because it is English.” He went to set out why we as a people needed to reconnect with our own distinct cultural identity if we were to prosper: “I would earnestly appeal to every one, whether Unionist or Nationalist, who wishes to see the Irish nation produce its best -- surely whatever our politics are we all wish that -- to set his face against this constant running to England for our books, literature, music, games, fashions, and ideas. I appeal to every one whatever his politics -- for this is no political matter -- to do his best to help the Irish race to develop in future upon Irish lines, even at the risk of encouraging national aspirations, because upon Irish lines alone can the Irish race once more become what it was of yore -- one of the most original, artistic, literary, and charming peoples of Europe.” As the centenary of the 1916 Rising draws near we have the opportunity once again to awaken the national consciousness to our possibilities as a people and the high ideals which have in the past inspired us to greater things and a vision of a New and better Ireland. As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising a battle has commenced for the hearts and minds of the Irish people. The legacy as well as the essential message of 1916 is at stake for this and future generations. The resources of both partitionist states are being employed in order to sanitise our history to the point that it has been robbed of any meaning. Equivalence is being made between the forces of occupation and the independence movement that no self-respecting nation would contemplate. Does France commemorate the Vichy policemen or Norway its Quislings who collaborated with German occupation forces? The 1916 Rising for Irish Republicans is not only an important moment in our history but a beacon to light our way forward. It is an event that not only continues to occupy a central place in our history but also remains relevant due to the simple fact that it remains unfinished business. The 1916 Proclamation sets out clearly the principles upon which the All-Ireland Republic should rest. It takes no great examination to see that both the Six and 26-County states fall far short of the definition of freedom and democracy set by the men and women of 1916. This would be and remains the abiding message of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. In carrying on the work to which Ruairí dedicated his adult life we must bring to it the same high standards, the same commitment to truth and honour which guided him. We must never lose sight of the high idealism of 1916 because it will always speak to us of a New and better Ireland and with it the possibility of revolutionary social, political and economic change. and should note well the words of Brian Ó hUiginn: “Keep close to them on the road they walked without flinching, the road whose signposts, as Liam Mellows said, are unmistakable, the road of truth and honour and earnestness and courage, the road of no wavering, of no compromise with wrong, of no surrender – the only road that leads to the freedom and happiness of the indivisible Republic of Ireland.” As we turn from this place we remember with pride our fallen chieftain, our Fenian Chief (as Desmond Ryan described James Stephens) I think it is appropriate to conclude with some words penned by John Fisher Murray To the Memory of Thomas Davis: “A spark of his celestial fire, The God of freemen struck from thee; Made thee to spurn each low desire, Nor bend the uncompromising knee; Made thee to vow thy live to rive with ceaseless tug, th’ oppressor’s chain with lyre, with pen, with pen, with sword, to strive for thy dear land – nor strive in vain. How hapless is our country’s fate – If heaven in pity to us send, Like thee, one glorious, good and great – to guide, instruct us, and amend: How soon thy honoured life is o’er – Soon Heaven demandeth thee again; We grope on darkling as before, And fear lest thou hast died in vain. In vain – no never! O’er thy grave, Thy spirit dwelleth in the air; Thy passionate love, thy prupose brave, Thy hope assured, thy promise fair. Generous and wise, farerwell! – Forego tears for the glorious dead and gone; His tears if his, still flow for slaves and cowards living on. To Patsy, Mait, Ruairí Óg, Conor, Deirdre, Ethne and Colm,his grandchildren and great-grandchild we extend our deepest sympathies and our gratitute to you and the extended Ó Brádaigh family for the life of Ruairí and his unparalled contribution to the cause of a free Ireland. Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam dílis. http://www.rsf-kildare.ie/

