Picket in Support of POWs - Sept. 2nd, Dublin
A picket in support of the prisoners in Maghaberry Prison who are currently fighting for political status will be held at the GPO, Dublin on Saturday, September 2nd 2006 at 12:45pm.
Maghaberry POWs Hold Second 48-Hour Fast
Maghaberry POWs hold second 48-hour fast
Republican POWs in Maghaberry Gaol will embark upon another 48-hour fast at Midday on Thursday 31st August. The protesting prisoners have previously taken part in a 24-hour and a 48-hour fast.
The POWs in Portlaoise will also undertake a 24-hour fast in solidarity with their comrades in Maghaberry, and protests will also continue outside the gaols in support of the prisoners’ demand for full political status.
Republican Prisoners of War incarcerated in Maghaberry have been on protest since Monday 19th June.
|
The Price of Our Memory |
|
Speech given at the Annual H-Block Hunger Strike Commemoration, 25th anniversary, Bundoran, Dongeal |
|
Anthony McIntyre • 26 August 2006 |
|
While sorrowful it is a deep honour to speak here today. To the organisers I would like to convey my appreciation for their having bestowed that honour upon me. It is also to the credit of the organisers and a measure of their integrity that they have not reduced this venerable event to a political rally. Their willingness to offer this platform to people who do not share their political outlook is admirable. It is clear that the sacrifice of the hunger strikers is the primary motivating spirit that guides them. The dark spectre of political opportunism may have stalked Casement Park two weeks ago but it is banished from here today as we gather to pay true homage to our fallen comrades rather than use their imagery and exploit their memory to add wind to the sails of political careers. Today there are more than enough people claiming to be close friends of Bobby Sands. It is the price an icon of radical struggle pays. Some see only the celebrity dimension that is often generated by the life, works, or death of an incorruptible activist and tend to downplay the intense agony undergone by them and their families. While the hunger strikers never sought fame, perhaps the definition of a celebrity is apt for Bobby Sands in the current context if we accept the definition of a celebrity as someone who is known by many people he is glad he does not know. I recall once acquiring a certain cynicism upon learning of a book about the late guerrilla fighter Che Guevara. Its title was My Friend Che. These things never fail to strike me as exploitative. Consequently, I was surprised to find in yesterday’s Guardian that I too had joined the illustrious society of close friends of Bobby Sands. It was an honest mistake by the journalist who wrote the story. At the risk of depleting the membership of the society of friends, I was not one of Bobby’s bosom buddies. I didn’t know him well enough to acquire that status. Yet I am mindful of his own comment to Monsignor Denis Faul shortly before he died that man has no greater love than he who would lay down his life for his friends. On that basis we could all claim to be friends of Bobby and the other hunger strikers. They literally gave their lives for us and the republican philosophy that animated us. I take great pride from the fact that Bobby Sands, Frank Hughes, Patsy O’Hara and the other volunteers who died were comrades and that I was on the blanket protest with them. We were young men, who along with young women in Armagh prison, pitted our one weapon, endurance, against the vile might of a state that had massacred an unarmed civilian population on the streets of Derry and would not baulk at the thought of putting us to the sword. Blocks apart we were united, as all blanket men were, in our opposition to a British lie and the reassertion of a republican truth. They, not we, were the criminals. Yes, the H-Blocks were filled with criminal types. They all belonged to the Northern Ireland Prison Service who regularly beat republican political prisoners and inflicted a regime of deprivation upon us in a futile attempt to break the spirit. The British in 1981 demonstrated to the world the essence of their malign character. They give in at the end but they exacted a terrible price for it. Had they have delivered in March 1981 what they eventually conceded in October of the same year, there would have been no dead hunger strikers. But the vindictiveness of Britain is well known to Irish republicans. One lesson to be learned from that terrible time is that all the force of British violence could not defeat the moral power of a peaceful republican protest. The H-Block hunger strike carried out by the volunteers of the IRA and INLA was a defining moment in Irish republican history. It resonated globally and has led us here today to honour the memory of Raymond McCreesh, Kieran Doherty and the eight men who never again were to wear their own clothes but who broke the will of the British to persist in their demand that republicanism walk the face of this earth wearing the criminal mark of Cain. Kevin Lynch and his comrades ensured that never again would Britain be able to succeed in characterising resistance to its rule as the work of common criminals. There are some today who tell us that had Martin Hurson, Joe McDonnell and the hunger strikers survived they would most likely support the corrupt peace process and back the Provisional leadership in its stewardship of that process. Perhaps. But how can we tell? The simple truth is that we cannot. To designate positions and perspectives to people who gave no license for such designation is every bit as dishonest as the attempts by the British to assign criminal motivation to the same people. It is to take a liberty where none was granted. It is theft. It is to steal a sacrifice and put it in a place other than its rightful one. We can say absolutely nothing about where the hunger strikers would stand today. If we were of such a mind we could lie with statistics. We could infer that because some former hunger strikers stand ready to embrace the PSNI then those that died would, had they survived, do likewise. But which ones? Who amongst us would dare pick one of the ten dead men and insult him by saying with any certainty ‘yes - he would bust his gut today to support British peelers?’ To proclaim that the republican dead would endorse Sinn Fein the Peelers Party is not to tell any truth about men such as Michael Devine and Tom McElwee. It is to provide cover for those who cannot walk erect, head held high to the partitionist destination that they have now chosen. They want to take the hunger strikers with them, to lean on them, use them as a crutch. We don’t demand that they have the courage of the ten dead men. That comes to few. We simply ask that they have the honesty of the fallen. They would be better thought of. Perhaps, in a world governed by organised lying, methodical lying, where there are those who lie like the rest of us breathe, honesty is as rare as the courage of the hunger strikers. A fitting epitaph to be engraved on the headstones of those who would use the memory of the hunger strikers for their own scrofulous ends would be ‘here they are, lying still.’ The meaning would be clear to all. Yet there are some things we can say with absolute certainty about the men who died on hunger strike within the corridors of steel and concrete that were the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. And the expression of that certainty in no way exploits the sacrifices made but on the contrary honours each and every life and death experienced by our ten comrades. As has been said, to the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe only truth. When the men lost their lives they died in opposition to a reformed Stormont; they died in opposition to acceptance of the unionist veto dressed up in the language of the consent principle; they died in opposition to Leinster House; they died in opposition to a British police force enforcing the law of the British state in any part of Ireland. Whatever tradition inherits their legacy or lays claim to their suffering it is an absurdity to claim that such a tradition could be made up of all the component parts the hunger strikers died opposing. It is important that we continue to reassert what we believe to be the truth. We live in a world where many are more afraid of being isolated than they are of being wrong. Consequently, they take the easy option and are content to be wrong. Recently, former blanket man Richard O’Rawe, who I am pleased to say is standing with us here today, displayed enormous courage and went against the Provisional narrative of the hunger strike. To his credit being wrong was more repulsive to him than being isolated. He