Irish Republican Info Svc #201 6/17/97 


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 Irish Republican Information Service, No. 201
 Teach Daithi O Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
 Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: 872 9757
 e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie


 Republican Sinn Fein homepage: http://indigo.ie/~saoirse
 View our SAOIRSE homepage: http://iol.ie/~saoirse
 'Release Josephine Hayden' web page: http://iol.ie/~saoirse/hayden 

In this issue:

 1. Blair's choice: accept internal settlement or face repression
 2. Portlaoise prisoners Bodenstown message
 3. Continuity IRA statement criticises attempt to 'intimidate Republicans'
 4. Republican sentenced to ten years by Special Court
 5. Release Josephine Hayden Web Page launched
 6. Former political prisoner Pat Kelly dies
 7. Killer plastic bullets withdrawn
 8. United Ireland inevitable, says Scottish church leader
 9. Shankill Butcher killed loyalists
10. Bellaghy Orange parade on June 22 to be challenged
11. RUC open fire on nationalists car
12. Two British policemen killed
13. Incendiary attack on Antrim family
14. Knife attack on nationalist

1. BLAIR'S CHOICE: ACCEPT INTERNAL SETTLEMENT OR FACE REPRESSION

MICHAEL McManus, Fermanagh gave the oration at the Republican Sinn Fein
Wolfe Tone commemoration in Bodenstown, Co Kildare on Sunday, June 15. A
large crowd of Republicans and marching bands paraded from Sallins village
to the grave of the founder of Irish Republicanism, who died in 1798. In
his keynote speech he said:

" 'There will not be a united Ireland in the lifetime of even the youngest
person in the audience.' Strong sentiments indeed. These words were spoken
by Tony Blair, only 2 weeks after his electoral success in the British
general election, while on a flying visit to Belfast.

"Tony Blair lost no time in defining British policy on the Irish question.
And make no mistake this was a policy statement. The British government has
put down a marker, and along these guidelines policy will be dictated for
the next five years.

"If we analyse the significance of this statement one can only conclude
that British policy and by extension British occupation will continue
indefinitely or at least to the year 2085 or thereabouts.

"British policy in Ireland is to be built around what is called an internal
Six-County solution. The thrust of that policy is to subjugate the
nationalist people of the six north-eastern counties to the will of 'Mother
England'. Accept the English Crown and they will grant us a much heralded
'parity of esteem'. Become good but quiet British subjects, keep our heads
below the parapet.

"Implied in the Blair policy speech, was that the alternative was to
endorse more repression, British army and RUC jack-boot tactics, British
loyalist death squads roaming the streets at will, coupled with all the
paraphernalia of a modern police State to ensure that we comply with the
wishes of our 'colonial masters'.

"We can conclude that in reality this means many more Irish citizens killed
and maimed by the shoot-to-kill tactics of the British war machine. More
Drumcrees, more Harryvilles, in its most base description, 'Croppies lie
down'.

"We are told to abandon even hope.

"There was a time in the early years of this century when all the suffering
and sacrifice of the Irish people to attain their freedom had apparently
failed. The situation seemed hopeless and as the Fenians, who had so
heroically fought and then endured, were dying off one by one, even the
aspiration of nationhood appeared to have dissipated. After the death of
John O'Leary in September 1913 and remembering the many heroic but futile
efforts from the men and women of '98 onwards, the poet penned these lines:

" 'Was it for this the Wild Geese spread the grey wings on every tide -- for
this all that blood was shed?' "

Recent policy statements from our erstwhile comrades in the Provo
leadership, flushed with apparent electoral success, suggest the eventual
acceptance of the new British policy. In their headlong dash towards what
is known as constitutionalism they have revised their former ideology to a
remarkable degree. Gone is the central demand for the duration of 25 years
of struggle, the bottom line ie a Declaration of British Intent to
withdraw her army and influence from this island -- a total withdrawal.
Instead we hear of 'pushing the peace process forward', 'respect for our
mandate' and 'all-party negotiations'. Never British withdrawal -- which I
always thought was the only thing Republicans wanted to talk to the British
about.