Bodenstown Oration

Speaking at the annual Theobald Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown Co Kildare on Sunday June 16 the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said: “We have come to the holiest place in Ireland; holier to us even than the place where Patrick sleeps in Down. Patrick brought us life, but this man died for us. And though many before him and some since have died in testimony of the truth of Ireland’s claim to nationhood, Wolfe Tone was the greatest of all that have made that testimony, the greatest of all that have died for Ireland whether in old time or in new. He was the greatest of Irish Nationalists; I believe he was the greatest of Irishmen. And if I am right in this I am right in saying that we stand in the holiest place in Ireland, for it must be that holiest sod of a nation’s soil is the sod where the greatest of her dead lies buried.” Thus spoke Pearse in 1913, one hundred years later those words still hold true. As Irish Republicans we come here each year to reaffirm our commitment to the ideals passed down to us by Tone and the Society of United Irishmen. Standing here on this sacred soil we come into communion with the spirit of Tone and renew our Republican vow first taken by Tone and his comrades on Belfast’s Cavehill in 1795: “Never to desist in our efforts until we have subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted her independence.” This was the programme of Tone and it remains the programme of the Republican Movement today. We are proud of our continuity of ideology and organisation with the United Irishmen, just as veterans of the United Irishmen endorsed and supported the Young Irelanders in the 1840s, today’s movement represents a meeting of the generations in common struggle. The historian C. Desmond Greaves described the reorganisation of the United Irishmen in 1795, transforming itself into a fully revolutionary movement as a: “…turning point in Irish history. For the first time the Irish nation was exclusively identified with Irish democracy”. Today the Republican Movement continues to champion and lead the fight for true All-Ireland democracy in defiance of the forces of reaction led by Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House. The political and economic conditions experienced by the Irish people today are a gross betrayal of the high ideals and vision for a new Ireland articulated by Republicanism from Tone and Emmet right up to today. Last week we laid to rest our Patron and former President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. Throughout his life he was a gifted and tireless worker for such an Ireland, an Ireland worthy of the sacrifice given to achieve it and one that lived up the high idealism of the historic Republican Movement. The actions of the 26-County police evoked memories of the funeral of Frank Stagg and if anything were a testament to power of a revolutionary idea over the seeming might of a corrupt and failed state. In life they feared Ó Brádaigh and the cause which he served and articulated with great skill, conviction and courage and in death they showed that the power of the ideals and ideas he espoused lived on with the same potency as before. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was one who lived fully according to the template of Republicanism set out by the United Irishmen. For him sectarianism was a weapon in the arsenal of the British State and one that must be countered as forcefully as any political or military threat posed by that same state. Along with his friend and comrade Dáithí Ó Conaill and other Republicans, he devised ÉIRE NUA as a means of making a reality of Tone’s dream of substituting the common name of Irish man and Irish woman for the denominations of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. The central thrust of ÉIRE NUA is the maximum devolution of power from national to provincial, regional, right down to local or community level. The Provincial Parliaments will be elected by the people of each province according to a system of proportional representation. Unionists and Nationalists within a nine-county Ulster would have a real and meaningful input and control over the political, social, economic and cultural life of their province, regions and communities. Unlike the institutions set up under the Stormont and St Andrew’s Agreements, the governmental structures set out in ÉIRE NUA, would be accountable only to the people who elected them. Under ÉIRE NUA the sovereignty of the Irish people is paramount. As an alternative ÉIRE NUA offers a framework within which all sections of the Irish people are the decision-makers on the vital issues for their communities, their regions and their nation. The people of Ulster within a free and Federal Ireland will make decisions affecting the people of a nine-county Ulster – they will not be dependent on the whim of a foreign parliament or government. Speaking in University College Cork in January 2008, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said: “We do not want to back the Unionists on to a cliff-edge politically where they will oppose us all the more. Neither do we seek to have them as a permanent and disgruntled political minority in one corner of Ireland. “During the 1970s, soundings were taken with every shade of unionism to obtain reactions. The result in all cases was similar; first choice was an independent Six Counties. We did not think that would be viable. All said, in that case they would opt for our ‘four provinces idea’ as the ‘most generous on offer’. “Apart from providing a solution to the Ulster situation, these proposals would bring power nearer to the people and help to correct east-west economic imbalance nationally. Republicans submit that such structures will be necessary to ensure justice for all, including the 18% of the national population who have supported the unionist position.” Tone had realised from the beginning that an effective union of the all the people of Ireland would be necessary to affect a revolution. As James Connolly pointed out in Labour in Irish History what was required to bring about such a union of hearts and minds was: “The activity of a revolutionist with statesmanship enough to find a common point upon which the two elements could unite, and some great event, dramatic enough in its character, to arrest the attention of all and fire them with a common feeling.” The figure with the qualities set out by Connolly was Tone and the event capable of firing the people with a revolutionary fervour was the French Revolution. ÉIRE NUA also proposes a new All –Ireland constitution which would be put to the people of Ireland for adoption and which would include a Charter of Rights. A draft Charter of Rights contained within ÉIRE NUA enshrines such fundamental rights as freedom of conscience, religion, ethical or political beliefs; freedom of expression and communication, the right to education, to join a trade union, the right to access adequate housing, food and medical care. It is also proposed that the European Convention on Human Rights be made part of the internal domestic law of the New Ireland. In fighting back against the new imperialism of the finance capitalists of the EU superstate we carry an alternative social and economic programme SAOL NUA. Our social and economic programme SAOL NUA – A New Way of Life - represents a vision of Ireland based on Republican, Socialist, and Self-reliance and Ecological principles; it identifies the obstacles to be overcome and the goals to be reached if we are to build an All-Ireland Federal Democratic Socialist Republic SAOL NUA is based on the principle that “…every person is entitled to have his or her inherent human dignity respected and every citizen should be able to enjoy freedom from poverty or insecurity and to have access to a fair and adequate share of the nation's wealth. All citizens should be equal before the law and all have the duty and the right to contribute by work to their own welfare and the welfare of society.” It identifies the essential elements of Democratic Socialism which are required in building the New Ireland; banking and all key industries must be brought under democratic or social control and the further development of community banking such as Credit Unions. Social control of capital is essential to ensure capital serves people rather than people being the slaves of capital. By doing so you ensure balanced development and equitable distribution of wealth. Money must be regarded, not as a commodity, but as an accounting system in which all participate. We must have new indicators of what constitutes economic success to replace the discredited indices of GNP and GDP. They merely record economic activity in terms of transaction and movement of money, commodities etc. They take no account of the voluntary sector, those who work in the home etc -- all of who make a valuable contribution to the local and domestic economy. Quality of Life is a far more valid index of human development and progress, the recording of adult and infant mortality, literacy, access to health services, nutrition etc. The UN Human Development Report mission statement is clear on what distinguishes meaningful human development: “The goal is human freedom. And in pursuing capabilities and realising rights, this freedom is vital. People must be free to exercise their choices and to participate in decision-making that affects their lives.” ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA give us a blueprint for the future built on the sure foundation of true All-Ireland political and economic democracy. A New Ireland fashioned from the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation and the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil. As Liam Mellows reminded us we are back to Tone: “Our freedom must be had at all hazards. If the men of property will not help us they must fall; we will free ourselves by the aid of that large and respectable class of the community – the men of no property.” We have set out here what distguinishes Irish Republicanism from those who collaborate in the interests of British or EU imperialism against the Irish people. Because of this Irish Republicanism has throughout its history faced the full brunt of British and later Free State repression. But all of their gallows, firing squads, jails and internment camps could not and never will quench the flame of true revolutionary Irish Republicanism. However the forces of the State have introduced a new a more insidious threat to Republicanism, one if unchallenged threatens to drive a wedge between Republicanism and the people of Ireland. Even those who would declare themselves as opponents of the revolutionary Republican tradition have admitted to a grudging respect for the idealism and integrity that underpins it. Writing in the Irish Times on September 14 John Waters, whilst dismissing the organisations to which Bobby Sands and Patsy O’Hara belonged to in withering terms he still acknowledged: “there was something noble and redemptive”. Over the past number of years we have seen a plethora of groups emerge, a number of which have taken on the name of the historic Irish Republican Army. The emergence of groupings styling themselves as ‘Republican’ who in reality are merely using that noble title to mask their real purpose of extortion and racketeering. In some cases such groupings masquerade as anti-drugs activists, posing as ‘champions of the community’. These pseudo-Republican groups seek to control their communities through fear. Posing as revolutionaries but merely hiding the grim reality that the only war they wage is not one of national liberation but instead a war on the youth of their own communities. The forcing of a parent to present their son for a punishment shooting as happened in Derry is medieval and far removed from any ideal of progressive Republicanism. The drugs’ gangs who peddle their wares in communities throughout Ireland and across all classes are enemies of the Irish people. The community and political activists who oppose them deserve our full and active support. However the pseudo-Republican groupings that take money from the drug dealers are no less parasitical than the drug dealers themselves. In many ways they are worse in that they leech from the communities they purport to defend – in effect they are drug dealers by proxy with the added insult of sullying the noble name of Republicanism in doing so. The activities of these pseudo-Republican gangs have the potential to eat away like a cancer at the very heart of Irish Republicanism, leaving in their wake an empty husk with neither relevance nor credibility. Such groups have descended into a bloody feud with criminal gangs in a wasteful and futile exercise, which has already resulted in much needless death. Sadly the feuds and deaths which they have led to do not contribute in any way to the historic fight for Irish freedom. The duty to halt this slide lies with those who claim the title deeds of Republicanism. We have a bounden duty to hold out against this hijacking of the Republican ideal; we must lead by example in ensuring that authentic Irish Republicanism continues to live in the hearts of the Irish people. It is not enough to claim those title deeds without acting on them. To do so we in Republican Sinn Féin must ensure that a clear distinction can be made between what represents true Republicanism and those who instead provide a perverse and twisted parody of it. We must look first to ourselves if we are serious about building a credible and effective opposition to the political and economic enslavement of the Irish people. There are those who believe that there is a short cut to this by creating a false unity, a so-called unity based on ignoring fundamental principle. To do so is to build on sand and any movement built on such a foundation contains within it the seeds of its own fragmentation and division. We must instead concentrate our energies and focus our attention on building the Republican Movement into what Dáithí Ó Conaill described as its historic role: “It was the catalyst for the for the progressive forces of this country and abroad who desired the establishment of a sovereign democratic socialist Republic.” We must have confidence in ourselves and our own Movement and not relying on other groups or organisations who may on the surface provide a certain glamour and gloss but who lack the necessary ideological depth and commitment to the task of achieving our ultimate goal, the complete ending of British occupation and the re-establishment of the All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week. It is our duty to take up the torch of freedom and carry it forward; each person has a key role to play and must be willing to play it if we are serious about completing our noble task. The political analysis provided by Republican Sinn Féin of the political trajectory of the current process of embedding British rule in Ireland has proven to be accurate. The very fact that the British Government and their surrogates in Stormont still rely the draconian laws, secret evidence and internment to protect their undemocratic statelet points to the abnormality of British rule and partition. The continued interment without trial of Martin Corey – justified by the British State on the basis of secret evidence – the continued attempt to criminalise Republican POWs – the repressive deployment of an armed colonial police force all illustrate for those who wish to see that the nature and reality of British occupation has not changed. Our analysis is sound because it is based on the lessons of Irish history. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are not to be found within the portals of Leinster House, Stormont or Westminster; they are to be found only by a revolutionary awakening of the Irish people to their own strengths and possibilities as a people and nation. Wolfe Tone was clear about this in his own day, he too rejected the puppet parliament of College Green, he recognised it as merely an agent of the English Government, an institution anchored in greed and corruption. In words which are applicable to both partitionist states today he wrote of the Dublin Parliament in scathing terms: “The revolution of 1782 was a Revolution which enabled Irishmen to sell at a much higher price their honour, their integrity and the interests of their country; it was a revolution which, while at one stroke it doubled the value of every borough-monger in the kingdom, left three-fourths of our countrymen slaves as it found them, and the government of Ireland in the base and wicked and contemptible hands of those who had spent their lives in degrading and plundering her . . . The power remained in the hands of our enemies, again to be exerted for our ruin, with this difference, that formerly we had our distress, our injuries, and our insults gratis at the hands of England, but now we pay very dearly to receive the same with aggravation, through the hands of Irishmen.” The French Revolution armed the Society of United Irishmen with the ideological tools to formulate a democratic programme for a free and independent Irish Republic. Drawing on that rich tradition Irish Republicanism has remained truly international in character. Irish Republicans are not bound by the narrow vision of reaction and reformism but by the wide and embracing ideals of progress and the revolutionary possibility of all peoples. Our cause is the cause of humanity and in the words of the Proclamation of 1916: “…we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine.” As we turn from this honoured place we should consider again the words of Theobald Wolfe Tone: “To break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country, these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, these were my means.” As Pearse puts it, here we have “implicit all the philosophy of Irish Nationalism”, the very definition of Ireland a nation. I leave you with the words of Pearse spoken here one hundred years ago: “To that definition and to that programme we declare our adhesion anew; pledging ourselves as Tone pledged himself – and in this sacred place, by this graveside, let us not pledge ourselves to follow in the steps of Tone, never to rest, either by day or by night, until his work be accomplished, deeming it the proudest of all privileges to fight for freedom, to fight, not in despondency, but in great joy, hoping for the victory in our day, but fighting on whether victory seem near or far, never lowering our ideal, never bartering one jot or tittle of our birthright, holding faith to the memory and the inspiration of Tone, and accounting ourselves base as long as we endure the evil thing against which he testified with his blood.” An Phoblacht Abú.