did the right thing, faced down the isolation and published the book Blanketmen. In it he levelled the charge that the lives of six of the hunger strikers could have been saved were it not for some elements in the republican leadership machinating and manipulating events to further their own ambitions. Despite the assaults on his character and integrity, Richard O’Rawe, wearing the tenacity that made him one of the Blanket men, persisted with his conviction. He withstood the whispers, the graffiti sprayers, the ostracism, the labelling of him as some sort of deviant who traded in his human decency for profit. What nonsense. Richard O’Rawe simply opted to bear witness. Given his knowledge of events he feels it is the least he could do. What else but to establish truth were the blanket protest and hunger strikes waged? The key questions asked by Richard O’Rawe remain unanswered. What did the offer made by the British through the Mountain climber constitute? Where are the comms relating to the Mountain climber? There has been a deathly silence on the part of some Provisional leaders in relation to these matters. There is only one place for a republican to be silent; in the barracks. But even some prominent Provisionals managed to fail in this respect. There is independent evidence to support the claims made by Richard O’Rawe in his book. That evidence has been made available to a small number of key leaders within the Irish Republican Socialist Movement who feel obligated to explore the claims out of respect to their fallen comrades and their grieving families. It has prompted that movement to publicly state that it wants the matter further investigated. Richard O’Rawe has faced accusations that his actions amount to launching a blasphemous assault on the most sacred cow within modern republicanism. The truth is that those making the accusations see in the hunger strikers a cash cow rather than a sacred one. And they are determined that it will graze in no field but their own. Blankets were being sold at the Casement Park political rally so that a corpulent crowd could march up the Falls Road and provoke the sarcasm of the press who lambasted it as resembling a Friar Tuck convention more than it did the austere era of the blanket protest and hunger strikes. The contrast between the easy corpulence of today and the hard emaciation of twenty five years ago was no more stark than it was on the Falls Road at that political rally. In a sense the imagery mirrored perfectly the ethical decay that has come to beset republicanism. The screws at least gave out the blankets for free. Our dead hunger strikers are sacred to us. They occupy hallowed ground within our minds. The commercialisation of their memory is a travesty. It is a crime against republican sensitivity and our own natural intellect. But nothing else can be expected. Experience is a good teacher and we know only too well what happens when republicanism falls prey to the Stick virus. It becomes ravished and mutates beyond all recognition. Cast our memories back to 1981, our most intense ideological and emotional year as Irish republicans. The people who today wish to transform the hunger strike into a profit making industry do not with their politics remotely resemble the republican spirit of that year. But they very much look like the Workers Party of 1981. Cathal Goulding, the one time Official IRA/Stick chief of staff, knew exactly how to strangle republicanism. The trick was to corrode it from within. Republicanism can withstand inordinate amounts of pressure from without. But it is always vulnerable to the false messiah, the leader who thinks we exist as playthings in his little dance of deceit. Such leaders prevail only where they go unchallenged. Today the energy and sacrifice of the hunger strikers is in the service of a political project which at the time of their deaths they opposed. There is no need to go into the detail of a political analysis to see where things have ended up. Small human stories allow us to instinctively and intuitively grasp what is going down better than any amount of political treatises. Who would have thought that when Brendan Hughes lay in a bed in a prison hospital leading the 1980 hunger strike, fellow blanket men would two decades later visit him in the Royal Victoria hospital where he lay on a hospital trolley because there were no available beds? The British Health minister at the time was a member of the Provisional Movement. It is in these little vignettes that we are able to see the collapse of the Provisional project, how little it actually achieved. And now it demands that Paisley be prime minister and that their own volunteers hand themselves over to a Diplock judge so that they may be jailed without political status for their role in the leadership-ordered kidnapping of Bobby Tohill. During the Blanket protest one of our favourite acts of defiance was staged when the governor came around to impose punishment on us for refusing to wear the prison garb or do prison work. We would scream in his face ‘up the Ra.’ Imagine had we shouted ‘up Paisley; jail the Ra.’ The governor would have recommended our immediate release as the quickest possible way to secure the defeat of the republican resistance. In 1981 the British inflicted a terrible crime on Irish people. They scarred us deeply and its pain pulsates as we reflect on the lives and deaths of the H-Block volunteers on the 25th anniversary of that momentous occasion. As we leave here today we would do well to remember the words of two Czech novelists. Vaclav Havel urged people to speak truth to power. Milan Kundera said that ‘the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.’ Let us memorise and never forget those who gave their everything; Allow the awesome power of republican memory to triumph over those who wish to forget what they inflicted and those who conveniently want us to forget what it was all about. As republicans who refused to wear the badge of criminality we will not commit the crime of forgetting. Always and everywhere, remember the hunger strikers. |
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 78)
Irish Republican Information Service (no.77)
August 20th, 1981 - Mickey Devine Dies
Died August 20th, 1981TWENTY-seven-year-old Micky Devine, from the Creggan in Derry city, was the third INLA Volunteer to join the H-Block hunger strike to the death.
Micky Devine took over as O/C of the INLA blanket men in March when the then O/C, Patsy O’Hara, joined the hunger strike but he retained this leadership post when he joined the hunger strike himself.
Known as ‘Red Micky’, his nickname stemmed from his ginger hair rather than his political complexion, although he was most definitely a republican socialist.
The story of Micky Devine is not one of a republican ’super-hero’ but of a typical Derry lad whose family suffered all of the ills of sectarian and class discrimination inflicted upon the Catholic working-class of that city: poor housing, unemployment and lack of opportunity.
Micky himself had a rough life.
His father died when Micky was a young lad; he found his mother dead when he was only a teenager; married young, his marriage ended in separation; he underwent four years of suffering ‘on the blanket’ in the H-Blocks; and, finally, the torture of hunger-strike.
Unusually for a young Derry nationalist, because of his family’s tragic history (unconnected with ‘the troubles’), Micky was not part of an extended family, and his only close relatives were his sister Margaret, seven years his elder, and now aged 34, and her husband, Frank McCauley, aged 36.
CAMP
Michael James Devine was born on May 26th, 1954 in the Springtown camp, on the outskirts of Derry city, a former American army base from the Second World War, which Micky himself described as "the slum to end all slums".
Hundreds of families - 99% (unemployed) Catholics, because of Derry corporation’s sectarian housing policy - lived, or rather existed, in huts, which were not kept in any decent state of repair by the corporation.
One of Micky’s earliest memories was of lying in a bed covered in old coats to keep the rain off the bed. His sister, Margaret, recalls that the huts were "okay" during the summer, but they leaked, and the rest of the year they were cold and damp.
Micky’s parents, Patrick and Elizabeth, both from Derry city, had got married in late 1945 shortly after the end of the Second World War, during which Patrick had served in the British merchant navy. He was a coalman by trade, but was unemployed for years.
At first Patrick and Elizabeth lived with the latter’s mother in Ardmore, a village near Derry, where Margaret was born in 1947. In early 1948 the family moved to Springtown where Micky was born in May 1954.
