Lasair Dhearg activists today entered the Asda store in West Belfast, removed a small number of goods marked ‘Made in Israel’, and handed them over to store management informing them of the Palestinian demand that these goods be removed from sale as part of the global campaign to ‘Boycott, Divest & Sanction’.
Store management were made fully aware of Saturday’s upcoming planned protest action outside the store at 2.30PM
The Palestinian people have for decades asked that the international community engage in boycott and divestment in order to affect the Zionist occupation.
Now is the time to stand up and be counted, to take practical action in support of the Palestinian people in the face of the continued occupation and slaughter of their people, and demand that Asda and other businesses remove goods that fund the Zionist economy and regime as they murder innocent people in Palestine.
Gather at Asda doors, Kennedy Way, Belfast, 2.30PM, Saturday the 15th of May.
Bring Palestinian flags. Everyone welcome.
Lasair Dhearg members in the Ballymurphy area stood alongside other local residents, with bin-lids and whistles, lining the streets of Ballymurphy and other nearby districts as a large convoy of vehicles toured the district as part of a cavalcade. The convoy was organised to mark todays vindication of the families of those innocents slain by the British Army 50 years ago.
Following the cavalcade, Lasair Dhearg members gathered with the families, supporters and other Ballymurphy residents at the Ballymurphy Massacre mural following todays inquest which vindicated the families of those slain by British forces five decades ago.
‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, the Japanese proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys is a paradigm to Britain’s dirty war in Ireland. The bloodied hands of Britain’s war machine and all its gruesome facets have stained the hearts and minds of the Irish people, so much so, that the word collusion has become normalised.
Those born in the mid-90’s, during a ‘temporary cessation of hostilities’ – the IRA ceasefire – are often labelled ‘ceasefire babies’, born into peace, and during a time of supposed optimism. In those years just prior, the Irish people living within the borders of the imposed Six Counties state witnessed the most horrific month of the recent conflict to date. The British state and its puppet death squads facilitated the execution of twelve innocent Catholics, all within one week. To this day families have not achieved justice for those murders, simply because the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) has been complicit in the events leading up to many of the killings, were actively involved in many of the incidents and in the subsequent investigations.
During the partitioning of our island, Britain worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create a utopian state for Unionism. A key aspect of this was to solidify the first line of defence – The Royal Ulster Constabulary and the hated Ulster Special Constabulary (USC/Specials). Initially a third of all positions were reserved for Catholics, however the establishment at the time refused to honour this as they viewed Catholics as disloyal, provocateurs and second-class citizens. Fast forward 100 years and the religious makeup of the Six County police force is still a contentious issue, with less than a third defined as ‘Catholic’, a pale reflection of a state less than 50% Protestant – not that it matters anyway.
Therefore, it is not surprising that within months of the foundation of the RUC, they are accused of murdering six innocent Catholics in Belfast, later to be known as the McMahon murders. Survivors of the attack claimed that the gunmen wore police uniforms, which they recalled in detail, as they were new uniforms, different to that of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). A week later six more Catholics were to be murdered during the Arnon Street massacre. The period now known as ‘the pogroms’, illustrates how far the state was willing to go in order to cement British rule in the occupied Six Counties.
Years later, Nationalists would soon bear the brunt of the Orange state once more, when they took to the streets in demand of basic human rights and equality. The civil rights campaign led by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), marched to end Gerrymandering by the state, among other demands – one of which was the disbandment of the Specials. It is no surprise that once threatened, it was the very same USC/Specials thugs that attacked the civil rights marchers as they reached Burntollet, while the RUC did little, if nothing to intervene. The scenes at Burntollet sparked the flames that would later engulf Nationalist homes and from the ashes, it would invoke a risen people.
In the months that followed and as Nationalists continued to protest, the RUC, alongside the USC/Specials towed the state line and failed to protect protesters. As tensions began to build and the RUC’s subsequent entry into Derry’s Bogside on the 12th August 1969, the people of Derry asserted their right to defend themselves.
The RUC and Specials encountered organised resistance and were beaten back and responded with flooding the heavily populated area with 1091 canisters of CS gas. They engaged in hand to hand fighting, beat skulls with batons and threw missiles back at protesters.