Pseudo gangs, the media and the dark legacy of Frank Kitson

On Sunday January 6 Republicans from throughout Munster and other parts of Ireland gathered in Limerick for the annual Seán Sabhat commemoration organised by Republican Sinn Fein. Little did we think that the scene was being set for the playing out of a Kitsonian melodrama, but more of that later. To begin with a very fitting ceremony was held at the Republican Plot in Mount St Lawrence including a fine oration delivered by Geraldine McNamara of Co Tipperary, the National Publicity Officer of Republican Sinn Féin. All in all it was a dignified tribute to the memory of a noble Irish patriot. Sadly the day was marred by the activities of a small gang who have, since May of 2010, been actively attempting to steal both our identity and good name. I am conscious of the accusation that to talk or write about them is to give them an attention that they do not deserve and indeed some would say an attention they crave after. It is a point I would largely agree with but there are times when certain facts need to be placed on the public record. This we have not flinched from doing in the past and indeed will do so again in the future if we deem it necessary to vindicate the good name of Republicanism and in protecting it from the calumny of such groupings. However, it is the actions of the media that I wish to discuss here and their collaboration with this gang in an act of identity theft. I will begin by giving a brief account of the events as they unfolded in the days following the commemoration. The Irish Independent on Monday January 7 in its print and online editions gave prominent position to the event staged by the Limerick gang, smearing the good name of Republican Sinn Féin in the process. A phone call to the newsroom of the Irish Independent was followed by an email. However instead of simply returning our call, in what appears to have been a rather convoluted process, our email was passed on to the Limerick Leader, who did at least have the courtesy to contact us. That evening RTÉ television’s main news programme Six One News carried what was essentially the earlier report of the Irish Independent. The RTÉ newsroom was immediately contacted and informed that the event reported in their news bulletin was not organised by Republican Sinn Féin. A statement was also sent to RTÉ as well as all other national print, broadcast and online media. Despite a demand that the later nine o’clock news bulletin carry our statement, the only concession to truth made by RTÉ was to drop the name of Republican Sinn Féin from the later bulletin. It took them a further two hours to amend the report on their website, and this involved merely including a couple of lines referring to a comments made by a “spokesman” from Republican Sinn Féin. The rest of the report persisted with the lie that Republican Sinn Féin had organised the event. The online news service, The Journal.ie, carried the statement in full. Despite this wide dissemination of our statement, the Irish Independent, the Irish Times and the Evening Herald all continued to spread the big lie in their editions on Tuesday, January 8. Once more the Irish Independent was contacted and a statement and letter released. It was only at lunchtime on the Tuesday that the Irish Independent even deigned to contact us. Over the course of two days the Irish media displayed an almost total disregard for truth or accuracy in their reportage. Based on previous experience if the media really believed this event had been organised by us they would have been more than forthcoming in seeking comments, interviews etc. The fact that the only contact made by the media was in response to contact we made with them, and that largely of the token variety, is itself very telling. The most disturbing aspect of this entire charade is that the media were willing to propagate this lie for days while paying little or no regard to the principles of accuracy, truth and balance. Gangs such as the one at the centre of this story fit the criteria of the infamous ‘pseudo gang’ concept, first devised by General Frank Kitson of the British Army. They made their first appearance in British occupied Kenya in the 1950s. Since then their effectiveness has been honed and perfected by the British in various theatres of operation, from the Six Counties to Iraq. The South African apartheid regime used such gangs to discredit the ANC. These state sponsored gangs work to an agenda designed to both discredit the true revolutionary movement in the eyes of the people and at the same time sow seeds of doubt and division in the ranks of the legitimate movement. Frank Kitson has indeed bequeathed a dark legacy to the world and in Ireland it seems there are those who are all too willing to implement his strategy. Vigilance and care are called for as seldom before.

Republican Sinn Féin sets record straight

Republican Sinn Féin wish to correct the report carried on RTÉ television’s Six One news this evening (January 7). The commemoration referred to in the report was not organised by Republican Sinn Féin. Republican Sinn Féin held its own Seán Sabhat commemoration in Limerick on January 6. Further we wish to point out that no statement such as that referred to in the news report was read out at the Republican Sinn Féin commemoration. Críoch/Ends