"Was 25 years of struggle and sacrifice about engaging in all-party talks?
Were all the deaths and maiming of Irish people simply to achieve a
non-unionist mayor of Belfast City Council? Did the Hunger Strikers end
their lives in agony to ensure the election of Provo councillors? Did we
endure the worst excesses of the British army/RUC and loyalist death squads
to send two former Republicans to Westminster? "For this all that blood was
shed?"

"There are further questions I would like to put to the new or is it the
right honourable members for West Belfast and Mid-Ulster. Would they care
to comment on the recent abduction of faithful Republicans in west Belfast
(one of Gerry's own constituents) as reported in the Irish News on May 22,
1997? Will Gerry Adams condemn the actions of the Provos doing Britain's
dirty work? Does he approve of Broy Harrier tactics to enforce the
British-initiated internal settlement? Are you in favour of repressing
genuine Republicans who reject the 26-County State and continued British
occupation of the six north-eastern counties? Gerry, reflect on the last 25
years -- or better still the last 200 -- and ask yourself, "was it for _this_
all that blood was shed?"

"Yet we are assured that despite the revisionism of so many former
revolutionaries there remains a force of Volunteers, loyal to the Republic
who are prepared and capable of carrying on the struggle under the
leadership of the Continuity Army Council.

"And there are others, who are gathered here today to commemorate Tone and
the men and women of '98, to honour their ideals of one people and one
nation, who will never reject nor dishonour those noble sentiments, who
will not be intimidated, and we will proclaim again and again that Britain
has no right in this country and never _will_ have any right in this
country.

"In Leinster House Zig has replaced Zag in the short term at least, nothing
has really changed and we will not hold our breath. The new Free State
administration are committed to the same policies as the previous one,
total acceptance of British occupation in part of our country.

"Of course the 26-County Free State was conceived in London, created with
the help of British guns and maintained with the services of an English
hangman. The original Free Staters waded through the blood of Irish
patriots in their endeavours and in the process became a client British
State. Collaborators are usually more ruthless than their imperial masters
and in this respect the Free Staters were no exception.

"But what Republicans find really sickening is the spectacle of
representatives of the self-same Leinster House parties trooping to this
graveyard year after year pretending to pay homage to Wolfe Tone and the
men and women of '98.

"Padraig Pearse in his document on 'The Separatist Tradition' reproduced in
the 'Wolfe Tone Annual' of 1961, had this to say. "If Tone says _break_ the
connection with England -- and I say _maintain_ the connection with England,
then I am preaching a much saner (as I am certainly preaching a much
safer) gospel than his -- but I am obviously not preaching the _same_
gospel."

"In other words, adherence to Republican, separatist ideology is specific,
there can be no prevarication. You either accept Tone's philosophy in its
entirety or you reject it. Therefore the presence of any Free State parties
-- of _all_ Free State parties in this graveyard serves only to defile the
names and ideology of the men and women of '98 and 1916, and should stay
away. By the same token anyone contemplating entering Leinster House and
prepared to take an oath of allegiance, and to uphold the partitionist
parliament as the legal powers of this client State should discard the Sinn
Fein label that they have attached to themselves. It is a serious and
cynical misrepresentation of the name of Sinn Fein and should never be
paraded through Leinster House.

"I must also take this opportunity to send greetings and express our
solidarity to all political prisoners, especially those who have remained
true to the Republic. Our thoughts are especially with Josephine Hayden,
the only woman political prisoner in the Free State. Josephine is in
Limerick prison and has recently developed a serious heart problem, which
required urgent hospital treatment. Despite her condition she has been
returned to Limerick prison and to conditions which are not conducive to
recovery. We here today _demand_ an _immediate_ and unconditional release
on humanitarian grounds and to that end Republican Sinn Fein's POW
Department has launched a national campaign to exert pressure on the prison
regime to comply with basic human dignity and order her release. In that
effort they require and deserve all of our full support.