Meanwhile in Belfast, Nationalists protested due to the actions of the RUC and the Specials. They, like their counterparts in Derry, met the same state response. Loyalists organised on interfaces and were given commands by the RUC and Specials. Locals reported that the Specials could be seen providing firearms to the Loyalist mob and took part in the burning of Nationalist homes.
By the end of the summer of 1969, under the boots of the RUC and the Specials, Nationalists and Republicans now understood that to ask the oppressor for basic human rights would now no longer suffice. Within those summer months five Catholics were murdered by the RUC, 15-year-old Fianna Gerard McAuley had been killed on active service, and 72 Catholics had sustained gunshot wounds, for the most part inflicted by the RUC. Additionally, over 150 Catholic homes and 275 businesses had been destroyed – 83% of those buildings were owned by Catholics. The history books tell us that over 1,505 Catholics had been forced to flee their homes at the behest of the state and their loyalist proxy gangs. This was the context within which the British Army was now deployed on Irish streets in order to maintain a so-called ‘peace’.
The deployment of those foreign troops alongside their intelligence networks including Mi5 would drastically change the Irish political landscape forever. Their developing relationship with the RUC and Loyalist death squads would see collusion on a scale never witnessed before in Ireland.
One of the most notorious parts of the British murder machine were those cowards often referred to as the ‘Glenanne Gang’. This group included British soldiers, RUC officers, members of the UVF and British Military Intelligence – MI5. The name of the gang itself came from the base from which they operated, a farm owned by former RUC officer James Mitchell. It is estimated that they were responsible for the sectarian murders of over 120 people, almost all of whom were Catholic civilians with no links to Republicanism. The Cassel Report, published in 2006, investigated 76 murders attributed to the gang and found evidence that British soldiers and RUC officers were complicit in at least 74 of these barbaric acts of cowardice. The report also made clear that senior officers within RUC Special Branch had known that double agents were working with the gang but did absolutely nothing to prevent, investigate or punish those involved.
Some of the most lethal and highly publicised attacks attributed to the group included the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which murdered 34 innocent people and injured over 300. They were also responsible for the Miami Showband massacre in 1975, and the Hillcrest Bar bombing which murdered two innocent children during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 1976.
RUC Sergeant William ‘Billy’ McCaughey was a senior member of the gang and was convicted of taking part in the murder of father-of-seven William Strathearn at his home in Ahoghill, County Antrim in April 1977. In later life he would be arrested and sent back to jail for his involvement in harassing Catholics attempting to attend mass in Harryville, Ballymena. He said that the British government were aware of the activities of the Glennane Gang and stated “Some of these men, they were connected to Parliament. Nobody wants a truth commission and that’s why the truth always stops at a few dirty apples, as they call them, no matter what the investigation is about. They will never come out and tell the truth – and the truth is MI5 and RUC Special Branch ran the civil war for X number of years”.
Unfortunately, the real extent of the involvement of the British state will never be known, and the families of those murdered will likely not receive justice on behalf of their loved ones, as the British state continues to obfuscate on the issue and protect its own interests in the face of those families fighting for that justice.
The web of collusion covers most aspects of Policing within the Six Counties and the state would go to incredible efforts in order to cement its pseudo legitimacy. We have seen this web exposed and littered throughout the pages of reports launched by families and justice groups. This is the same web of deceit and corruption that had crept its way into the rotten ranks of the PSNI, who promote a ‘friendly police force’ with one hand and withhold the key to truth with the other.
The RUC have been complicit in destroying evidence, protecting loyalist death squads and systematic covering up of truth for decades. Some of the most notable cases have been The Loughinisland Massacre, The Sean Graham Massacre, amongst 100s of others. The PSNI have carried that torch of corruption and collusion on to the present day.
This isn’t a surprise, for when we look at the make-up of the RUC during its inception and compare it to the current statistics of the PSNI – Nothing has changed. Statistics published by the PSNI in 2020, stated their religious make-up comprised 67% perceived as ‘Protestant’ and 32% perceived as ‘Catholic. Compare this with the reformed RUC Special Branch, now known as C3 Intelligence Branch, a huge 79% of which are protestant personnel, of which 92% are former RUC officers, further cementing the truth that they ‘haven’t gone away you know’.
C3 Intelligence Branch continues to work closely with its foot-soldiers in the heavily armed Tactical Support Group (TSG). Both are responsible for the continued use and implementation of various forms of anti-community legislation aimed at repressing and harassing genuine political and community activism.
One hundred years later, in the centenary year of this rotten little statelet, we continue to see the true face of Britain’s colonial police force; during a recent commemoration for those murdered at Sean Graham bookmakers, widely held to have been as a result of state collusion, the PSNI harassed and antagonised families who gathered to remember their loved ones, arresting one survivor of the atrocity. It came days after they escorted and facilitated a massive loyalist paramilitary death-squad show of strength, conducted by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
This centenary year has seen a surge in Loyalist violence with sustained attacks on Nationalist areas, in Belfast, Loyalist gangs smashed through the ‘peace gate’ at Lanark Way in Belfast, using a hijacked car as a battering ram. Rioters hijacked buses, attacked Nationalist homes with rocks and petrol bombs. As residents watched on, many noted the absence of the supposed ‘police force’ as rioting Loyalists bayed for blood for almost three hours before the PSNI decided to act – and when they did, they battened charged Nationalists, and threatened to discharge plastic bullets. In the days that followed they deployed attack dogs and water cannons on Nationalist youth, a new generation dammed to two tier policing, aided by former Stormont parties spearheading the PSNI’s normalisation agenda.
As the state prepares to celebrate their white-washed history, let us remember the real story of this rotten little statelet; a story of collusion and state sanctioned murder.
Growing up my parents encouraged me to read books and when I was about nine or ten I joined the local library in Andersonstown. Some of the books that were in the house didn’t excite me although I had a bit of an interest in history books. I was always fascinated by hunger strikes and little did I know that when I got older I would get to know some men who would die on hunger strike in 1981.
My father, Pat McCotter, didn’t speak a lot about his time in prison but I remember him telling me about the 45 days he was on hunger strike in Crumlin Road gaol, Belfast. Hunger strikes had been a weapon of resistance used by Irish republican prisoners in previous campaigns as they fought for political status. The British always tried to criminalise our struggle and when men and women found themselves imprisoned different forms of protest took place – either by refusing to do prison work or wear prison clothes. The first prisoner to pay the ultimate price was Thomas Ashe who died after being force-fed in September 1917. His funeral in Dublin was the biggest seen since that of O’Donovan Rossa in August 1915 and it was a turning point in mobilising the Irish Volunteers and more importantly the IRB who were still intent on continuing the struggle to rid Ireland of the British empire.
In the 1920s more men were to die on hunger strike, some of whom died whilst imprisoned by the Free Staters. ( Michael Fitzgerald, Terence McSwiney, Joseph Murphy, Joe Witty, Dennis Barry, Andy O’Sullivan.)
My father was a comrade of Seán McCaughey having been imprisoned with him in Arbor Hill prison in Dublin. After their release they reported back to the IRA and they maintained regular contact. The last time they would have met was 1940 shortly before my father’s capture in South Armagh. McCaughey himself was captured in 1941 after the informer, Stephen Hayes, escaped from the IRA and ran to a local garda station in Ballsbridge Dublin. Hayes was the Chief-of Staff of the IRA but some of his comrades suspected him of being an informer and they arrested him. After a number of weeks he escaped and when the special branch, known as the ‘Broy Harriers’, went to the house a gun battle ensued and a number of men were shot and captured. They appeared in front of a military tribunal and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Whilst in Portlaoise they refused to do prison work or wear a uniform so they embarked on a blanket protest. McCaughey went on hunger and thirst strike and died in May 1946 after 23 days. My father told me morale in Crumlin Road gaol was as low as it had been when Tom Williams was executed in September 1942. Others who died in the 1940s were Tony Darcy and Jack McNeela
As I got older I went to many protests, some of which were held in support of hunger strikers here and in England. One such protest that had a profound effect on me was in Andersonstown and some people on the platform were doing a reenactment of force feeding. This was in response to prisoners being force-fed when they were on hunger strike demanding they be transferred to prisons in Ireland. One of those prisoners, Michael Gaughan, died in March 1974 in Parkhurst prison. His comrade and fellow Mayo man Frank Stagg died in Wakefield gaol in February 1976. Later that year I was imprisoned in Crumlin Road and it was there I met Bobby Sands, Raymond McCreesh and Joe McDonnell. The following year we ended up on the blanket protest and we saw each other every Sunday at mass. Like other generations of political prisoners we were on protest because we were never going to accept being treated as criminals. Conditions were very bad and they were to get worse when we embarked on a no-wash protest. There was no end in sight and it was inevitable the next step would be a hunger strike.
Shortly before my release in July 1979 we were asked by the camp staff to discuss our next move. It was very difficult for me to give my opinion because I knew I would be due for release before any decision taken by the men would be enacted. And therefore I did not take part in the decision to go on hunger strike because I knew I wouldn’t be there.
When I was out a hunger strike began in October 1980. I knew some of the men on it and whenever I attended protests I was asked to speak publicly but I was reluctant to do so as I didn’t wish to draw attention to myself. That hunger strike ended after 53 days and when news came through we were ecstatic because we believed a resolution to the protest had been reached. However, within days we were told the British government had reneged on an agreement.
The following March Bobby Sands embarked on another hunger strike and unfortunately he died on May 5th. Another nine were to die, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McIlwee and Micky Devine, in the H-Blocks.
Much has been written about those turbulent days and how much they have impacted on the struggle. Without a doubt it was one of the most pivotal events in our long history of struggle against Britain imperialism. It led to many people getting involved in politics and I would argue it changed the course of history. Republicanism was at its strongest in generations and in my opinion it was the closest we got to achieving a Socialist Republic.
On the 8th of May, 1921, Belfast IRA Volunteer Sean McCartney was killed on active service in an engagement with British troops on Lappinduff Mountain, Co Cavan, Ireland.
Speaking from his graveside, Lasair Dhearg’s Pádraic MacCoitir said, “On this day, in 1921, IRA Volunteer Sean McCartney was shot dead in the Lappinduff Mountains in County Cavan. Sean was a local lad from Norfolk Street here in Belfast. He and his comrades in the Belfast Battalion, about fifteen or sixteen of them, joined their comrades in the Cavan flying column. They were setting up ambushes and planning attacks against the British Army, RIC and the Black & Tans. Unfortunately for them, they were surprised in an ambush and a gun battle ensued.”
“Sean McCartney himself was shot and fatally wounded. His body was taken to the local British Army barracks, and when his body was handed over to his family and his comrades it was badly mutilated. Sean’s other comrades were captured and they were taken to local barracks in county Cavan where they were interrogated and some of them tortured. On July 11th of that year, they were up in front of a British military tribunal, and they were sentenced to death.”
“The following day on the 12th of July a truce was called, and all volunteers who were sentenced to death got their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. In this particular case the volunteers captured in Lappinduff Mountains got their sentences commuted to three years imprisonment, and they were all released within months. One of those captured was my mothers uncle, Johnny McDermott.”
“Volunteer Sean McCartney, who died 100 years ago today, will never be forgotten. We will always remember the sacrifice he and his other comrades gave for us as Irish Republicans today, and for future generations.”
On this day, the 8th of May 1987, eight volunteers of the Irish Republican Army laid preparations for the continued implementation of a strategy that would see British security forces removed from rural areas in Ireland. Their target: the heavily fortified RUC base in the village of Loughgall.
The IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade was active mainly in eastern County Tyrone but often took part in operations in neighbouring parts of County Armagh. By the mid-1980s it had become one of the most effective and professional Active Service Units in the Irish Republican Army.
Members of the unit, such as Jim Lynagh and Pádraig McKearney, advocated a strategy of destroying bases and preventing them being rebuilt or repaired, thereby ‘denying ground’ to the forces of the occupation.
In 1985, Patrick Joseph Kelly became its commander and began the strategy’s implementation. In the subsequent years it carried out two major attacks on RUC bases often described as ‘spectaculars’.
The first was an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley on 7th December 1985, two RUC personnel were killed in this attack. The second was on an RUC base at The Birches on 11th August 1986. In both, the bases were raked with heavy gunfire as volunteers moved in and detonated large bombs containing Semtex, causing considerable damage. In the attack at The Birches, they had breached the base’s perimeter fence with a digger that had a bomb in its bucket. The operation being a huge success, they planned to use the same tactic in an attack on the lightly-manned Loughgall base.
The IRA’s attack involved two teams. One team would drive a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the base’s perimeter fence and set it to detonate. At the same time, the other team would arrive in a van and lay down heavy fire on the base, with the goal of wiping out the base and any occupation forces inside. Both teams would then disengage and leave the area in the van.
To avoid security checkpoints, the bomb was ferried by boat across Lough Neagh, from Ardboe to Maghery. The van and digger that would be used were hijacked in the hours leading up to the attack. The van, a blue Toyota HiAce, was stolen by masked men from a business in Dungannon. The digger was taken from a farm at Lislasly Road, about two miles west of Loughgall. Two IRA members stayed at the farm to stop the owners raising the alarm. IRA Volunteer Declan Arthurs drove the digger, while two others drove ahead of him in a scout car. The rest of the unit travelled in the van from another location, presumably also with a scout car.
The IRA unit arrived in Loughgall from the northeast shortly after 7PM. All were heavily armed, carrying H&K G3 rifles, one FN FAL rifle, two FN FNC rifles, a Franchi SPAS-12T shotgun and a Ruger Security-Six revolver. Wearing bulletproof vests, boiler suits, gloves and balaclavas, the digger drove past the police station, turned and drove back again with the Toyota van doing the same, ostensibly to check if the coast was clear. Members of the unit felt that something was amiss, and debated whether to continue, but decided to go ahead with the attack. Tony Gormley and Gerard O’Callaghan got out of the van and joined Declan Arthurs on the digger, supposedly “literally riding shotgun”, with weapons in one hand and a lighter in the other.
At about 7:15PM, Declan Arthurs drove the digger towards the base. In the front bucket was 200–400 lb of semtex inside an oil drum, partially hidden by rubble and wired to two 40-second fuses. The rest of the unit followed in the van with Eugene Kelly driving, unit commander Patrick Kelly in the passenger seat whilst in the rear were Jim Lynagh, Pádraig McKearney, and Seamus Donnelly. The digger crashed through the fence and the fuses were lit. The van stopped a short distance ahead and the team jumped out and began laying down fire on the building. At the same time, the bomb detonated, destroying the digger along with much of the building, and injuring three members of the occupation forces.
Within seconds, the SAS returned fire from hidden ambush positions in and around the station. 600 spent cartridge cases from the SAS were recovered with approximately 125 bullet holes in the bodywork of the van. The IRA volunteers returned fire, commencing a heavy gun battle.
All eight were killed in the hail of gunfire; all had multiple wounds and were shot in the head. Declan Arthurs was shot in a laneway opposite Loughgall Football Club premises unarmed without a firearm in his vicinity except for a cigarette lighter close to his right hand. A number of the wounded IRA members were shot dead as they lay on the ground after the gun battle. The IRA members in the scout cars escaped.
Two civilians travelling in a car were also shot by the SAS. The two brothers, Anthony and Oliver Hughes, were driving home in a white Citroen. About 130 yards from the base, SAS members opened fire on them from behind, killing Anthony and badly wounding Oliver. The Citroen had approximately 34 bullet holes.
The villagers had not been told of the British operation and no attempt had been made to evacuate anyone, or to seal off the ambush zone.
The Loughgall Martyrs were gallant and brave heroes, who did not shirk from their responsibilities when it came to opposing the occupation. We remember them with pride.
The partition of Ireland and the sectarian carve up of six of the nine counties of Ulster, was by no means a motiveless attempt by the British to pacify those in the north that wished to remain British, as Unionists and some British historians would like to believe.
The line of the crudely drawn border, carving its way like a manmade river meandering and cutting off communities and families from north to south, at first glance looks like a ham-fisted attempt to run a natural line around the North East of Ireland. But this unnatural line, and every other decision that went with it, was an extremely well thought out and strategic plan on the part of the British Government to hold on to the last vestiges of their crumbling empire.
During the late 1900’s, when the decision to partition Ireland was being planned, the North East of Ireland was an industrial powerhouse. Linen factories and mills, large industrial farms and ship building provided the majority of Ireland’s wealth creation and employment opportunities. And accounted for two thirds of Ireland’s overall industrial output and two thirds of Ireland’s exported goods came from Belfast. Therefore, it was no coincidence that these counties that had the biggest concentration of wealth production were selected to remain under British control. It was also no coincidence that the majority of the population in these counties was of a protestant background and of a mostly unionist outlook.
Since the plantations, the owners of the large farms and estates and those of the linen factory and mill empires were planters and descendants of planters, who evidently looked upon unionist and protestant workers more favourably than their catholic counterparts. This resulted in the vast majority of employment within these industries being occupied by protestant workers whilst a highly disproportionate number Catholics found themselves unemployed within the Six Counties. The small number of jobs given to Catholics were reserved for the lowest paid and lowest in social status, males would often only find work as farm labourers outside the cities and females forced into what James Connolly referred to as the “linen slave mills of Belfast” where the conditions were treacherous.
This was a theme that would continue from the foundation of the rotten little statelet known as “Northern Ireland”, through government decisions and under the direction of big business owners. A two tier society, where Protestants were given every opportunity, including employment and business ownership, whilst Catholics were treated as second class citizens. A statelet ruled by a Unionist junta of orangemen, that declared themselves a “a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people”, forced upon its Catholic population the title of ‘enemies of the state’ and encouraged their ostracisation. Sectarianism was a top-down state managed programme run in the interests of the capitalist and unionist ruling class. Whilst working-class Protestants didn’t have everything, they were given priority when the scraps were given out by the ruling Unionist junta.
This distrust of Catholics and the savagely sectarian nature of the state meant that even those Catholics fortunate enough to find employment within the industries in the cities and towns in the North were faced with regular discrimination, sectarian abuse, threats, violence and even beatings or murder to intimidate them out of employment, allowing their position to be filled by a loyal Protestant worker instead.
These practices continued until the civil rights movement in the 1960s attempted to shine a light on the discrimination faced by Catholics in several areas including housing and employment. The civil rights movement demanded that government policy and employment practices be changed to address the issues of unemployment and housing shortages for Catholics. Ultimately no official government policy changed on employment and the sectarian practises remained in place until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement; and, as part of it Section 75 of the ‘Northern Ireland Act 1998’ provided legislation to promote equality of opportunity in a number of categories including employment. In theory, we were told this legislation would put an end to sectarianism and discrimination in employment.
But, as with other sections of the Good Friday Agreement, aspects that were promised never came to fruition. The areas with the highest unemployment rates in the North have consistently remained majority ‘nationalist’ or ‘Catholic’ areas. The areas of Foyle (Derry & Strabane), West and North Belfast have year on year topped the list of areas of highest unemployment. Whilst in terms of educational attainment, since 1998 Catholics have consistently outperformed their Protestant counterparts in grades of GCSE, A-Levels and further education enrolment.
Traditionally and in other countries, educational attainment strongly correlates with employment. So those areas with high educational attainment usually have high employment rates as those young people with decent education move into work. This is clearly not the case in the Six Counties, indicating other factors at play dictating employment across the religious divide.
The fact that the areas with the highest rates of unemployment, and multiple social deprivation indicators, are still in predominantly nationalist areas 23 years after the Good Friday Agreement promised an end to sectarianism and discrimination, suggests that there has been a shift to more covert or underhand practices of discrimination as well as strategic underfunding and underinvestment in nationalist areas. This is simply a modern continuation of oppression through unemployment, of those Catholics, Nationalists and Republicans deemed a threat to the state since its foundation and has continued for the last 100 years to this present day.
Rather than celebrate the centenary of this rotten little statelet, instead, we should commiserate the tens of thousands of families forced to suffer in poverty due to unemployment, at the hands of this state, due to their religious or political outlook.
Rather than celebrate the 100th anniversary of this rotten little statelet, instead, we should commit ourselves to the ending of sectarianism across Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement and every other version of ‘power sharing agreement’ since, has proved time and again that it can’t end the scourge of sectarianism in our society. This is because it is so deeply rooted in the DNA of the state. It is entrenched in this state to oppress one section of society so that the state can survive. To end sectarianism in the Six Counties would ultimately end the Six County state itself. Therefore, the only way to rid the north of that bigotry is to rip the Orange State out by the root. And in its place build a 32 County Socialist Republic that guarantees real equality and prosperity to all, regardless of whether they are protestant, catholic or dissenter.
ENDS
Commenting on the recent news today, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Pádraic MacCoitir said:
“In April 1972 Joe McCann, an Official IRA volunteer, was gunned down by the British army in Joy Street, Belfast. Unarmed, he was shot in the back, with multiple bullet casings found close to his body – indicating they had shot him at close range whilst he lay on the ground.”
“Since the killing his family and friends have been seeking justice, and despite that they have been facing down the full corruption of the British state, they managed to attain charges against two soldiers involved in his killing. British establishment figures have always stood by their soldiers – who have killed and massacred many Irish people, such as those killed in Derry and Ballymurphy. They are unchanged in their support today.”
He continued: “Last week as the ‘trial’ commenced many of us following it were very sceptical of any convictions and this came to be the case – with the unfortunate news of the acquittal of those two British soldiers.”
“This will no doubt give others who were involved in other killings a lot of confidence, but it won’t stop the families of loved ones seeking justice for those so cruelly cut down in a conflict that has still not been resolved.”
ENDS
Today, Republicans gathered in the grounds of Stormont to mark the centenary of partition. Carrying flags, posters and a large banner, they assembled at the feet of Carson, overlooking East Belfast.
Pól Torbóid, a spokesperson for Lasair Dhearg who had organised the event, said, “Today marks the centenary of partition. On this day, 100 Years ago, the government of Ireland Act came into force. As rebel forces waged a war for national liberation, the British state moved to secure its own interests. Supported by a counter-revolution and forces loyal to the crown, they cut our nation in two.”
“The state propagandists will attempt to white-wash that history, and speak of partition as though it is something to celebrate. As they do, we stand here today to say that supremacy is nothing to celebrate, neither is the denial of rights; nor poverty, or injustice or inequality. Instead, we remember those that died at the hands of state sponsored unionist death squads and those innocent victims of collusion. We remember those tortured in interrogation centres and those who were imprisoned without trial. We remember the women denied their healthcare rights, and we think of those discriminated against because of their language.”
“Our thoughts today are with the homeless, the houseless, and the jobless; and we think of those political prisoners locked up in its jails, including Brendan McConville and John-Paul Wootton – the Craigavon Two are innocent men, suitable scapegoats for the state militia.”
Pól said, “The centenary of partition isn’t something to be remembered fondly, it marks 100 years of oppression and discrimination; so today we mark it in a fitting manner, highlighting the inherent injustice at its foundation. To resolve that injustice, nothing less than a thirty-two County Socialist Republic will suffice.”
“Ar aghaidh linn le chéile – bígí linn.”
ENDS
100 years ago, at the inception of partition, and with the birth of the rotten little statelet they call ‘Northern Ireland’, the ruling classes sought to provide the state with as much security powers as possible, in order to ensure its survival.
One of the most repressive pieces of legislation ever produced was born – The Special Powers Act.
The powers contained within it, oversaw the rampant discrimination of generations of Irish nationalists and catholics. It’s imposition was unprecedented, in that it gave the North’s Minister for Home Affairs the powers to do pretty much whatever they wanted. It allowed the new regime to take any steps at all which it thought necessary and it was used almost exclusively on the minority population.
The Act was heralded by unionists as necessary to maintain the constitutional structure of the state, the state that they controlled – in short, it was a question of ensuring Orange supremacy and their continued dominance over that minority. Those Catholic’s now living within the state would face arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and ensure that they knew that, should they stay within its borders, they would remain second class citizens.
This year, like in years previous, we commemorate those workers who went on strike, engaged in work stoppages, marched, picketed and rallied in demand of working-class emancipation.
Whilst there will be no gathering of comrades to mark the occasion, it will be marked across the globe by trade unionists, and political & community activists, who will pause to remember those who went before us fighting for the liberation of our class.
This year is bittersweet. For many long months now, workers across the globe have faced the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. The ranks of nurses, doctors, paramedics and more have been thinned out, as many have fallen in the ongoing battle against the disease. Millions globally have died, and millions more will join them as capitalism fails to adequately organise against the virus.
But, we are offered hope. A hope, given to us by science and the worker. Hope, in the form of vaccines.
As with all wealth created by working people, those that control the levers of economic power have set about creating as much red tape as possible in order to ensure that they can profit from the pandemic. Some businesses, whose vaccines were funded with public money, are set to make billions, at the behest of the countries within which they exist.
We call for those lecherous governments to set aside their greed, lift the patents, and give to the workers that which they made; vaccines, like all aspects of healthcare, is a human right. It should not be withheld or hoarded for profit as women, men and children strain for breath and struggle for life.
The working class, as always, will pay the highest price for the current crisis. Whether through front line deaths in efforts to combat the spread, higher exposure in front facing jobs and the impact of more working-class people being pushed into poverty and starvation. The limited statistics already released into the public domain show a clear link between class and exposure with deaths due to the Coronavirus. While some bankers and speculators are laughing all the way to the bank, increasing numbers of the working class are instead walking to food banks.
Let us be clear; the rich must pay for COVID-19. If the powers that be in the Six and Twenty-Six county state’s think that the working classes of this island will accept another ten years of austerity, then they are mistaken. Our communities will not accept those who proclaim to be against cuts administering any further austerity measures. Whilst ‘Welfare Reform’, amongst other anti-working class initiatives, were designed in Whitehall, it was voted on by those in Stormont and administered by those living in our communities.
As Stormont, the bastion of capital in the occupied Six Counties, have again been found wanting, across Ireland working class communities have rallied and organised themselves providing essential services to our citizens in their time of need – initiatives which have shown the power of our collective efforts to provide essential services in the absence of the state.
It has provided to many across our communities a reminder of the renewed importance of self-organisation and empowerment that must be built upon as we move forward in our ambitions of realising a Socialist Republic.
There can be no return to the status quo of rampant capitalist and imperialist exploitation.
So, on this Mayday we reflect on the words of Cork born union organiser Mother Mary Jones who famously said: ‘Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living’.
For working class emancipation and a Socialist Republic. Ar aghaidh linn le chéile.
Lasair Dhearg were joined this evening by activists Danny Shaw, Kayla Pop and Yhamir Chabur, US-based activist journalists, some of whom have recently returned from Haiti and Nicaragua. They gave us personal insights into the struggle against imperialism on the ground and in the communities of those Latin American nations.
This event was LIVE-streamed across both Facebook and YouTube, with questions from the audience.
Lasair Dhearg joined the QUB creche workers, fellow trade unionists and other political activists on the picket line today outside Queen’s University, Belfast
Speaking from the gathered crowd, Pádraic MacCoitir, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson, said, “Since March this year creche workers have taken industrial action in pursuit of protection of their employment terms and conditions.”
“I spoke with a number of the workers today and I am very impressed with how determined they are. They will continue to hold pickets at the main gate of the university; where just last year Lasair Dhearg activists erected a banner on the gate renaming it in honour of IRA Volunteer Mairéad Farrell.”
“As the strikers are calling for more people to support them, it is worth remembering that this University had been the seat of unionism and the privileged few who looked down their noses on the working classes for generations. However, from the 1960s when further education was opened to more people many radicals took on the the establishment both inside the university and the political elite. This continues through to today despite the great and the good trying to stamp out any form of radicalism.”
“Lasair Dhearg will continue to support those on strike as they fight for their just demands.”
Lasair Dhearg activists have been out this past week erecting posters across the city as part of their ‘100 Years of Partition’ campaign designed to counter the six-county state’s media campaign celebrating the ‘NI Centenary’.
Republicans and Socialists have a duty to challenge every glorification of colonialism and partition – we must not take the centenary year celebrations of partition lying down.
As the British state, its puppets, and the Unionist media will attempt to normalise and celebrate the bloodstained and murderous origins and history of this rotten little statelet with tales of sports heroes, literary idols, and industrial innovation – we must organise to counter what this really is: the whitewashing of 100 years of partition, orange supremacy, discrimination, colonialism and occupation.
Lasair Dhearg will be publishing a weekly series of short documentaries and articles highlighting the most repressive historical and modern elements of the Six County state. To understand the origins of the six-county state, is to help understand why this statelet must fall if we are to ever achieve a free and just Irish society, socialist in nature: controlled by all the workers of Ireland regardless of race, religion, gender and sexual identity.
As the British state continues to escalate its propaganda campaign, so too will Lasair Dhearg. We hope like-minded socialists and Republicans will join us in countering the British states attempts to glorify the partition of our country.