Challenge the powerful and rouse the down trodden

New Year Statement from the leadership of Republican Sinn Féin: Republican Sinn Féin extends fraternal New Year greetings to friends, comrades and supporters in Ireland and internationally. Millions of working class people in Ireland and across Europe will greet the coming year with a sense of fear and foreboding. The recent budget announced by the 26-County Administration shows that the unrelenting policy of austerity - dictated by their political masters in Brussels - is not only to be continued but increased, squeezing all sections of our people beyond breaking point. In the eyes of the political class and their media cheerleaders the working poor and unemployed, the elderly and the young are all expendable. The very concept of a society, which can educate its young, and care for its sick and elderly, is being sacrificed on the alter of the EU’s political and economic ideology of centralised authoritarianism and finance capitalism. The decision by the British Government to host the G8 Summit in Co Fermanagh on June 17 and 18 is highly symbolic and presents an opportunity for progressive forces to make the important connection between the old imperialism in the shape of British occupation of the Six Counties and the new imperialism represented by the economic colonisation of the 26 Counties by the EU/ECB/IMF troika. Republican Sinn Féin will be holding an alternative Anti-Imperialist Forum on the weekend before the G8 summit to present national as well as international alternatives to these twin imperialisms. For Irish Republicans our struggle is both political and economic, anything less would be to ignore the reality of imperialism and consequently to dilute our revolutionary programme. As with James Connolly we believe that it is not enough to merely remove the physical presence of imperialism in the form of British military occupation without creating a New Ireland based on real political and economic democracy; an All-Ireland Federal Democratic Socialist Republic. Ninety years after the death of Liam Mellows his teaching has never been more relevant: “If the Irish people do not control Irish industries, transport, money and soil of the country, then foreign or domestic capitalists will. And whoever control the wealth of a country and processes by which wealth is attained control also its government.” In the Six Counties the process of normalising British Rule continues with the designation of Derry as a “UK City of Culture”. Republican Sinn Féin will be actively opposing this hijacking of the historic Doire Colmcille throughout 2013. The recent revelations arising from the discredited Da Silva report into the murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane by a British backed loyalist death-squad, exposes the true face of British rule in Ireland. Today nothing has changed, last year saw an increase in the repression of Republicans and 2013 promises more of the same. We will be once more campaigning for the unconditional release of political internee Martin Corey as well as veteran Republican Marian Price. We take this opportunity to extend New Year’s greetings to the Republican POWs in Maghaberry Prison and pledge them our unstinting support in the latest phase of their fight for political status. By suspending their protest the POWs have placed a serious onus on the Six-County Justice Minister David Ford and the Six-County Prison Service to speedily implement in full the August 2010 Agreement. As the centenary of the historic 1916 Rising approaches, other important centenaries must also be marked. Next year will see three significant centenaries all of which carry a pressing relevance for the Ireland of today. Next August will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the heroic 1913 Lockout when Irish workers struck a telling blow in the universal fight for human dignity and freedom. The coming year will also mark the centenaries of the founding of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, both of which would combine in 1916 to form the Irish Republican Army. All will be fittingly marked. For those who doubt the potency and power of history one has only to consider the words of the filmmaker George Morrison in reference to his masterful Mise Éire film covering the revolutionary period in Ireland from the 1890s to 1918: “ I regard Mise Éire as being a great anti-imperialist document.” History, if utilised correctly, can awaken and inspire the brightest and best of a generation to the possibilities of radical change in the present and the future. We must resist all attempts to sanitise and package our history in a way that will rob it of its meaning and message for the Ireland of today. Rather than merely commemorating the past we must set out a programme for the future that will challenge the powerful and rouse the down trodden. As Connolly warned a national movement must prove itself capable of: “formulating a distinct and definite answer to the problems of the present and a political and economic creed capable of adjustment to the wants of the future.” We appeal to the Irish people to awaken to the realisation that they possess the power to bring about true political and economic change, not the chattering classes in Leinster House. Electing politicians to the corrupt Lenister House institution will not deliver the revolutionary change that is demanded by the present political and economic conditions. As the only political organisation which rejects the two partition states in their entirety, Republican Sinn Féin is best positioned to lead the struggle for a New Ireland worthy of the ideals set out in the 1916 Proclamation. An Ireland which would harness our natural resources for the betterment of this and future generations, an Ireland which would truly “cherish all the children of the national equally.” In the lead up to 2016 we will be unveiling a series of seven specific polices covering areas such as natural resources, banking, economic development etc, all based on our political, social and economic polices Éire Nua and Saol Nua. We can only truly honour the men and women of 1916 by making the All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week a reality for all sections of our people. In 2013 let the slogan of the 1913 Lockout ring in our ears: “The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.” An Phoblacht Abú

Grey Abbey martyrs honoured on 90th Anniversary

On Sunday December 16 in Kildare Town, Kildare Republican Sinn Féin held a commemoration to mark the 90^th anniversary of the executions of seven soldiers of the Irish Republican Army by Free State Army. The executions took place in the Glasshouse on the Curragh on December 19 1922. The commemoration began at 2 pm with a parade, led by a colour party, from the Square in Kildare Town to Grey Abbey Cemetery. The ceremony at the Republican Plot was chaired by the An tUachtarán Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton and began with the laying of two wreaths. Anne Origan, Newbridge, a grandniece of Commandant Bryan Moore, laid the first wreath on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin. The second wreath was laid by Kevin Kavanagh, Co Wexford, on behalf of the South East Comhairle Ceantair of Republican Sinn Féin. This was followed by a minute’s silence and a dipping of the flag. Róisín Hayden, Dublin, read the Four Courts Proclamation, issued by the Republican leadership at the beginning of the war in defence of the All-Ireland Republic of 1922-23.

Republican Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle member Seán Dolan, Co Westmeath gave the oration. He briefly outlined the events leading up to the executions of the seven IRA Volunteers. “These men dedicated their lives to the cause of the All-Ireland Republic and died in its defence. The recent riots in Belfast and across the Six Counties as well as the latest revelations relating to the murder by a British backed loyalist death-squad of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, all point to the fact that only a full British withdrawal and the creation of a New Ireland north and south can deliver a just and lasting peace.” Seán Dolan said.

The seven members of the Rathbride Column executed were : Patrick Bagnall and Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen, Kildare; Joseph Johnston, Station Road, Kildare; Bryan Moore and Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Kildare; Stephen White, Abbey St. Kildare and James O’ Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary. This was the single biggest execution of the civil war or counter-revolution of 1922-23. An eighth member of the column, Commandant Thomas Behan of Rathangan died at the scene of their capture in Mooresbridge on December 12 1922 as a result of the beating he received from Free State soldiers. The Free State Army later tried to cover up his murder by claiming he was “shot while trying to escape” from the Glass House.

Críoch/Ends.

Finucane murder exposes reality of British Occupation

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton

The latest revelations regarding the murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane by a British-backed loyalist death squad in 1989 exposes the reality of British Occupation in Ireland. That the British Government was aware of the threat to Pat Finucane two months before his murder, a fact confirmed by journalist and author Ed Maloney, is particularly damning. We would share the view of the Finucane family that the De Silva Report is a: “…sham” and: “…a whitewash”, designed to protect the British Government and its institutions, including the covert intelligence force MI5.

As a result of the Stormont Agreement the position of MI5 in the Six Counties is now stronger than ever before. The Director of the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) Brian Gormally made the telling observation: “The reality is that MI5 – secret, unreformed and unaccountable – is now running one of the most sensitive areas of policing – covert national security.” This enhanced role includes the recruiting and running of agents like those who were instrumental in carrying the murder of Pat Finucane, such as Brian Nelson.

The De Silva Reports admits that 80% of the intelligence supplied to loyalist death squads came from the British Army’s  notorious Force Research Unit or the RUC Special Branch. This merely underlines their role as another arm of the British Crown forces. The activites of the loyalist death squads are a classic example of the counter-insurgency tactics set out by senior British Army General, Sir Frank Kitson in his books Gangs and Counter-Gangs and Low Intensity Operations. The murder of Pat Finucane was carried out as part of just such a carefully directed  campaign, designed to strike terror into the nationalist community. The British-backed loyalist death squad murder of lawyer Rosemary Nelson in 1999 also fits into this pattern.

The leopard does not change its spots, and as long as there is British occupation of any part of Ireland it will not hestitate to use such tactics on Irish people in the future.

Republican Sinn Féin Presidential Address 2012

A Chathaoirligh, a Theachtaí is a chairde go léir.

Fearaim céad míle fáilte romhaibh ar fad ag an Árd-Fheis seo.

You are most heartily welcome to our annual Ard-Fheis. Since last we gathered in national conference we have seen the twin imperialisms of British occupation, on the one hand, and the EU/ECB and IMF, on the other, tighten their grip on Ireland. Increased repression in the Six Counties coupled with the surrender of any remaining vestiges of economic sovereignty to the EU by the 26-County State shows the challenge that lies ahead for the progressive forces for political, social and economic democracy.