Although Springtown was meant to provide only temporary accommodation, official lethargy and sectarianism dictated that such inadequate housing was good enough for Catholics and it was not until the early ’sixties that the camp was closed.
BLOW
During the ‘fifties, the Creggan was built as a new Catholic ghetto, but it was 1960 before the Devines got their new home in Creggan, on the Circular Road. Micky had an unremarkable, but reasonably happy childhood. He went to Holy Child primary school in Creggan.
At the age of eleven Micky started at St. Joseph’s secondary school in Creggan, which he was to attend until he was fifteen.
But soon the first sad blow befell him. On Christmas eve 1965, when Micky was aged only eleven, his father fell ill; and six weeks later, in February 1966, his father, who was only in his forties, died of leukaemia.
Micky had been very close to his father and his premature death left Micky heartbroken.
Five months later, in July 1966, his sister Margaret left home to get married, whilst Micky remained in the Devines’ Circular Road home with his mother and granny.
At school Micky was an average pupil, and had no notable interests.
STONING
The first civil rights march in Derry took place on October 5th, 1968, when the sectarian RUC batoned several hundred protesters at Duke Street. Recalling that day, Micky, who was then only fourteen wrote:
"Like every other young person in Derry my whole way of thinking was tossed upside down by the events of October 5th, 1968. I didn’t even know there was a civil rights march. I saw it on television.
"But that night I was down the town smashing shop windows and stoning the RUC. Overnight I developed an intense hatred of the RUC. As a child I had always known not to talk to them, or to have anything to do with them, but this was different
"Within a month everyone was a political activist. I had never had a political thought in my life, but now we talked of nothing else. I was by no means politically aware but the speed of events gave me a quick education."
TENSION
After the infamous loyalist attack on civil rights marchers in nearby Burntollet, in January 1969, tension mounted in Derry through 1969 until the August 12th riots, when Orangemen - Apprentice Boys and the RUC - attacked the Bogside, meeting effective resistance, in the ‘Battle of the Bogside‘. On two occasions in 1969 Micky ended up at the wrong end of an RUC baton, and consequently in hospital.
That summer Micky left school. Always keen to improve himself, he got a job as a shop assistant and over the next three years worked his way up the local ladder: from Hill’s furniture store on the Strand Road, to Sloan’s store in Shipquay Street, and finally to Austin’s furniture store in the Diamond (and one can get no higher in Derry, as a shop assistant).
British troops had arrived in August 1969, in the wake of the ‘Battle of the Bogside’. ‘Free Derry’ was maintained more by agreement with the British army than by physical force, but of course there were barricades, and Micky was one of the volunteers manning them with a hurley.
INVOLVED
At that time, and during 1970 and 1971, Micky became involved in the civil rights movement, and with the local (uniquely militant) Labour Party and the Young Socialists.
The already strained relationship between British troops and the nationalist people of Derry steadily deteriorated - reinforced by news from elsewhere, especially Belfast - culminating with the shooting dead by the British army of two unarmed civilians, Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie, in July of 1971, and with internment in August. Micky, by this time seventeen years of age, and also politically maturing, had joined the ‘Officials’, also known as the ‘Sticks’.
He became a member of the James Connolly ‘Republican Club’ and then, shortly after internment, a member of the Derry Brigade of the ‘Official IRA’.
‘Free Derry’ had become known by that name after the successful defence of the Bog side in August 1969, but it really became ‘Free Derry’, in the form of concrete barricades etc., from internment day. Micky was amongst those armed volunteers who manned the barricades.
Typical of his selfless nature (another common characteristic of the hunger strikers), no task was too small for him.
He was ‘game’ to do any job, such as tidying up the office. Young men, naturally enough, wanted to stand out on the barricades with rifles: he did that too, but nothing was too menial for him, and he was always looking for jobs.
Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972, when British Paratroopers shot dead thirteen unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry (a fourteenth died later from wounds received), was a turning point for Micky. From then there was no turning back on his republican commitment and he gradually lost interest in his work, and he was to become a full-time political and military activist.
TRAUMA
Micky experienced the trauma of Bloody Sunday at first hand. He was on that fateful march with his brother-in-law, Frank, who recalls: "When the shooting started we ran, like everybody else, and when it was over we saw all the bodies being lifted."
The slaughter confirmed to Micky that it was more than time to start shooting back. "How" he would ask, "can you sit back and watch while your own Derry men are shot down like dogs?"
Micky had written: "I will never forget standing in the Creggan chapel staring at the brown wooden boxes. We mourned, and Ireland mourned with us.
"That sight more than anything convinced me that there will never be peace in Ireland while Britain remains. When I looked at those coffins I developed a commitment to the republican cause that I have never lost."
From around this time, until May when the ‘Official IRA’ leadership declared a unilateral ceasefire (unpopular with their Derry Volunteers), Micky was involved not only in defensive operations but in various gun attacks against British troops.
Micky’s commitment and courage had shone through, but no more so than in the case of scores of other Derry youths, flung into adulthood and warfare by a British army of occupation.
TRAGIC
In September, 1972, came the second tragic loss in Micky’s family life. He came home one day to find his mother dead on the settee with his granny unsuccessfully trying to revive her.
His mother had died of a brain tumour, totally unexpectedly, at the age of forty-five. Doctors said it had taken her just three minutes to die. Micky, then aged eighteen, suffered a tremendous shock from this blow, and it took him many months to come to terms with his grief.
Through 1973, Micky remained connected with the ‘Sticks’, although increasingly disillusioned by their openly reformist path. He came to refer to the ‘Sticks’ as "fireside republicans", and was highly critical of them for not being active enough.
Towards the end of that year, Micky, then aged nineteen, got married. His wife, Margaret, was only seventeen. They lived in Ranmore Drive in Creggan and had two children: Michael, now aged seven and Louise, now aged five.
Micky and his wife had since separated.
In late 1974, virtually all the ‘Sticks’ in Derry, including Micky, joined the newly formed IRSP, as did some who had dropped out over the years. And Micky necessarily became a founder member of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army), formed to defend the IRSP from murderous attacks by their former comrades in the sticks.
In early 1975, Micky became a founder member of the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) formed for offensive operational purposes out of the PLA.
The months ahead were bad times for the IRSP, relatively isolated, and to suffer a strength-sapping split when Bernadette McAliskey left, taking with her a number of activists who formed the ISP (Independent Socialist Party), since deceased.
They were also difficult months for the fledgling INLA, suffering from a crippling lack of weaponry and funds. Weakness which led them into raids for both as their primary actions, and rendered them almost unable to operate against the Brits.
Micky was eventually arrested on the Creggan. In the evening of September 20th, 1976, after an arms raid earlier that day on a private weaponry, in Lifford, County Donegal, from which the INLA commandeered several rifles and shotguns, and three thousand rounds of ammunition.
ARRESTED
Micky was arrested with Desmond Walmsley from Shantallow, and John Cassidy from Rosemount. Along on the operation, though never convicted for it, was the late Patsy O’Hara, with whom Micky used to knock around as a friend and comrade.
