Sinn Fein leaders have ‘turned their backs on Republican cause’
The state funerals of ten IRA revolutionaries in Dublin are a Government trick to fool people that the British occupation of the north is ‘‘normal’’, a party conference heard today.
Ruairi O’Bradaigh, leader of Republican Sinn Fein, told delegates at his party’s conference that the removal of the bodies of Kevin Barry and his War of Independence comrades from Mountjoy prison was premature because ‘‘Ireland is not yet free’’.
Mr O’Bradaigh, of the political wing of the Continuity IRA, also attacked Gerry Adams’ Sinn Fein for becoming ‘‘part of the British system’’, saying the Good Friday Agreement would ultimately fail.
‘‘These executed IRA volunteers died for the All-Ireland Republic and their memory cannot be seized by Leinster House politicians who are attempting to con the Irish people into believing that British occupation of the six counties is ‘normal’,’’ he told the conference in Dublin.
He quoted Kathleen Barry, sister of Kevin: ‘‘We said, that as Kevin had died for the Irish Republic, his body could remain in Mountjoy until the Republic was restored.’’
Mr O'Bradaigh said: ‘‘But Ireland is not yet free nor is the All-Ireland Republic restored.’’
He attacked his former allies who have entered into power sharing with Unionism in the North.
‘‘The former Republicans who rebuilt the Stormont Assembly are now part of the British system in Ireland and have turned their backs on the successors of the hunger strikes of 1981.
‘‘The Stormont Agreement (is) a mere holding operation which updates and strengthens English rule in Ireland and will sentence succeeding generations of Irish people to endless trouble and conflict,’’ he said.
He said that through their actions, and their increasing moves towards Westminster, his former comrades had forfeited all right to ‘‘resist British rule in Ireland’’.
The Good Friday Agreement will fail, he told the gathering, ‘‘whether in the short, medium or long term, because its dishonest and contradictory basis drives recurring crisis and constant conflict’’.
And he renewed calls for Republican youngsters to refuse to join the Northern police service, when it is reformed, because ‘‘it is still a British force and will enforce English rule here at the point of a gun’’.
Mr O'Bradaigh told the conference that the party deplored the terrorist attacks on America, but US policy towards Palestine had greatly brought on the action.
Although the US had the right to defend itself, the perpetrators should be brought to justice under due process of law, not war, he said.
And he accused politicians of seizing on the resulting panic to strengthen laws against dissident groups.
Within the EU ‘‘their proposed definition of ‘terrorism, would cover everyone from George Washington to Pearse and Connolly to Nelson Mandela’’, he said.
During the speech Mr O'Bradaigh also hailed the ‘‘great success’’ of the referendum rejection of the treaty of Nice, on EU expansion.
He accused the Government of neglecting services in the West of Ireland and said the gap between rich and poor was growing, despite the recent booming economy.
And he raised the issue of Republican prisoners still serving jail sentences, who, he claims, have been deliberately put ‘‘in harms way’’ by the authorities.
They should be recognised as political prisoners, he said.