Writing in 1914 in reaction to the proposed partition of Ireland as part of a Home Rule settlement, James Connolly warned of the consequences that would result from partition: “the betrayal of the national democracy of industrial Ulster would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish Labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements whilst it endured.”

Those words are no less relevant to the Ireland of 2012 than they were to that of 1914.

Today the forces of reaction that are arrayed against us are no less formidable, but just as Connolly, Pearse and their comrades identified the opportunity that such a challenge held for their generation, it is up to the present one to likewise find the opportunities that are presented to us and exploit them to the full.

The year began with a very successful commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry. On Sunday January 29, people from Derry and throughout Ireland defied the political establishments of Stormont, Westminster and Leinster House when they came out on to the streets of Derry to remember the 14 unarmed civil rights marchers murdered in that city by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment on January 30 1972.

Three thousand people according to the Irish Times of January 30 made their presence felt in a dignified display of solidarity with the survivors and families of the victims of Bloody Sunday.  The march was to further the cause of truth and justice. But the presence of such a large crowd also told us that the pulse of Irish nationality still beats strong despite the censorship and repression of Britain and its surrogates.

As Republican Sinn Féin pointed out at the time of its launch, the Saville Inquiry failed the crucial test of holding the British Government to account for the events of Bloody Sunday. Instead as pointed out by Éamonn McCann on BBC’s Spotlight programme the Inquiry was limited to dealing with the British soldiers who were present on the ground but not allowed to investigate the military and political chain of command which placed the British army’s notorious Parachute Regiment in direct confrontation with unarmed civil rights protesters. In August of 1971 the same regiment was responsible for the murder of 11 people in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. 

The failure of the British State to bring any prosecutions against the British soldiers identified in the report as being responsible for the murders is in stark contrast to the ongoing arrests and charges being brought against people by the HET (Historical Enquiries Team) in relation to events over the past 43 years.

Kate Nash, whose father William was murdered on Bloody Sunday spoke eloquently and movingly of the pain endured by the families over the past 40 years. She also used the occasion to remind people that those murdered on Bloody Sunday were marching against internment while 40 years later internment was still a reality in the Six Counties citing the examples of Martin Corey and Marian Price.

All of this must be seen in context. The Saville Inquiry was hailed by the so-called constitutional nationalist parties – including the Provisionals – as drawing a line under Bloody Sunday – despite its obvious shortcomings. Keeping up their side of the bargain as it were, they moved almost immediately to announce that the annual march, organised by the relatives would be wound up.

Thus another uncomfortable truth about the nature of British rule would be conveniently brushed under the carpet. They went so far as to threaten those families who had stated their intention to continue with the annual Bloody Sunday march that they would “de-legitimise” any future march. Soon after this it was announced that Derry had been designated as ‘UK City of Culture’ for 2013. It is evident that the British State is now attempting to co-opt the three strands of a distinct Irish culture, our games, music and language in order to prop up British rule in Ireland.

Over the past ten years, beginning with the ending of the ban on members of the British Crown Forces joining the association, the GAA at leadership level have allowed Cumann Lúthchleas Gael to be used in the campaign of normalisation of British rule. This was followed by the England Rugby team playing in Páirc an Chrócaigh in 2007 and culminated in the Queen of England’s visit there in May of last year.

In December the historic ground was used to stage a Gaelic football match between the RUC/PSNI and the 26-County police. As a result of blatant political pressure Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann effectively forced its Ulster Council to overturn its initial decision not to hold the annual Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Derry as part of the promotion of the so-called ‘UK City of Culture’ year in 2013.

As Patrick Murphy points out in his column in the Irish News of January 21: “The Fleadh is a particularly Irish event, reflecting a proud tradition of music and song which survived centuries of ridicule, scorn and suppression.” Now however it is to be used to sell the notion of Derry and the Six Counties as being an integral part of the British State. Of course Irish Republicans would welcome the Fleadh in Derry but not for this purpose. We will be joining in the protests against this hijacking of Doire Cholmcille over the coming months.

It has also been mooted that the Oireachtas festival – celebrating the Irish language – will also be held in Derry next year. Patrick Murphy tellingly points out that while constitutional nationalism has now fully embraced British rule and as a result is drifting from cultural nationalism, which still extols a sense of Irish separateness from Britain.

However Britain recognises this: “If you were in Whitehall today trying to bed down the latest British victory in Ireland, you would bring cultural nationalism into line with political nationalism. That explains the political pressure to bring the Fleadh to a British government event in Ireland,” Murphy states.

In the last year in Newry, the RUC/PSNI held an Irish language public meeting, using the language as a recruiting tool.

Former British Six-County Direct Ruler Peter Hain let ‘the cat out of the bag’ regarding the British government’s real attitude to the Irish language. The newspaper Gaelscéal reports Hain as admitting that the promise of an Irish Language Act for the Six Counties was off set by moving its ratification from Westminster to Stormont where, Hain proclaimed there would be an “inbuilt majority” against it.

So it is obvious that part of our culture the British can’t extinguish they will try to absorb. But as we saw in Derry in January, there remains “…the risen people who shall take what ye would not give.”

The ongoing internment of Martin Corey, Marian Price and others further underlines the fact that nothing has changed in the relationship between England and Ireland. The unchanging face of British rule in Ireland was underlined with two instances of the stark inhumanity of the regime.

The first was the initial refusal and final granting of compassionate parole to Republican veteran and political internee Martin Corey to attend the funeral of his brother Peter who died on May 21. A request by Martin to the authorities at Maghaberry prison was refused, forcing Martin, only hours before his brother’s burial, to take his case before the High Court in Belfast on May 24. Martin was eventually allowed to attend the funeral, accompanied by two MLAs who collected him from, and returned him to, Maghaberry prison. This is not the first time POWs have been refused parole; in February another Republican POW, Damien McKenna was refused compassionate parole to attend his father’s funeral.

The second instance was the overturning of a Belfast court ruling, which ordered the release of Martin Corey on July 9 thus exposing as myth any notion that the Six-County state is a ‘normal’ democratic society.

The internment of Martin Corey coupled with the treatment meted out to another veteran Republican, Marian Price bears out the truism that when it comes to Ireland the default position of the British Government when dealing with Ireland is naked repression.

In his judgement on the continued imprisonment of Martin Corey Justice Séamus Treacy ruled that the use of closed or secret evidence as the basis for interning Martin Corey was a breach of his human rights under Article 5 (4) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Despite this the then British Secretary of State Owen Paterson ordered that the case be heard by a second judge effectively subverting the original judgment.

As Republican Sinn Féin’s POW Department puts it: “And so 41 years after the introduction of internment in the Six Counties it appears it is once more being employed as a means of silencing Irish Republicans. What has happened to Martin Corey constitutes not only an attack on Martin’s human and civil rights but are an attack on the human and civil rights of all people within the Six Counties.

”The continued imprisonment of Marian Price on trumped-up charges coupled with the vindictive imprisonment of Gerry McGeough tells us much about the true nature of British involvement in Ireland. So much for the much heralded human rights agenda of the Stormont regime what we have got instead is more of the same.” The statement concluded by calling on people “to join the campaign for the release of Martin Corey and help expose the true nature of British occupation”.

Meanwhile in Maghaberry prison Irish Republican POWs continue to resist the inhuman brutalising regime which attempts to deny them of their right to be treated as political prisoners. However, like Republican prisoners of previous generations they have resisted all attempts to criminalise them or the cause for which they suffer the loss of their liberty. They are indeed worthy successors of all those who have gone before them. We salute them and pledge our unswerving support to them and their families.