Micky was held and interrogated for three days in Derry’s Stand Road barracks, before being transported in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast where he spent nine months on remand.
He was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment on June 20th, 1977, and immediately embarked on the blanket protest. He was in H5-Block until March of this year when the hunger strike began and when the ‘no-wash, no slop-out’ protest ended, whereupon he was moved with others in his wing to H6-Block.
Like others incarcerated within the H-Blocks, suffering daily abuse and inhuman and degrading treatment, Micky realised - soon after he joined the blanket protest - that eventually it would come to a hunger strike, and, for him, the sooner the better. He was determined that when that ultimate step was reached he would be among those to hunger strike.
SEVENTH
On Sunday, June 21st, this year, he completed his fourth year on the blanket, and the following day he joined Joe McDonnell, Kieran Doherty, Kevin Lynch, Martin Hurson, Thomas McElwee and Paddy Quinn on hunger strike.
He became the seventh man in a weekly build-up from a four-strong hunger strike team to eight-strong. He was moved to the prison hospital on Wednesday, July 15th, his twenty fourth day on hunger strike.
Mickey Devine laying in state, with INLA honour guard.
With the 50 % remission available to conforming prisoners, Micky would have been due out of jail next September.
As it was, because of his principled republican rejection of the criminal tag he chose to fight and face death.
Micky died at 7.50 am on Thursday, August 201h, as nationalist voters in Fermanagh/South Tyrone were beginning to make their way to the polling booths to elect Owen Carron, a member of parliament for the constituency, in a demonstration - for the second time in less than five months - of their support for the prisoners’ demands.
Mickey Devine funeral cortege makes way through Derry.
Mickey Devine
R.I.P.
RPAG Stage Sucessful Rally in Lurgan/Prison Struggle Same as 1981 Death Sacrifice
RPAG STAGE VERY SUCCESSFUL RALLY IN LURGAN
In spite of a large RUC presence a very large crowd turned out to support the five demands of the Republican POWs currently on protest in Maghaberry Gaol. The protest – organised by the Republican Prisoners’ Action Group (RPAG) – took place in the Edward Street area of Lurgan, County Armagh, at 2p.m. on Saturday, 19th August. The weekend also marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Mickey Devine on Hunger Strike in 1981.
A white-line picket took place on Edward Street, followed by a rally nearby. A former Independent Councillor for Fermanagh, Tony McPhillips, chaired the proceedings. He introduced Mrs. McKenna – the mother of one of the protesting prisoners from the Lurgan area – who read a statement on behalf of the POWs. Mr. McPhillips then introduced lifelong Republican Des Long from Limerick, who was the main speaker for the occasion.
Mr. Long branded the Provos "liars and hypocrites" for signing away political status under the terms of the Stormont Agreement of 1998, and seeking to criminalise the struggle for Irish freedom. He also emphasised the continuity of the prison struggle from 1981 to the present day, adding that, unfortunately, whilst English rule continues in Ireland there will continue to be prisoners. Political status remained a right and was never a privilege, said Mr. Long.
Tony McPhillips concluded by saying that "those who do not support the prisoners do not support Republicanism and they should be treated like the traitors that they are."
The proceedings closed with Brendan Magill of Lurgan singing the National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.
The British colonial police harassed many of the protesters that had turned out for the event. A car was stopped by an unmarked RUC vehicle in the Church Place area of Lurgan shortly before the protest was due to begin, holding the driver for approximately 20 minutes and asking how concerned people knew him. A minibus returning from the parade was also stopped under the Road Traffic Order, with the occupants subsequently being questioned under Britain’s so-called "Terrorism Act". Backup units from the RUC’s DMSU (Divisional Mobile Support Unit) also arrived on the scene.
The RPAG will not be swayed by this harassment, however, and will continue to highlight the plight of the Republican POWs in Maghaberry Gaol.
PRISON STRUGGLE SAME AS 1981 DEATH SACRIFICE SAYS RSF
The same struggle as the 1981 hunger strikes is now being waged in jails throughout the 32-Counties, a member of Republican Sinn Féin said today.
Limerick Republican Des Long said that the failed Stormont Agreement is responsible for the current plight of Republican prisoners who are being criminalised by the political Administrations in Dublin, Belfast and London.
Speaking at a Republican prisoners’ support rally in Lurgan, County Armagh, on Saturday 19th August, Mr. Long said that the current crisis in Maghaberry prison could easily be resolved by the granting of political status.
"It gives the lie to all those who say that there is no Republican resistance to British rule in Ireland," said Mr. Long.
"In every struggle for national liberation it is recognised that the actions of the resistance arise out of the political situation and in Ireland it is no different.
"The sad fact is that ten men died on hunger strike to establish and enshrine the principle of political status and as a member of the National H-Block Committee at the time I have no hesitation in saying that today the same struggle is being waged by true Republicans who are incarcerated in jail.
"It is even more tragic for the families of the men who died on hunger strike to realise that their noble sacrifice was sold out during the negotiations for the failed Stormont Agreement – sold out by a discredited and disgraced Provisional leadership who embraced and emboldened British rule in Ireland.
"It gives me no pleasure to say this but in the eyes of the Provisional leadership; in the eyes of their political masters in London and Dublin, the men in prison today are regarded as criminals and they are being treated as criminals – however we as true Republicans must never tolerate this treatment and above all we must never accept that true Republican prisoners are criminals – they are resisting British rule in Ireland – and we are proud of them – because like us they know that the failed Stormont Agreement can never bring a real and lasting peace to Ireland.
"It is despicable that former comrades in the Provos are to the forefront of attempts to criminalise these men. It is even more disgusting that the Provos continue to condemn the continued resistance to British rule.
"Calling us ‘micro-groups without support’ may be pleasing their British masters, but the Provos cannot crush the age old aspiration to national self-determination. Just because they have sold out and taken the Queen’s Shilling does not end the struggle for Irish unity!
"The principled actions of the Republican prisoners are aimed at ensuring that they are not treated as criminals – and their demands are in line with the accepted status of political prisoners throughout the world. There are five demands and these five demands will be met – or else there will be a return to the dark days of the 1980’s when Republicans made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of political status:
RIGHT TO FREE ASSOCIATION
END TO CONTROLLED MOVEMENT
RIGHT TO FULL TIME EDUCATION
SEPARATE VISITING FACILITY
RIGHT TO ORGANISE THEIR OWN LANDINGS
The facts:
Thirty-eight Republican Prisoners currently imprisoned in Maghaberry Gaol.
"Controlled movement" is imposed on Republican landings with only three prisoners permitted out of their cells on the landing at any one time with each prisoner accompanied by two prison officers. Free Association on landings completely removed.
Legislation introduced by the British government following the Stormont Agreement removed the right of Republican prisoners to organise themselves on their own landings and removed the right of Republican prisoners to spend their time in prison constructively.
Prisoners made to choose between daily exercise or education. Prisoners denied educational facilities to enable them to organise their own education.
Easter Lilies banned in the prison. Other Republican handicrafts confiscated and destroyed by prison officers.