"It would be remiss of me to leave this place today without recalling 150
years go this year the people of Ireland were in the midst of the worst
disaster to befall a hapless people. Black '47 and terrible images of
hunger, disease and death. Evictions, coffin ships and the workhouse were
the lot of the Irish dispossessed. Over a million died, how many emigrated
or perished in the new world or crossing the Atlantic, we shall never know.
We, all of us, know about the famine and the curse which of course was the
blight. But we also know that ships laden with corn and grain were leaving
Irish ports every day for England -- while the people who produced the grain
were dying in the streets, roads and bogs from hunger.

"This was the worst crime of all the countless crimes committed against the
Irish -- and despite the revisionists' and apologists' attempts to rewrite
the history of the 'Great Hunger' the truth is beginning to emerge. Even
Tony Blair ('Irish Times', June 6, 1997) has begun the process of
acknowledgement of British guilt when he describes the famine as a
"defining moment in Irish history" and attributes much of the tragedy to
British "neglect".

"Yet in 75 years of its existence the Free State failed to alert the Irish
people to the most terrible aspects of the famine. Not one monument has
been erected to the memory of the one million dead by a State body. We must
never forget our innocent dead, we are duty bound to honour their memory
and their suffering not only in word but also in stone. Therefore we call
on the Irish people to commit themselves to establish fitting memorials to
the victims of hunger -- that will last throughout the
decades and centuries to come. That is the least they deserve.

"The Free State is a failed entity. They have failed miserably to address
the deep economic divergences in the country which, in the middle of a
so-called 'boom', can boast of unprecedented riches for the few and can
also tolerate 34% of the population living below the poverty line. Is this
the Free State interpretation of how to 'cherish the children equally'?

"They have failed to resist the creeping imperialism of the new European
Super State, the inclusion of this country in a proposed political,
military and monetary union of some European States can only be to the
detriment of the Irish people and must be resisted by all means at our
disposal.

"They have failed miserably to confront the British State either to demand
that they recognise the right of the Irish people to national self
determination or even to guarantee civil rights and basic civil liberties
to the northern nationalists.

"Finally, I would remind you of Tone's call to the men and women of '98
"never to desist until the link with England was broken". It was that call
and that ideal that Irish men and women of the last 200 years have
struggled for. In the last 200 years the Irish have paid a high price in
lives and liberty. They have fought, they have endured -- and they have been
betrayed. They have been suppressed -- but always have emerged to carry on,
generation after generation. The sword, the hangman and the assassin, the
common tools of tyrants have failed to quench the thirst for freedom and
they never will. We demand freedom -- now. It is inevitable and we are
resolute. Break the link we will.

"It was for this -- all that blood was shed."

An Cathaoirleach (Chairperson Cathleen Knowles, thanked all those who
attended especially the bands from the occupied Six Counties. She said that
it was more important than ever that Republican Sinn Fein does not lose
sight of its objective, "that we stand together uncorrupted and
incorruptable, remaining loyal and true to the cause we hold dear -- the
cause of the Irish Republic, for which countless Irish Republicans have
died. There must be no weakening in our resolve to attain our
legitimate goal and no lowering of the flag."

She concluded by saying: "I am heartened to see so many young people
present here today. We must harness that youthful energy to reinvigorate
our Organisation, and as more and more people are beginning to see that the
so-called 'Peace Process' is looking like the 'Emperor's Clothes', we can I
am sure become an unstoppable force -- a catalyst for change

2. PORTLAOISE PRISONERS BODENSTOWN MESSAGE

THE Republican prisoners in Portlaoise prison in the 26 Counties sent the
following message of support which was read out by the Chairperson,
Cathleen Knowles:

"We, the Prisoners of War of the Irish Republican Army incarcerated in
Portlaoise, send a message of solidarity and revolutionary greetings to
Republican Sinn Fein, and to all who are gathered to commemorate Theobald
Wolfe Tone, the founding father of Irish Republicanism.