A day of action in support of the Republican POWs was held on October 27. It was the most significant coordinated display of international solidarity with Irish Republican prisoners in many years involving at least 16 protests in 12 countries on three continents. Protests or events highlighting the plight of the Republican POWs in Maghaberry as well as the internment without trial of Republicans such as Martin Corey, the illegal detention of Marian Price and the plight of Michael Campbell in Lithuania were held in Dublin, Lurgan, New York, Sydney, London, Rome, Manchester, Toronto, Paris, Glasgow, Hamburg, Colorado, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Magdeburg, Utrecht and Gothenburg.

The worldwide events sent out a strong message that the political situation in Ireland is not normal and that British Rule is still being met with resistance.

Of course such a successful day of action was accompanied by the usual State repression. In Lurgan the RUC/PSNI chose to use the protest to arrest Ard Chomhairle member Cáit Trainor for non-payment of a fine arising from a ‘Release Martin Corey’ protest march held in Lurgan in January 2011. Her arrest follows that of Lurgan Republican Martin Duffy on October 13 in relation to the same march.

Martin Duffy was held for a week in Maghaberry prison, while Cáit Trainor was held in Hydebank prison also for a week. In Hamburg the German police broke up a protest at the Lithuanian Consulate and threatened those taking part with arrest. The spokesperson for the Republican Sinn Féin International Relations Bureau Dieter Blumenfeld, condemned the repressive actions by both the RUC/PSNI and the German police forces against Irish Republicans: “The arrest of Cáit Trainor at a protest in Lurgan and the breaking up of a peaceful picket in support of Michael Campbell in Germany shows that the reactionary and imperialist forces want to silence Irish Republicanism.” All who took part in the events on October 27 are to be commended

The spectacle of Martin McGuinness shaking hands with the Queen of England should not have come as a major surprise. One needs to simply examine the facts; he is a minister of the British Crown meeting the head of the State he serves. That is the reality of what occurred in Belfast’s Lyric Theatre on June 27.

The Provos and their spin-doctors may spin a line but it cannot hide the fact that McGuinness did not meet the Queen of England as the representative of a free nation but merely as a functionary within the apparatus of British occupation in Ireland. Martin McGuinness’ meeting with the Queen of England was merely a symbolic confirmation of the fact that the Provisionals are now part and parcel of the British administration in Ireland. Dungiven, Co Derry, Republican Sinn Féin spokesperson Michael McGonigle put it simply: “By joining in the celebrations for the 60-year reign of the English monarch former antagonists had been compelled to fling away any remaining trace of political opposition and had been seen to acknowledge the authority of the British Crown in this part of Ireland.”

The road to reformism they embarked on in 1986 was clearly signposted along the way for those who wished to see where it led. Each step, such as the acceptance of the Unionist veto over national independence or the decommissioning of arms was carefully mapped out.

The first step would involve an initial strenuous denial by the Provos of what was about to occur, the next step involved the inevitable announcement that the new departure was being considered or ‘debated’ by its members. The final step invariably involved presenting the latest sell-out as a fait accompli to its members in lieu of any meaningful consultation and to the general public as essential to ‘advancing the peace process’.

The choreography has not changed, nor has the end result – further enmeshing in the machinery of the British State. Speaking on The History Show, on RTÉ Radio 1, on October 14, in a programme marking the 90th anniversary of the infamous Public Safety Bill used by the Free State to execute Republicans during the Counter-Revolution of 1922-23, Shane Mac Thomáis, a historian with the Glasnevin Trust made the observation: “What Michael Collins accepted in 1922, de Valera accepted in ’27 and Gerry Adams accepted in ’98”. Only the names change but never the result of the sell-out.

The next step for the Provisionals will be to sit in the British Parliament in Westminster and just as before their protestations to the contrary ring increasingly hollow. The Sunday Business Post of July 1 reported that the Provos are now preparing to issue an apology to the British State for the deaths of its soldiers and police or anyone else killed or injured during the course of the war against British Rule. Such a development demeans the sacrifice of the IRA volunteers who sacrificed their lives not for a New Stormont but for a New Ireland.

Such a move is simply a cynical attempt to fatally undermine the efforts of any future generation to end British rule in Ireland. The journalist Vincent Browne observed that the Provisionals have now adopted the unionist position, which views the Six-County State as the ultimate unit of decision-making rather than the Republican position, which upholds the right of the people of a 32-County Ireland to act as single unit of self-determination.

We salute our members who protested at Belfast’s City Hall and at Belcoo RUC/PSNI barracks in Co Fermanagh against the visit of the Queen of England to the Six Counties.  Also the people who placed a message of defiance on the Black Mountain in Belfast declaring, “Ériu is our Queen”. 

A protest entitled ‘Truth and Justice – not Jubilation’ attracted up to 1,000 people who marched from the Falls Road to Belfast’s City Hall. These actions tell us that there still remains a “respectable minority” prepared to defy the Anglicisation of our country.

The normalisation process is all too evident in the 26 Counties also. On August 25 a ceremony was held in Ireland’s historic Glasnevin cemetery commemorating the infamous Black-and-Tans. The fact that this ‘ceremony’ was held in a cemetery, which contains some of the most illustrious of Ireland’s patriot dead merely compounds the insult.

This event, ostensibly organised by two retired members of the 26-County police, should be recognised for what it is, the latest in an incremental attempt to rewrite Irish history in order to normalise and justify Britain’s occupation of Ireland past and present. Indeed the leading national paper the Irish Times devoted hundreds of column inches – including an editorial in pushing the publicity for this event. In February 2010 a similar ceremony was held in Granard, Co Longford. Half of the town was burned by the Black-and-Tans in November 1920.

The strategy employed by those behind this policy begins by attempting to create an equivalence between the forces of the British Crown and the Republican Movement, from this the balance is titled to the point where the forces of British occupation and their actions are legitimised, while those of the Independence Movement are de-legitimised.

This is demonstrated in the letter sent by the organisers to the Irish Times on August 22 described the purpose of the commemoration as being: “…to commemorate the over-500 other police officers who were murdered by the IRA during and after the War of Independence and in 1916”. Now we get to the heart of the matter. The use of the term “murder” immediately suggests that a state of war did not exist between Ireland and the British State and consequently the actions of the Irish Republican Army were criminal acts. This is to turn history on its head, which of course is the intention of those behind this campaign.

There is no equivalence between the Independence Movement and the RIC. The RIC, described by the BBC history website as “the eyes and ears of Dublin Castle”, was an instrument of British repression in Ireland which acted in defiance of the Irish people’s historic right to national self-determination whilst the Independence Movement acted in accordance with, and in defence of, that right.

There cannot be equality in value between the oppressor and the oppressed following a war of national liberation. The organisers of the Glasnevin event want to stigmatise the Irish side in 1916-22 as ‘murderers’. That is far beyond equivalence. This slavish commemoration, which the leading party in the 26-County Administration, Fine Gael, supported, is symptomatic of a state which has lost its way and is unsure of its identity. Does France commemorate the Vichy policemen or Norway its Quislings who collaborated with German occupation forces?

All of this contrasts with the treatment meted out by the 26-County State to many veterans of the struggle for Irish freedom between 1916 and 1921. In 1985 a veteran of the 1916 Rising, Dorothy McDowell was allowed to die in abject poverty having been refused admission to Dr Steven’s Hospital, while today the same State prepares to elevate the British forces which people like Dorothy McDowell fought against in the cause of Irish freedom. The Glasnevin ‘ceremony’ on August 25 according to media reports attracted only small and unorganised protest. A repeat of such events will be met with much more attention and much better organisation.

The march of the new economic and political imperialism of the troika, consisting of the EU/ECB and IMF, continues apace. Republican Sinn Féin played its part in the referendum campaign against the Austerity Treaty – as well as enduring the usual media blackout by RTÉ. As we pointed out during that campaign, the Austerity Treaty is the creation of the same political and financial elite who created the present economic collapse.