RUC/PSNI approval required before prisoners permitted on Republican landing.
Republican prisoners’ parole entitlement has been reduced to half that of other prisoners.
Denial of compassionate parole for family and religious occasions. Parole for funerals of immediate family members often restricted to six hours or less.
Constant use of strip-searching to humiliate prisoners contrary to international law. One prisoner received 31 strip-searches and 1,135 rub-down searches in a six-month period.
Prisoners locked in their cells alternately for 21/23 hours per day.
Abuse of the sniffer dogs in an attempt to criminalise political prisoners.
Families and prisoners are wrongly accused of smuggling drugs into the prison. Families are forced to have closed family visits which take place through Perspex screen while prisoners returning from parole are placed in solitary confinement for 48 hours.
Family visitors exposed to Loyalist visitors while visiting prison. Prisoners exposed to Loyalists going to and from legal visits.
The power of the Governor to punish a prisoner by taking away remission was reintroduced specifically for Republican prisoners after it was banned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2002.
Access to a doctor available only once a week.
Interference with correspondence.
Irish language and cultural items including handicrafts made relating to hunger strikes confiscated or destroyed by prison officers.
POLITICAL STATUS IS A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE.
ENDS
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 76)
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 76)
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 16 Lúnasa / August 2006
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
Irish Republican Information Service
THE body styling itself ‘Limerick Republican Information Service’ is not connected with the Irish Republican Information Service (IRIS), 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, email saoirse@iol.ie and has not been authorised either by IRIS or by the body that sponsors IRIS, Republican Sinn Fein. Therefore it is totally unauthorised and should be regarded as such.
In this issue:
1. Family targeted in petrol attack
2. RUC attacked in Belfast
3. Trouble at internment anniversary
4. Apprentice Boys held their largest parade of the year
5. Picket in support of Maghaberry prisoners to take place in Lurgan
6. Republican prisoners snubbed by Provos
7. Diplock smokescreen equally repressive
8. Roger Casement remembered in Murlough and Dublin
9. Mooncoin honours the hunger strikers
10. Republican martyrs remembered in Dundalk
11. Families flee in latest UDA feud
12. Rossport protesters end walk in Dublin
13. Dispute over plot sign at baby grave
14. Nine held for protests at US arms components factory
15. Miami Five appeal denied
1. FAMILY TARGETED IN PETROL ATTACK
A FAMILY of three in Ballymena, Co Antrim escaped injury after being targeted in a petrol bomb attack in the early hours of August 6. The living room of the house in Ballyloughlan Park was extensively damaged by fire in the attack. The rest of the house was smoke-damaged. The three occupants suffered shock.
2. RUC ATTACKED IN BELFAST
THE RUC/PSNI were attacked with petrol bombs and other missiles during disturbances in west Belfast on August 10. Three petrol bombs were thrown at British colonial police vehicles on the Springfield Road, close to the Ballymurphy estate. One of the vehicles was damaged by stone-throwers in the same area about an hour later. Stones and bottles were also thrown at officers in a third attack. There were no reports of any injuries or arrests. The RUC/PSNI were also pelted with bricks, bottles and other missiles, but there were no injuries or arrests.
3. TROUBLE AT INTERNMENT ANNIVERSARY
ON August 8 serious trouble erupted between nationalists and loyalists in Magherafelt following a bonfire marking the anniversary of the introduction of internment.
The trouble broke out when missiles were thrown at the RUC/PSNI at a nationalist bonfire in the Sperrin Drive area of the Co Derry town.
Houses at Leckagh Walk, Leckagh Drive and Sperrin Drive were damaged by missiles, including petrol bombs and golf balls. A lamp-post was also shaken out of its foundations at Sperrin Drive.
A 33-year-old man suffered a head injury when he was struck with an iron bar after chasing a youth who had thrown a petrol bomb at a house in Greenvale Park.
Local people said a group of loyalists came from a nearby interface area to the nationalist bonfire with Union and ‘Ulster" flags and that they had burned an Irish Tricolour.
4. APPRENTICE BOYS HELD THEIR LARGEST PARADE OF THE YEAR
DOZENS of petrol bombs were thrown at the British colonial police during a night of disturbances in Derry on August 11 and into the early hours of August 12.
Two stolen cars, one of which was hijacked, were also burnt out at Free Derry Corner in the Bogside area. During the disturbances in the city, about 50 petrol bombs were thrown.
The main Apprentice Boys parade passed through the centre of Derry on August 12.
A petrol bomb was thrown at police in Fahan Street, stone-throwing took place at Butcher Gate, and petrol bombs were found in the Fahan Street area.
Six people were arrested by the RUC/PSNI for protesting as up to 10,000 members of the Apprentice Boys and 130 bands took part.
Later there were three arrests for riotous behaviour and a petrol bomb missed a tour bus of Italian visitors.
5. PICKET IN SUPPORT OF MAGHABERRY PRISONERS TO TAKE PLACE IN LURGANA WHITE-line picket for political status will take place in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, on Saturday, 19th August. Those attending the picket, organised by the Republican Prisoners’ Action Group, are asked to assemble at Edward Street in Lurgan at 2p.m.
Following the picket, speakers will outline the conditions faced by Republican POWs currently on protest in Maghaberry Gaol. The main speaker will be Des Long of Limerick.
6. REPUBLICAN PRISONERS SNUBBED BY PROVOS
The organisers of the August 13 Hunger Strike Commemoration at Casement Park in Belfast snubbed the prisoners currently in Maghaberry jail and their families.
The Belfast committee of the RPAG approached the organising committee earlier this week with a statement setting out the conditions of Republican prisoners in Maghaberry. The organisers confirmed on the morning of the event that the statement could be read, but refused to let the mother of the prisoner read it herself. Despite the promises when it came to the event that afternoon no statement was read out.
Geraldine Taylor of Republican Sinn Fein said:
"The prisoners and the families are outraged at how they have been treated. The families have shown solidarity with the families of the Hunger Strikers and believe that they have much in common. However the sacrifice of today’s prisoners’ and their families has been virtually ignored by those organising this event."
7. DIPLOCK SMOKESCREEN EQUALLY REPRESSIVE
THE Brit Supremo for the Six Counties, Peter Hain, announced that Diplock courts are to continue despite past assurances that they would be abolished.
As well as retaining the right to try persons suspected of engaging in certain military or political activities, the English government also plans to prevent those afforded a jury trial from challenging the jury panel.
In a statement on August 14, Richard Walsh, Derry, Assistant PRO of Republican Sinn Féin said: "Clearly this is not about removing oppressive legislation but merely replacing it with other repressive legislation.
"Republicans are well used to the smokescreens used by the Brits when dealing with the Irish people throughout eight-hundred years of occupation. This move has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting the rights of Irish citizens and everything to do with their continued subjugation and updating British rule as envisaged by the Stormont Agreement."