"Though the present situation may look bleak, with a new force of Broy
Harriers in the Six Counties aligned with British imperial forces and their
Free State puppets against true republicans, we can be assured that the
Republican Army under the able leadership of the Continuity Army Council
will continue to strive against all Ireland's enemies, foreign and
domestic. Onwards to victory, an Phoblacht abu!"

3. CONTINUITY IRA STATEMENT CRITICISES ATTEMPT TO 'INTIMIDATE REPUBLICANS'

A STATEMENT sent to the Republican newspaper SAOIRSE on June 12 from the
Continuity Army Council of the Irish Republican Army says that by abducting
and interrogating two true Republicans recently the military wing of the
Provisionals was falling into the age-old trap of divide and conquer. The
statement added: "All Irish people and political groupings must not allow
the British to divide us and set us against each other as they have in the
past."

The text of the statement, signed by "B O Ruairc, Runai" and published in
part in the 'Irish Times' and 'Irish News' (June 14, 1977), was as follows:

"Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, 12 June 1997:

"We have been asked to release the following supplied statement:

"Ten days ago a further two true Republicans have been abducted and
interrogated by the Provisionals in Belfast.

"Their agenda of advance through British-imposed constitutional structures
is not our agenda. We seek a New Ireland free of British rule, not a New
Stormont under English control.

"We will not be moved from this agenda either by the British government and
its forces or by anyone else.

"All Irish people and political groupings must not allow the British to
divide us and set us against each other as they have in the past.

"The Irish people have the right to oppose foreign occupation of their
country just as do the peoples of other countries. What is under our
control will remain so and we will not be deflected from our objectives.

"Attempting to intimidate Republicans and marking them out for attention by
the British forces in the future is simply falling into the age-old trap of
divide and conquer.

"Irish resistance to English aggression will yet triumph.

"Issued by the Continuity Army Council of the Irish Republican Army.

"Signed: B O Ruairc, Runai."

4. REPUBLICAN SENTENCED TO TEN YEARS BY SPECIAL COURT

REPUBLICAN prisoner Michael Hegarty was sentenced to ten years by the
26-County Special no-jury Court on June 12 last on explosive charges. As he
was being led from the dock supporters in the public gallery shouted at the
three Special Court judges saying that the procedure was a "circus". They
shouted support for the prisoner saying "you're a good Republican" and "Our
day will come" before the 26-County police removed them.

A native of Clare, Michael Hegarty received a ten-year sentence for
"unlawful possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger
life" near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan on November 10, 1995. A former
member of the Republican Sinn Fein Ard-Chomhairle (National Executive) he
refused to recognise the Special Court during the three-day procedure. He
had earlier sacked his legal team.

On June 11 Michael Hegarty made a statement to the Special Court saying
that Republican prisoner Josephine Hayden "is still being held under armed
guard [in Limerick prison], a woman who has suffered a heart attack in the
last 12 days." When arraigned on June 10 he also told the court that
Josephine was a political prisoner, the only woman political prisoner in
the Free State.

5. RELEASE JOSEPHINE HAYDEN WEB PAGE LAUNCHED

REPUBLICAN Sinn Fein launched a 'Release Josephine Hayden' web page on June
17. The page outlines the conditions endured by Josephine Hayden in
Limerick Prison and the call by Republican Sinn Fein for her release on
humanitarian grounds due to her recent heart attack. The web page is at
http://iol.ie/~saoirse/hayden

URGENT ACTION CALL: All concerned individuals and groups outside of the 26
counties should protest to the embassies and consuls of the 26-County State
and call for the immediate release, on humanitarian grounds, of Josephine
Hayden.

Within the 26 Counties protests should be made to public representatives to
call on the Dublin administration to release Josephine. Posters and
leaflets are now available from the Republican Sinn Fein POW Department,
223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1.

Please contact her by writing to her at the following address: Josephine
Hayden, Republican Prisoner, Limerick Prison, Mulgrave Street, Limerick,
Ireland.

6. FORMER POLITICAL PRISONER PAT KELLY DIES

THE former political prisoner Pat Kelly died on June 11, aged 49. Kelly was
the centre of a campaign to have him transferred from prison in Britain to
Portlaoise prison near his home in County Laois after he developed skin
cancer. A native of Ballybrittas, Co Laois, he survived by his partner
Angela Rice and a daughter.