During the so-called boom the profits of the wealthy were privatised to ensure they would not be shared with society, now during the bust they socialise their losses, forcing people across the EU to pay for them. Political events in France, Holland and Greece indicate that people have had enough of this kind of lop-sided economics.

The voting patterns of the vote, which took place on May 31, tell us much about the polarisation of Irish society with the increasing divide between rich and poor. Those who have suffered most from the slash and burn economics of the political and financial elites recorded the highest percentage of No votes. Like millions of working people across Europe, working people in the 26 Counties have given out a strong signal of their determination to oppose the neo-liberal economic agenda that lies is at the heart of the entire EU project. EU power is based on the fear of the People not the will of the People.

Of course we have seen it all before during the referenda on the Lisbon and Nice treaties. On both occasions people were forced to vote again for treaties they had already rejected. The power elites of the EU are intent on grabbing even more power. In all of this they have willing collaborators in the political establishment of the 26-County State.

The system of finance capitalism driven by France and Germany created the economic collapse of the past four years, yet it is the working people of Ireland and Europe who are being asked to pay the price.

In a May Day address to the leadership of the Irish trade union movement we pointed out: “The orthodoxy of the political and economic elites both here in Ireland and within the EU is to rebuild the collapsed structure of finance capitalism rather than deal with the human cost of that collapse. The legacy for future generations will be an inability to educate the young, care for the sick and provide for the old, the very markers of a civilised society.”

It is time that the trade union leadership remembered that they owe their allegiance to the Irish working-class and not the hierarchy of the 26-County Labour Party. Social Justice Ireland highlights how the selective use of social and economic data by the Troika is leading to inaccurate analysis, which in turn is producing inappropriate policy recommendations for the 26 Counties.

Amongst the points made by Social Justice Ireland are:

Poverty in Ireland is rising despite Troika claims.

The vulnerable have not been protected despite ‘Troika’ claims.

Accurate analysis of data shows the richest 25% of the population have not been hardest hit despite ‘Troika’ claims to the contrary.

An example of this unacceptable process in practice can be seen in the analysis provided on poverty. This analysis states that poverty fell between 2006 and 2010.  What this statement hides is the fact that poverty fell in the period 2006-2008 but has been rising since then.

A report commissioned by the 26-County Department of Social Protection finds that 450,000 people in Ireland (10% of the population) were in food poverty in 2010. The households identified as being most vulnerable to food poverty are (i) households on low incomes, (ii) households with three or more children under 18, (iii) households where the head of the household is ill or disabled, (iv) lone parent households and (v) households headed by a person who is unemployed. The measure used takes three key “deprivation factors” into account:

- Not being able to afford a meal with meat, or a vegetarian equivalent, every second day.

- Not being able to afford a weekly roast dinner.

- Missing a meal over a two-week period, due to a lack of money.

The research shows that in 2010, 10% of people questioned for a CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions experienced at least one of these factors.

The coming years will see an increase in grass-roots opposition as we see with the various campaigns against the household charge, the septic tank charge, turf-cutting, health and education cuts. We applaud the leading role played by our own public representative Cllr Tomás Ó Curraoin, Contae na Gaillimhe and other Sinn Féin members in these campaigns.

The need for unity between urban and rural, employed and unemployed, young and old, the public and private sector has never been greater. People must set about the essential task of building a mass movement that is capable of acting as a vehicle for radical political, social and economic change. The way forward is not to resurrect a failed political and economic model but to begin anew.

A radical change in thinking is demanded creating real economic as well as political democracy. This means ensuring that the decisions which affect people and their communities, are made by them rather than unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels or elsewhere.

Our political and economic policies, ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA set out a blueprint for such a New Ireland.  We believe that our programme for a Federal Ireland, ÉIRE NUA, along with our social and economic policy SAOL NUA, provides the basis for just such a radical transformation leading to a New Ireland. Taking control of the levers of political and economic power and decision-making are vital if we are to bring about the type of revolutionary transformation that is required. This includes taking ownership of our natural resources.

We have only to look to South Africa to see what results from refusing to address economic as well as political inequality. It leaves us with the spectacle of an ANC government using apartheid-era laws to crush a miner’s strike. We extend our solidarity to the South African miners and salute the memory of their fallen comrades. They are part of the international fight against imperialism.

The excellent booklet Liquid Assets, launched by Dublin Shell-to-Sea in September, sets out the extent of natural gas and oil off the Irish coast and proposes a number of options by which these can be exploited in the interests of the Irish people – in contrast with the present set-up where our resources are being given away.

According to Shell-to-Sea: “International studies show that State ‘take’ in Ireland is among the lowest, roughly half the rate of countries with a similar economic approach.

“An industry report suggests the exchequer would earn as little as 7% of the revenue generated from the sale of the gas from an Irish field. In other words, Ireland (sic) effectively pays 25% of the exploration and development costs, but gains considerably less than 25% of the profits, despite owning the resource in the first place.”

Yet when challenged the 26-County Administration peddle the big lie that the cost of exploration prohibits any State involvement.

However Shell-to-Sea point out in Liquid Assets that “This is a false argument. In order to take a share in an oil or gas field discovered by a private company, the State would not need to have shared the risk involved in finding that field. The State can simply issue exploration licenses to private companies on the basis that when a discovery is made, the State will step in and take a percentage share in the ownership. These resources belong to Ireland.”  International best practice should be followed in utilising our natural resources.

Michael Burke, writing in The Guardian cites the example of Venezuela, which wrested back ownership of its oil industry from foreign multinationals: “Hugo Chávez’s victory marks him as one of the few leaders anywhere to be re-elected since the global economic crisis began.”

Venezuela has had very large oil revenues for decades, but only since his government took control of the industry, away from foreign multinationals and local oligarchs, has the wealth it creates been distributed among the population.

Unlike Ireland, and all the countries implementing “austerity”, poverty in Venezuela is declining, healthcare and education improving and the economy is growing. If Ireland is to benefit from an oil boom it needs to look to Chávez, not to Thatcher.

As Irish Republicans we too believe this is the only way forward in keeping with the principle of the “The right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland.” We salute the on-going fight in defence of Ireland’s natural resources being waged by the Shell-to-Sea campaign.

The announcement by 26-County Environment minister Phil Hogan of the decision to abolish town and borough councils in the 26 Counties marks yet a further power-grab by the Dublin based political elite. It marks a decisive shift in the balance of power between local communities and the Dublin administration.

The 26-County State, already one of the most highly centralised states in Europe according to Dr Jane Suiter of Dublin City University, has increased further the imbalance of power between the Dublin administration and the people. This move serves to exacerbate the relentless power-grab of the EU political elite at a national level. The cumulative effect is to place ever-increasing power in the hands of unaccountable political elites in Dublin and Brussels while disenfranchising people on the ground. 

Republican Sinn Féin identified this imbalance in power relations over 40 years ago and forecast that it would only worsen. Through ÉIRE NUA we put forward a credible alternative to what was then and is clearly now a dysfunctional political system.

The type of real decentralisation of decision making from national to provincial,

to local level as advocated by ÉIRE NUA has never been as relevant or as necessary as it is today. ÉIRE NUA would empower people in a tangible way, ensuring that they, and not an accountable elite made the political, social and economic decisions that directly affected them and their communities.

Buille mór don daonlathas agus don Ghaeltacht araon é deireadh a bheith curtha le toghcháin d’Údarás na Gaeltachta. In ÉIRE NUA ón tús thugamar tacaíocht don Ghaeltacht mar aonad féinrialaithe. Sna hOchtóidí, Nóchaidí agus chomh fada leis an gceann deireannach i 2005, ghlacamar páirt  sna toghcháin don Údarás.