8. ROGER CASEMENT REMEMBERED IN MURLOUGH AND DUBLIN
THE 90th anniversary of the death of Roger Casement was commemorated at Murlough Bay in County Antrim on August 6. Those present marched to the spot where Roger Casement had wished to be buried.
Amongst the wreaths laid was one on behalf of the Roger Casement Commemoration Committee, and another on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin.
Margaret Dobbin, Carnlough, read the 1916 Proclamation, and Frank McCarry, Ballycastle, appealed to those present to help raise funds for the replacement of the Casement monument overlooking Murlough Bay. Brendan Magill, Lurgan, called on Republicans to redouble their efforts to ensure the return of Casement’s body to his final resting place. He also brought attention to the plight of Republican POWs currently incarcerated in Maghaberry jail, adding that they were soldiers of the Irish Republic and not criminals. Others who would describe themselves as Republicans had sold political status down the river, he added.
Geraldine Taylor, Ard-Chomhairle, Belfast, appealed to those in the Glens of Antrim to work for the restoration of political status.
Aileen McCarry recited a decade of the Rosary as Gaeilge.
The proceedings concluded with the playing of Amhrán na bhFiann by a piper from the Glens of Antrim band.
On August 5 Republican Sinn Féin held a commemoration in honour of the 90th anniversary of the execution of Roger Casement at his birthplace in Sandycove, Co Dublin. The parade assembled at the carpark in Glasthule, Dún Laoghaire and marched the short distance to his birthplace where a wreath was laid and a short address was delivered by Cathleen Knowles McGuirk.
9. MOONCOIN HONOURS THE HUNGER STRIKERS
ON Saturday August 12 the Bobby Sands/Liam Lynch Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin held a very successful commemoration in Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny.
The event began with a march from the Technical School to the cemetery at 7.30pm. A piper and colour party led the parade, other colour parties were provided by the Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin and Na Fianna Éireann.
Republican Sinn Fein Vice President Des Dalton, Kildare, chaired proceedings. The ceremony took place at the grave of lifelong Republican Jo Foran.
Her son, Willie Foran, laid a wreath on behalf of the Republican Movement. Readings at the graveside included the Roll of Honour of the 22 Hunger Strikers who have died since 1917, the letter to the people of South Derry by Francis Hughes, the 1916 Proclamation. Des Dalton read a statement from the OC of the Republican Prisoners in Maghberry prison, Co Antrim.
The ceremonies continued with a minute’s silence for all who died for Irish Freedom followed by a lament by played by the piper and the dipping of flags.
The oration was delivered by the Cathaoirleach of the Sands/Lynch Cumann, Ger Foran, a grandson of Jo Foran, who in a stirring oration said that the hunger strikers died to rid Ireland of British rule. He said that the political status hard won by Bobby Sands and his comrades had been "sold away by the Provisionals".
In his closing remarks Des Dalton said that the most fitting tribute to the dead hunger strikers was to support the Republican Prisoner’s campaign for political status in Maghaberry prison. "We must show that these prisoners are not facing the British state alone, but do so shoulder to shoulder with all of the Irish people in defiance of foreign rule in our country", he said. The parade marched back to the Technical School where the evening ended with the playing of Amhráin na bFiann. A very successful function was held that night in Mooncoin.
10. REPUBLICAN MARTYRS REMEMBERED IN DUNDALK
ON August 13 a commemoration was held in Dundalk in memory of two great Dundalk Republican soldiers - Richard Goss, executed by a Free State firing squad on August 9, 1941 and Liam Gaughran, who took the fight to the British and was imprisoned on the Isle of Wight in the 1940s, where he contracted TB and was released to return to his home and died in August 1947.
The parade assembled at the Lisdoo Arms and led by a Republican colour party and a piper marched to St Patrick’s Cemetery where proceedings were chaired by Ruairí White, Ard Chomhairle, Republican Sinn Féin. A wreath was laid on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin by Niamh White and a decade of the Rosary recited as Gaeilge by Nuala Moore. Richard Walsh, Derry read a statement from the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry jail presently on protest.
The oration was given by Líta Ní Chathmhaoil, who said in the course of her address: "It is incumbent on all of us to highlight the plight of the Republican prisoners by pickets, protests, leafleting, contacting people of influence or any way possible. This is our duty and the prisoners rely on us for support.
"The root cause of the conflict in Ireland remains the presence of the British government and its forces here. Permanent peace will only come with final British disengagement from Ireland but the endeavour to get the entire body of nationalists to endorse and administer English rule here continues. Faithful Republicans believe with 1916 leader James Connolly that ‘the British government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland’. True Republicans insist that the British government and its occupation forces must give a date for disengagement and then the whole Irish people, acting as a unit, can determine how they will live together and govern themselves.
"There are still brave women and men who are willing to give their all so that future generations of Irishmen and women can live in a New Ireland where all sections of the population of the island may live in peace and harmony and we pledge them our full support. Republican soldiers like Richard Goss and Liam Gaughran and their comrades of the 1940s, who died in action, on hunger strike, by Free State firing squad, at the hands of a British hangman, both in Dublin and Belfast and as a result of the ill-treatment they received from their captors, as well as the martyrs of the current phase of the struggle, provide the inspiration for a new generation to take up the struggle and bring it to a successful conclusion."
11. FAMILIES FLEE IN LATEST UDA FEUD
AT least 12 families moved out of north Belfast in the latest loyalist feud. The dispute initially saw Alan McClean, who took over the UDA leadership in the north Belfast area after the Shoukri brothers were expelled from the organisation, leaving the area at around 5am on August 3.
He travelled to Dublin before catching a flight out of the country. He was followed by Yuk Shoukri - the older brother of Andre and Ihab - the boys’ mother and other supporters.
A Belfast newspaper also revealed that other families from the breakaway faction fled the Six Counties - mainly from the Westlands and Benview area.
Tensions between UDA rival groups in north Belfast remained high, following a stand-off between rival factions in recent weeks, when the UDA leadership held a public show of strength.
Last week about 200 people attended a meeting in the Ballysillan Leisure Centre to discuss a dispute within the ranks of the UDA. Members of the Ulster Political Research Group represented the views of the paramilitary group’s leadership.
They faced angry questions from the audience made up largely of women at Ballysillan Leisure Centre. A large crowd then left the meeting and stood outside the home of an interim brigadier.
12. ROSSPORT PROTESTERS END WALK IN DUBLIN
Opponents of the Corrib gas project completed their 300-kilometre "long walk" from Rossport, Co Mayo, to Dublin on August 12.
The group left Rossport in July to highlight issues relating to the 900 million euro Corrib gas project. They were joined at stages by some of the five men jailed in 2005 over their opposition to the Corrib onshore pipeline and were accompanied throughout by the Shell to sea campaign trailer.
Nine men and women walked the entire distance, while hundreds more joined in at different points to show support, according to organisers.
A group of about 200 people gathered to greet the group from Rossport. The trek took 12 days and group leader John Monaghan said they received "phenomenal support" from people they met along the way. "In Roscommon, we were called into a house for tea and biscuits and other people offered to put us up for the night," he said.