After a long campaign for him to be sent to Portlaoise, during which he had
engaged in a blanket protest, Kelly, a Provisional prisoner, was moved from
Whitemoor prison to Maghaberry prison outside Lisburn, Co Antrim in
December 1995. Following another campaign Kelly was transferred from
Maghaberry to Portlaoise prison, about six miles from his home. He was
released from Portlaoise last Autumn and allowed to go home.

Campaigners on his behalf said that his initial form of cancer was curable
but Pat Kelly had been repeatedly refused proper medical attention by the
then British Home Secretary, Michael Howard. Republicans pointed to the
case as an example of the true face of British vindictiveness towards Irish
political prisoners during the so-called peace process.

7. KILLER PLASTIC BULLETS WITHDRAWN

BRITISH direct-ruler Marjorie Mowlam confirmed on June 11 that the British
police (RUC) had known since March that it had fired plastic bullets which
travelled faster than safety regulations allowed.

Mowlam's comments in the Westminster parliament followed an admission from
the British Ministry of Defence, also on June 11, that 9,000 defective
plastic baton rounds had been fired in the Six Counties between 1994 and
April 1997. More than 90,000 plastic bullets were found to be faulty and
withdrawn. The majority of the 6,000 plastic bullets fired during the
ten-day period of the Drumcree crisis in July 1996 were from the faulty
batch. In turn the vast majority of that 6,000 were fired at
nationalists.

Since the start of the Troubles in 1969 seventeen people, eight of them
children or teenagers, have been killed by plastic or rubber bullets fired
by the British Crown Forces.

Meanwhile, a Derry man who was injured by a plastic bullet in May 1994 was
awarded #1,250 damages on June 11. Eamonn McCormick (23 was awarded the
payment by Derry County Court.

8. UNITED IRELAND INEVITABLE, SAYS SCOTTISH CHURCH LEADER

ONE of the Free Church of Scotland's leading ministers told a Scottish
newspaper recently that a united Ireland was "both inevitable and
appropriate".

Professor Donald MacLeod, who trains the Free Church's ministers said: "Two
communities inhabit one island: the vast majority want unification. The
Border is physically artificial and geographically arbitrary; the cost of
maintaining it is horrendous; would opinion is outraged by it."

A professor of systematic theology in the Church known as the 'Wee Frees',
Donald MacLeod is regarded by 'The Herald' (Glasgow, May 23, 1997) as a
"modernist in a very traditional and conservative church".

Before unification could take place, the 'Herald' reported him as saying
the issue of Protestant legal and cultural citizenship in a
Catholic-dominated state must be settled, as must the belief that the
unionists are making all the concessions.

The situation of Protestants and present-day loyalists in a 32-County Irish
Republic free from British interference, has been addressed in the most
detailed manner, pledging full civil and religious liberty and access to
decision-making in a decentralised system of government in a nine-county
Ulster parliament, in the EIRE NUA (New Ireland) federal policy of
Republican Sinn Fein.

9. SHANKILL BUTCHER KILLED BY LOYALISTS

ONE of the 1970s 'Shankill Butchers' loyalist death-squad was shot dead on
June 11. Bobby 'Basher' Bates was shot in the back of the head as he opened
a drop-in centre for ex-loyalist prisoners on the Woodvale Road in West
Belfast at 8.45am. Initial speculation suggested nationalist involvement in
the killing but it quickly emerged that loyalists were responsible.

Bates was jailed for life in 1979 for his involvement with the Shankill
Butchers which is believed to have killed an estimated 19 people in a
17-month period. He admitted personal involvement in ten killings, five
Catholics and five Protestants. Many of the victims of the death-squad were
killed with butchers implements which gave the gang its name.

Bates was released from prison in 1996 due to an alleged conversion to
born-again Christianity. However, relatives of his victims pointed out that
he never apologised to them or admitted what he did was wrong.

10. BELLAGHY ORANGE PARADE ON JUNE 22 TO BE CHALLENGED

NATIONALIST residents of the County Derry town of Bellaghy have lodged
notice with the British police (RUC) of their intention to hold a
counter-demonstration on June 22 to coincide with an Orange march through
the town. Both marches are planned to take place along the same route.

Meanwhile, national residents on the Garvaghy Road have organised an
"open-air festival" to coincide with the Orange Order's attempts to march
down the road on Sunday, July 6 next.

11. RUC OPEN FIRE ON NATIONALISTS CAR

BRITISH police (RUC) in Belfast opened fire on a nationalist's car on June
13. At least three shots were fired at the car on Berwick Road in the
Ardoyne area at around 6am. The owner of the car, leading Provisional Eddie
Copeland, said he believed the RUC thought he was driving the car when they
opened fire. The car was not being driven by him at the time. There were no
injuries in the shooting incident.

Meanwhile a survey carried out for the Six-County Police Authority has
found that more nationalists than ever think the RUC should be disbanded,
while a report for the Independent Commission for Police Complaints found
there was a 9% increase in complaints against the RUC in 1996.

The Police Authority survey covered the period from July 1995 to March
1997. It found that 28% of nationalists thought the RUC should stay exactly
as it was in 1995. This dropped to 13% in 1996 and 11% in 1997. The survey
also found a slight increase in support for the RUC from the unionist
community to just over two-thirds.

The Independent Commission for Police Complaints reported that there were
2,540 complaints lodged against the RUC in 1996, the majority involving
allegations of assault.

The report stated that in an attempt to reduce the number of head injuries
sustained by plastic bullets, the commission recommended a new charge of
disobedience be brought again RUC members when they fail to aim a "baton"
(plastic bullet) at a person's arms or legs.

The report stated that "for some time" the commission had been concerned
about head injuries caused by the weapons.

Force regulations state the weapon should not be aimed at a persons head.
However, in a two-year period analysing use of batons, there were 122 cases
alleging blows to the head.

12. TWO BRITISH POLICEMEN KILLED

TWO British policemen (RUC) were shot dead by the Provisionals military
organisation in Lurgan, Co Armagh on June 16.

The two were shot in the head at close range by two men in Church Walk at
around 11.45am. They were pronounced dead at the scene, which was 15 feet
from the local RUC barracks. A car believed to have been used in the
killings was later found burning in the nationalist Kilwilkee estate a mile
away. The two dead RUC men were named as David Andrew Johnston (30), and
John Graham (34).

The Provisionals military organisation also claimed responsibility for a
gun attack on an undercover British army unit, travelling in a van in Derry
on June 10. The Provisionals claimed that that the attack killed or
seriously injured at least one member of the Crown Forces. The British
police denied the claim.

13. INCENDIARY ATTACK ON ANTRIM FAMILY

TWO incendiary devices were left outside a group of houses in Ballycastle,
Co Antrim on June 12. The houses were evacuated while the British army
defused the devices.

The nationalist family who are believed to have been the target of the
attack previously had their home petrol-bombed in July 1996, during the
Drumcree stand-off.

14. KNIFE ATTACK ON NATIONALIST

A 21-YEAR-OLD nationalist suffered a Shankill Butchers-type attack by a
gang of loyalists in Belfast on June 14.

Martin Gavin, a member of the travelling community, was walking along the
Crumlin Road in the early hours of the morning when he was approached by a
group of five middle-aged men. They asked him for a light and when they
heard his southern accent attacked him with a sharp instrument, calling him
a "Fenian bastard".

Gavin was left with a seven inch gash under his chin and two other deep
wounds in his head, a badly-gashed hand and a fractured skull. The injuries
required 21 stitches in his head, 20 in his neck and six in his finger and
will cause permanent scarring. Gavin said he was grateful to be alive.

                              -end-

Please circulate the information in IRIS and credit us if reprinting. 
We welcome your comments and ideas. Send them to: saoirse@iol.ie
 
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