Mar bharr ar an donas buille eile don Ghaeltacht ab ea críoch á chur le Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge agus gan aon rud fiúntach nó spreagúil a chur ina áit. Molaimid iarrachtaí na Scoileanna Gaeltachta curaclam cuí agus cur chuige fíorthacúil a aimsiú do na cainteoirí óga dúchais. Freisin, is cúis mhór díomá dúinn a laghad dul chun cinn atá déanta le Straitéis 20 Bliain an Rialtais ó dheas don Ghaeilge.

Earlier this year direct Údarás na Gaeltachta elections were abolished in what can only be described as a retrograde step. Since ÉIRE NUA first appeared we have always stood for maximum self-rule for the Irish-speaking areas. We have contested elections since Údarás elections began and condemn this shameful development. This anti-democratic move is also a huge blow against our Gaeltacht areas, which continue to find themselves under ever increasing English language pressure.

As further evidence of the marginalization of the Gaeltacht speakers, we view with extreme dismay the complete removal of the Gaeltacht Irish-speaking Families Scheme and its replacement with a woolly and non-inspirational set of leaflets for parents. The Scheme, while it had its faults, was universally accepted, provided motivation and was a very accurate barometer of the strength of the language.

In recent months the efforts being made by the Gaeltacht Schools to finally provide an appropriate curriculum and supports for young native speakers are very worthwhile of recognition. Meanwhile outside the Gaeltacht the silence of the 26-County Departments of the Gaeltacht and Education on the 20-year 26-County State Strategy on the language, almost three years old, is deafening.  

 Beginning next year with the centenaries of the foundation of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and the 1913 Lockout, the coming decade will be one in which we will mark some of the key events in our revolutionary history.

Other anniversaries including the landing of the arms off the Asgard in 1914 and Pearse’s oration at the grave of O’Donovan Rossa act as milestones on the road to the centenary of the Rising. The years after 2016 will bring the centenaries of the historic 1918 General Election – the last occasion in which the Irish people acted as a unit in a single vote on the question of Ireland’s right to national independence.

The Tan War, the British Government of Ireland Act of 1920 which led to the partition of Ireland, the Treaty of Surrender and the subsequent Civil War or Counter-Revolution. All will be reminders of where we have come from and how far we have still to travel.  In April we launched the build-up to 2016 and the centenary of the Rising with a very successful seminar entitled Who Fears to Speak of Easter Week?

Among the speakers was the historian Dr Ruan O’Donnell of Limerick University. However the coming decade is not merely a matter of historical memory, commemoration or inquiry. No, it is much more than that. This decade marks an escalation in what is a battle for hearts and minds. The build-up to the Centenary of the 1916 Rising is rapidly developing into a battle over not only how we view our past but also the vision we have for our future.

The speech by Stormont First Minster Peter Robinson marking the centenary of the signing of “Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant” in 1912 at the Head Quarters of the 26-County Department of Foreign Affairs at Iveagh House on March 29 is the first step in a campaign to dilute and sanitise the Centenary of the 1916 Rising. The political establishments in Stormont, Leinster House and Westminster have signalled their intention to suppress any meaningful commemoration of the 1916 Rising by burying it in a celebration of the imperialist carnage of the First World War.

The 1916 Proclamation and the so-called “Solemn League and Covenant” symbolise the fundamental difference in the vision for Ireland held by Irish Republicans as opposed to the forces of imperialism. The ‘Solemn League and Covenant” was written in the narrow, sectarian and patriarchal language of empire, while the 1916 Proclamation addresses itself to “Irishmen and Irishwomen” in the inclusive language of democracy, progress and human freedom.

Irish Republicans unapologetically declare that 1916 will remain unfinished business while “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland” continues to be denied by either the old imperialism of British occupation or the new imperialism of the EU and IMF. We should view the coming decade as an opportunity to infuse a new generation with the same idealism, principle and endeavour that moved a nation between 1913 and 1923.

The October edition of SAOIRSE addressed the ongoing attack on the integrity of Irish Republicanism from the myriad groups and gangs using that honoured name as a cover for their nefarious activities. It is something which bears repeating here: “A new threat has emerged in recent years and in many ways one which is potentially the most serious of all that Irish Republicanism has faced throughout its long history.

“The emergence of groupings styling themselves as ‘Republican’ but who in reality are merely using that noble title to mask their real purpose of extortion and racketeering. In some cases such groupings masquerade as anti-drugs activists, posing as ‘champions of the community’. These gangs are an insidious threat to the very survival of the Republican ideal.

“These pseudo-Republican groups seek to control their communities through fear. Posing as revolutionaries hides the grim reality that the only war they wage is not one of national liberation but instead a war on the youth of their own communities. The forcing of a father to present his son for a punishment shooting as happened in Derry is medieval and far removed from any ideal of progressive Republicanism.

“The drugs’ gangs who peddle their wares in communities throughout Ireland and across all classes are enemies of the Irish people. The community and political activists who oppose them deserve our full and active support. Irish Republicans are rightly proud of the part they played in groups such as Concerned Parents Against Drugs in the 1980s, and today it is vital that Irish Republicans continue to stand by their communities both urban and rural in opposing these dealers of death and social destruction.

“However the pseudo-Republican groupings that take money from the drug dealers are no less parasitical than the drug dealers themselves. In many ways they are worse in that they leech from the communities they purport to defend – in effect they are drug dealers by proxy with the added insult of sullying the noble name of Republicanism in doing so. “The activities of these pseudo-Republican gangs have the potential to eat away like a cancer at the very heart of Irish Republicanism, leaving in their wake an empty husk with neither relevance nor credibility.

“The duty to halt this slide lies with those who claim the title deeds of Republicanism.  We have a bounden duty to hold out against this hijacking of the Republican ideal; we must lead by example in ensuring that authentic Irish Republicanism continues to live in the hearts of the Irish people.” 

SAOIRSE also addressed itself to the threats posed directly to Republican Sinn Féin: “Over the past two years Republican Sinn Féin has been a direct target of such activity. A Limerick-led grouping has attempted to steal our identity and good name in order to cloak their criminal activities.

“This particular gang meet the criteria of the classic black operations or ‘black ops’ engaged in by State forces whereby a shadow grouping is set up which is a perversion of everything that the legitimate revolutionary movement represents. The purpose of these bogus groupings is to sow confusion, lower morale and discredit the genuine revolutionary movement.

”In the past, Republican Sinn Féin has been accused by its opponents of being ‘elitist’. I believe this is an accusation we should not be afraid of but indeed embrace. When it comes to ensuring our movement is a credible, motivated revolutionary political organisation to be described as elitist should be considered a badge of honour.” 

Irish Republicanism has always appealed to the highest and noblest instincts of young people. Today we should be no different and the bar we set for membership should be as high as that set by those who went before us.

Facing into another year it is right that we should be conscious of the challenges, and threats that face us but importantly we must also be aware of the opportunities that are there for us. We must work to increase our profile on the ground and in this regard we must step up our preparations for the 2014 local elections in the 26 Counties.

There is much work to be done and many battles to be fought on the political, the social and the economic front. As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising, Republican Sinn Féin’s place is in the vanguard of the struggle for a 32-County Federal Democratic Socialist Republic, a Republic worthy of the ideals set out in the Proclamation of Easter Week.

We are the true heirs to a proud and noble revolutionary tradition and we neither apologise nor bend to anyone in making that assertion. Indeed we should draw confidence for the tasks ahead by that very fact.

In the words of Roger Casement “We stand in goodly company and a right noble succession.”

Go raibh míle maith agaibh ar fad. Beannacht dílis Dé oraibh go léir

An Phoblacht Abú.