John Monaghan added that the Shell to Sea campaign was determined to continue. "We’re refusing to accept an onshore gas refinery. The project needs to be reconfigured. They have changed nothing so our stance needs to be the same."
Having been met by the Lord Mayor of Dublin at Kilmainham, the group continued on to the GPO on O’Connell Street where Mícheál Ó Seighin, one of the five men imprisoned for 94 days in 2005 for their opposition to the pipeline, gave a brief oration in English and Irish. "Justice will be ours for we will overcome. The people have spoken and risen," he said. "We are the people. We reclaim our country."
John Monaghan said that taking part in the walk had been a "privilege and a pleasure". They had walked 215 miles "every one was worth every step". The group travelled from the Erris peninsula through Mayo, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath and Kildare before reaching Dublin.
Inspiration for the walk had come from various sources, including Mahatma Gandhi and the eviction of the Davitt family in Straide, Co Mayo, in the 1850s.
Shell E&P is intending to continue working at the Bellanaboy gas terminal in September before reaching any agreement on a modified route for the controversial pipeline. The Shell to Sea campaign intends to maintain its pickets at the terminal site.
13. DISPUTE OVER PLOT SIGN AT BABY GRAVE
The owner of land where babies are buried was criticised on August 13 for not allowing a memorial on the site.
Historian Joe McGowan spoke at the unveiling of a monument commemorating hundreds of babies buried in secret unmarked graves on Hugh Tunney’s Classiebawn Castle estate at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo.
The memorial was erected on a road outside the estate because, Joe McGowan claimed, Hugh Tunney would not allow it to be placed on the actual burial site.
Joe McGowan, chairperson of a committee which campaigned for the memorial, told a crowd of about 100: "In time to come people may ask why the stone is on the side of the road rather than on the graveyard itself… Our hurt is understandable, but maybe Hugh Tunney is more to be pitied than blamed. He could be part of the community here with us today."
In recent years Hugh Tunney has been in dispute with local people and the planning department of Sligo County Council over work on sand dunes, the felling of trees and the blocking of rights of way.
Hundreds of similar sites around the country contain the remains of unbaptised infants and still-born babies as a result of the Catholic Church’s refusal to allow their burial on consecrated ground. Because a stigma was attached to the deaths, the bodies were often buried secretly and in darkness. Joe McGowan said that this practise continued in some areas until 1963, when the Catholic Church changed its teaching on the matter.
Hugh Tunney failed to respond to queries left on his voicemail about the dispute.
14. NINE HELD FOR PROTESTS AT US ARMS COMPONENTS FACTORY
Nine local men appeared before the British magistrate’s court in Derry on August 10 on charges relating to an anti-war protest at the US-owned Raytheon guided systems plant in the Springtown area of the city on August 9.
The nine aged, from 27 to 63, are jointly charged with unlawful assembly and with "aggravated burglary" with a crowbar with intent to cause "unlawful damage."
They were remanded in custody to appear before the same court via a video link on September 7. Defence solicitors told resident magistrate Barney McElholm that bail applications would be made in the Belfast High Court.
The nine are: journalist Éamon McCann (63), Westland Avenue; Sean Heaton (34), Beechwood Avenue; Eamon O’Donnell, Campion Court; Colm Bryce (40), Westland Avenue; Patrick McDaid (36), Malbouragh Street; Kieran Gallagher (40), the Craft Village; Michael Gallagher (27), Beechwood Avenue; Gary Donnelly (35), Kildrum Gardens; and James Kelly (45), Kilar Court.
As the men arrived at court about 25 supporters some of them carrying anti-war placards, chanted "stopping war crimes is no crime".
The court was told that in reply to the charge Éamon McCann said: "You look at the news coming in from Lebanon and you have to be doing something." Colm Bryce replied when charged: "I would just like to say I was engaged in a legitimate peaceful protest designed to draw attention to Raytheon and to the war crimes in the Middle East."
Michael Gallagher said: "I stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of Lebanon and Palestine who Raytheon have some sort of responsibility to share in their murders." Gary Donnelly said: "My action on the night was a direct response to the shameful presence of Raytheon in Derry. They are currently responsible for the mass deaths of men, women and children in Palestine and Lebanon."
The nine, all members of the Derry Anti-War Coalition were arrested after they entered the Raytheon plant in the city’s Ulster Science and Technology Park to protest against the US-owned firm’s involvement in the Middle East conflict.
They forced their way in just after 8am on August 9 and were arrested and removed eight hours later following an operation involving 80 members of the RUC\PSNI.
About an hour after the takeover, dozens of members of the British colonial police cordoned off the building. There then followed a stand-off.
The protestors said they were refusing to leave the building until Raytheon, which makes software used in guided missiles promised to close its premises in Derry.
15. MIAMI FIVE APPEAL DENIED
THE United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeal has, on a 10-2 vote, upheld the Miami District Court’s denial of a change of venue motion thereby overruling the decision of an earlier 11th Circuit Panel which granted them a new trial on 2-1 vote.
Free the Miami Five Campaign is naturally disappointed at the outcome and said in a statement that the decision is, perhaps, indicative of the degree of erosion of the constitutional separation of powers and the fundamental principals of justice in the USA at this point in its history.
The five are innocent, they did not receive a fair trial and their incarceration is an insult to natural justice. They are now, more than ever before, entitled to be called "political prisoners" of the USA. The struggle for their release will continue.
"This is not the end of the case," stressed US attorney Leonard Weinglass, one of the defence lawyers of the five Cubans held in US jails during a teleconference to comment on the decision of the Federal Court of Appeals in Atlanta that overturned the ruling issued exactly a year before by a three judge panel of that same court. At that time, the judges unanimously acknowledged the hostile atmosphere that prevailed in Miami during the trial of the Cuban Five, ordered a retrial and revoked their sentences.
During the press conference Weinglass stated that there are 9 additional issues pending before the Court which, alongside the venue issue, were argued before the three judge panel. Weinglass said the six lawyer defence team will meet to discuss the case: "If we decide to go to the Supreme Court, we will have 90 days to improve on our appeal request. Then the government (the prosecution) can respond or not, and then we would have to wait for the decision of the court".
"If we decide not to go to the Supreme Court, then the case would return to the three judge panel, and we would have to hear from them to see how we should further proceed with the other nine issues," said Weinglass. "There is a long way to go," he added and continued: "We had the impression, just like the dissenting judges, that the majority totally overlooked the coercive atmosphere that exists and has existed for years in Miami against any person considered to be associated with the government of Cuba. And that was the climate that interfered and denied the defendants a fair trial."
Bruce Nestor, former director of the National Lawyers Guild, confirmed that the latest decision does not bring the appeals to an end: "This ruling not only denies justice to the Five, it also has also very profound implications for anybody seeking a fair trial within the current political climate in the United States," he said.
Nestor added: "I think this decision grants the government immense power to raise politically motivated causes and then find a venue where the community prejudice and attitude will ultimately favor them in the trial, even though evidence does not confirm a crime."
The Coordinator of the US National Committee to Free the Five, Gloria La Riva, reiterated that on September 23 representatives from some 250 organizations will stage a march from the Justice Department to the White House in Washington, to demand the release of the five men.
THE MIAMI FIVE
Five Cubans who were trying to stop Miami based terrorist groups from carrying out violent actions against the people of Cuba. They were found guilty of charges ranging from murder to espionage by a court in Miami which relied on the evidence of convicted terrorists. All are innocent of the charges brought against them. Extensive intimidation of jurists by these same terrorists was a feature of the trial. They are currently appealing their convictions.
The Miami Five:
Gerardo Hernandez
Antonio Guerrero
Ramon Labanino
Fernando Gonzalez
Rene Gonzalez
email: freemiami5@eircom.net
WEB SITE: freethefive.org
ENDS
|
Hunger Strike Anniversary
|
|
|
|
|
|
News of the protest against criminalization, by Republican political prisoners at Maghaberry, will strike a chord deep within the hearts and memories of many nationalists and Republicans. Twenty-five years ago, ten Irish patriots gave their lives in an unequal battle, resisting a British plan to brand them and their country’s struggle against British rule as criminal. Now, even as we pay homage to the memory of the hunger strikers of 1981, the British appear to be marking the anniversary in their own peculiar fashion, by attempting the same criminalization policy which triggered so much suffering a quarter century ago. Such measures will have undeniable implications for the prisoners, their families, the British government and for those nationalist political parties which have endorsed the Stormont deal.
SPECIAL CATEGORY
The importance of criminalization is perhaps best illustrated by the brutal measures undertaken by the British to achieve the objective.
Following internment on August 9, 1971, the British proclaimed that Irish suspects held without charge, trial or legal rights were mere criminals and not political prisoners. Republicans vowed to resist being so labeled. Legendary Belfast Irish Republican Army commander Billy McKee led a hunger strike against this policy after other protests were dismissed by the British.
Ultimately the British conceded the principle, if not the words. Special category status was created. Conditions associated with prisoner-of-war status, such as no criminal uniform, no prison work, association with other political prisoners, etc, were awarded. British policy makers however, would not let the issue be so concluded.
DAMAGE LIMITATION
Having failed in the six counties, the British attempted damage limitation by denying special category status to Republicans who dared to bring the struggle to England. Again Republican political prisoners refused to allow themselves and their cause to be branded as criminal.
After attempts at an honorable resolution were dismissed out of hand by the British and protests ignored, Republican prisoners including Marion Price, Dolours Price, Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly began a hunger strike. Two Mayo born Republican prisoners, Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg would join. Several weeks into the hunger strike the British began a brutal process of force-feeding that would last almost six months. Michael Gaughan would die on a hunger strike from the effects of force-feeding.
British medical staff would ultimately refuse to sanction force-feeding. Britain would concede and promise the Republican prisoners transfer to prisons in the north, and recognition as special category prisoners. Four of the Republican prisoners were repatriated. The British reneged on Frank Stagg and he would later die on hunger strike.
MISTAKE
British administrators concluded that special category was a severe setback. It became increasingly difficult for even the most stiff upper-lipped of British ministers to proclaim that there were no Republican political prisoners merely criminals in Long Kesh or Armagh, only to be challenged about the growing numbers of Irish prisoners recognized as special category.
Commissions were empanelled and a strategy contrived. British ministers announced new initiatives heralding a new era of justice beginning with the end of internment. Meanwhile the British devised Diplock courts and constructed H-blocks. Behind the facade of justice and rights the British devised a new strategy to label Irish political prisoners as criminals, and with them Ireland’s long struggle against British rule.
BLANKET
An artificial date of March 1, 1976 was designated. Those jailed for actions taking place on or before February 28, 1976 would be recognized as special category prisoners, not wear a criminal uniform and instead, granted all of the conditions of political status. Those engaging in the very same actions as part of the same struggle after that date, were to be branded as criminals. They would wear criminal uniforms and be confined in the H-blocks, as part of the public acceptance of their new status as criminals. Kieran Nugent became the first Republican prisoner handed a criminal uniform. He shouted back that his British jailers would have to nail it to his back in order to force him to wear it. Alone, he tied a blanket around himself and resisted every attempt to bully, beat and break him into accepting the garb of a criminal, and of course paid a terrible psychological and physical price.
Hundreds of "blanketmen" would be held in Long Kesh. The British tried beatings, brutal searches, intimidation and loss of remission in order to force a criminal uniform and criminalization upon them. A steadily escalating campaign to break them and the women prisoners in Armagh was resisted by an escalating protest campaign by Republican prisoners. Massive support for the H-Block-Armagh Committee was provided by Churchmen, politicians, human rights activists and individuals who did not endorse the armed campaigns of the IRA or INLA, but recognized that Republican prisoners were jailed for actions which were politically motivated and undertaken because of British rule in the north.
All attempts at honorable resolution were rejected by the British. Ten Irish Republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands MP would ultimately give their lives on hunger strike rather than betray their struggle by accepting criminalization. Thatcher was beaten albeit at a terrible price. The world recognized that criminals do not die such deaths for the freedom of their country.
MAGHABERRY
It is remarkable how little British strategy and tactics have changed in the last quarter century. The Stormont Deal was heralded by them as a new era. It is being used much like March 1, 1976 as a new artificial date to finally impose criminalization on Irish Republican political prisoners. A criminal uniform would be too obvious. Instead the means of criminalizing Republican prisoners is to force them into cells alongside and among criminals, without segregation amongst political prisoners. An early protest won segregation. The British then contrived to make the block for political prisoners a virtual punishment block. Those Republican prisoners who demanded segregation would be locked up for 21 or 22 hours daily, systemically strip-searched, brutalized, threatened and denied conditions and facilities available to criminals. The aim of the British is to break these prisoners into accepting places on the criminal wing.
Republican prisoners are protesting. Will the British escalate by further beatings and brutality? Is this a British attempt to finally achieve Republican submission to the very same British strategy of criminalization?
IMPLICATIONS
There are crucial political implications. For Republican political prisoners there is a challenge to endure and resist British criminalization. There is also a challenge to them and to their leaders, to be pragmatic in building a strategy and campaign which can unite Republicans and defeat the British.
If the nature of British rule has truly changed, why do British administrators seek to reimpose criminalization upon Republicans? Do the British wish to persist in a strategy which risks inspiring resistance and also exposing their rule in Ireland as one that still inflicts oppression and injustice upon Irish political prisoners?
Does the wider nationalist and Republican community, wish to endorse a constabulary which makes them complicit in a British strategy of criminalization? Are not Republican political prisoners entitled to support, from quarters who may disagree with the prisoners on the Stormont deal but recognize that the same moral grounds which justified the H-Block-Armagh support still apply?
Twenty-five years later, as we pay homage to the memory of the hunger strikers of 1981, surely we must not betray the very principle for which they suffered and sacrificed so much.
|
Vigil in Support of Republican Prisoners and the Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples
