In recent days Lasair Dhearg activists systematically removed a significant number of boards across Derry City which were erected by unscrupulous profiteers trying to buy homes from those facing financial difficulty.
Typically, properties would be bought at significantly below the actual worth in order to be sold on for profit, taking advantage of the homeowner.
Speaking from Derry, Lasair Dhearg’s Lorcán Ó Duine said, “For too long now housing in Ireland has been used and abused by investors and profiteers. They buy up housing and hoard it so that demand for housing increases and the cost of the homes they’ve hoarded goes up, giving them bumper profits.
He continued, “Quite literally hundreds of thousands of homes are lying empty across Ireland because of this, enough to house everybody if the political will existed to do so.
“When it comes to property vultures, you have a number of individuals across Ireland that are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to make a profit.
“They offer quick cash for your home, targeting those facing financial difficulty, buying it up for less than its worth so that they can sell it on for more. To them, your pain is their gain. If you see their boards up in your area, take them down.
“Lasair Dhearg is a Socialist Republican organisation and in a Socialist Republic there would be no more landlords or profiteers, all homes would be seized for the common good. All housing should be taken into public hands. Houses are homes, not commodities.”
Saturday May 14th saw dozens of people gather at Arbour Hill Cemetery in Dublin to mark the 106th anniversary of the execution of James Connolly.
Lasair Dhearg Dublin’s Dáithí Breathnach delivered the main oration. After welcoming those assembled, Dáithí called on Missy Chan to lay a wreath on behalf of Lasair Dhearg. This was followed by reading of the names of those executed by the British state in the weeks and months after the Rising, by Jenny Martin.
A moments silence was then held to honour James Connolly and all those who have given their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom, as a four person colour party lowered their flags at the monument.
Lasair Dhearg Colour Party
Dáithí delivered the following oration to the assembled crowd:
“It is an honour and a privilege for me to speak here today on behalf of Lasair Dhearg at the gravesides of those who led the 1916 Rising, to mark the 106th anniversary of the executions of James Connolly and Sean MacDiarmada.
Dublin, with its long republican history, like so many other towns, cities and counties across Ireland, has good reason to be proud of its contribution in every phase of the struggle for national liberation. This was the city that took on the British Empire, declared a Republic, and held back the might of that Empire as it fought for our Sovereignty. In the early decades of the twentieth century this city was the driving force of revolutionary struggle in Ireland.
And so we gather in Dublin today to acknowledge the sacrifice of those who fought and died at Easter week, and to commemorate all those martyred for an Irish Socialist Republic.
One hundred and six years ago, at 12 noon on Easter Monday, the women and men of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers marched out together from Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union.
As they moved off to take different parts of Dublin city, a detachment outside the G.P.O gathered to hear the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
That document was both radical and visionary. It declared the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland to be sovereign and indefeasible.
It guaranteed religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and it declared its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and to cherish all the children of the nation equally. It rejected the sectarian divisions fostered by the British government in the interests of maintaining its hold on Ireland.
One hundred and six years on, it is a vision that has yet to be realised.
Despite Britain’s vastly superior military forces, the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army fought courageously in defence of the Republic. Many paid the ultimate price for their stand and we are here today to pay our respects, to remember their sacrifice and to commit ourselves to the completion of the historic task of achieving Irish independence and socialism.
Dáithí Breathnach delivers the main oration
While the British state violently suppressed the Rising, executed our leaders and interned thousands in prison camps, they could not kill or imprison the ideal that inspired it.
An ideal that 106 years later continues to thrive, and its adherents organise for a 32 county socialist republic.
For there is nothing normal about the Ireland of today. Though both failed statelets on this island would have you believe that peace has been achieved and therein lies our salvation, the facts would tell us otherwise.
For the Ireland of today is one firmly wedded to imperialism and the capitalist economic system.
There is nothing normal about the fact that thousands of British combat troops continue to occupy the Six Counties, supported by over 7,000 members of the paramilitary police and hundreds of British military intelligence agents.
Combined, there are over 20,000 British security personnel maintaining Britain’s occupation of Ireland – fuelled by a yearly security budget of Billions from the British exchequer.
There is nothing normal about the fact that dozens of republican prisoners continue to be held in prisons where they are regularly beaten and strip searched. Denial of visits is a common occurrence. And the prison regime in the Six Counties continues Britain’s policy of criminalisation.
And there is nothing normal about the fact that a British Tory government, ably assisted by the Stormont puppet parliament, continues to impose a regime of real-term wage cuts, poverty, and a declining health service.
There is nothing normal about the fact that on an almost daily basis, international military flights continue to ship soldiers, machinery and heavy weaponry through Irish airports on their way to other global conflicts.
Indeed, there is nothing normal about hundreds of thousands of families living without a home as hundreds of thousands of homes lie empty, to be used not to house the people that need them, but as commodities with ever-increasing profits.
There is nothing normal about poverty, food banks, hunger and malnutrition.
There is nothing normal about capitalism.
Those grovelling dirt eating capitalists that Connolly railed against, continue to be in the ascendancy and like Connolly, our task is to destroy the parasitic capitalist system that continues to profit from our misery.
Jenny Martin read the names of those executed by the British state.
This is the context within which we find ourselves. It is why Lasair Dhearg was formed just a few short years ago.
At our inception, we were very conscious of the enormity of the decision we had undertaken and of the road that lay ahead.
We were conscious also of the very weak condition within which Irish Socialist Republicanism now found itself. We accepted that the revolutionary potential that existed just some decades ago had now been subverted and marched into the political cul-de-sac of constitutional nationalism. And we believed that this was only temporary.
We believe that that cul-de-sac exists primarily because the Republican struggle at large had failed to cultivate a revolutionary socialist understanding of the economic & political changes required in Ireland. It had failed to define the character of the Socialism we espoused – and in doing so, allowed others to define it for us.
There has been a failure to instill a revolutionary socialist consciousness within the broad Republican community with regard to the real nature of the struggle in Ireland. As always, the failure of our struggle, has been a failure to grasp, as Connolly attested, that: “A Socialist Republic is the application to agriculture and industry; to the farm, the field, the workshop, of the democratic principle of the republican ideal.”
The struggle for national independence has thus far failed because we ourselves have failed to make this demand a genuine and central element of the broader Republican programme.
Resistance to British rule must in essence be about the rejection of a philosophy that would hold the interests of one class as being superior to those of another.
Our struggle must be rescued from the reformist cul-de-sac in which it now finds itself.
Writing in An Shan Van Vocht in 1897, Connolly asserted how:
“If the national movement of our day is not merely to re-enact the old sad tragedies of our past history, it must show itself capable of rising to the exigencies of the moment. It must demonstrate to the people of Ireland that our nationalism is not merely a morbid idealising of the past, but is also capable of formulating a distinct and definite answer to the problems of the present and a political and economic creed capable of adjustment to the wants of the future. This concrete political and social ideal will best be supplied, I believe, by the frank acceptance on the part of all earnest nationalists of the Republic as their goal”.
The challenge facing us all today, is the acknowledgement that the road that leads to the achievement of our objectives begins with the development of a Socialist Republican Movement. A Movement firmly embedded in the politics and economics of Connolly and Carney.
There is no other way to realise this goal.
Lest others define it for us, our Socialist Republicanism is the requisitioning of all empty homes, to be handed over to the people who need them. It is the routing of the capitalist class who would seek to exploit those homes for their own enrichment.
Our Socialist Republicanism is the nationalisation of all natural resources, where reserves of oil, gas and the natural environment are held in trust for the people.
Where the right to work also means the right to a real living wage. Where bodily autonomy, the right to choose, and the right to adequate healthcare is not just an empty promise.
Our Socialist Republic is anti-imperialist.
We desire a democratic state, but we DO NOT believe that that democracy should extend only as far as the laws within capitalist society allow.
We believe that democratic decision making should extend into every corridor, building and financial institution in every corner of these 32 counties. That economic democracy is the basis upon which a 32 County Socialist Republic will thrive. That decision making should not be reserved to the gate-keepers of the economy, but that every citizen should hold a key to the gate.
Missy Chan laid a wreath commemorating all those who have died in the pursuit of a Socialist Republic.
The working class has been forced for too long now to pay the gambling debts of a parasitic class of bankers and property speculators. Driven into debt slavery in order to rescue the rotten class privilege of the capitalist system.
Wages continue to drop in real terms across the island as inflation and the cost of living drive normal working people to food banks.
And this great tragedy is not one faced only by the Irish people. These issues and more are the daily concern of the global masses.
The Palestinian people have themselves suffered, and continue to suffer, a great tragedy.
Today falls on the eve of what the Palestinians call ‘Al Nakba’ – the catastrophe.
On the 15th of May 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their villages, farms and homes, which they had lived in for many generations.
Tens of thousands were massacred by Zionist forces as part of a huge land grab of Palestinian territory. This coincided with the ending of British control of the Palestinian territory and the effective handing over of the land to zionist forces.
Britain had no moral, political or legal right to promise the land that belonged to the Palestinians to another people.
In recent days the situation in Palestine has again been brought into sharp focus.
Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in Jenin in the West Bank on Wednesday morning while wearing a helmet and a protective jacket labelled ‘press’ whilst working for Al Jazeera’s Arabic language channel.
Unarmed, she was shot down in cold blood by zionist foot soldiers intent on hiding the truth.
Not content with taking her life, they removed what dignity she had left by covering up the nature of her killing and then brutally attacking her funeral and those who mourned her.
These scenes are all too familiar to us in Ireland, having witnessed the brutality of the occupation here and its response to mourners at Republican funerals.
For decades Irish Republicans have supported the Palestinian people in their pursuit of a country free from foreign occupation.
Lasair Dhearg, in conjunction with other revolutionaries throughout the world, will continue in that support and we call on people throughout Ireland to remember Al Nakba and call for the expulsion of settlers from land they have stolen.
The Palestinian Nakba did not end in 1948. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine is still happening, and so too is Palestinian resistance.
Like Palestine, we too must continue to resist. The business of Easter Week 1916 remains unfinished.
The task facing the present generation of Irish socialists and republicans is no less daunting than that faced by the women and men who marched out from Liberty Hall on Easter Monday 1916.
Capitalism and imperialism remain in the ascendant.
The Six Counties remains under British occupation.
Finance capital and its international agents rule the Twenty Six Counties.
The working class across Ireland continues to be sacrificed to rescue the rotten, corrupt system of capitalism.
We must all commit ourselves to uprooting that system and playing our part in completing that task commenced during Easter Week in 1916: the establishment of a Socialist Republic.
It is the only fitting tribute we can pay to all of those republicans and socialists who have gone before us.
Last week Palestinians marked the 74th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe), referring to a time when over 700,000 Palestinian people were forcibly driven from their homes by the Haganah (a Zionist militia which was later to become the Israeli Defence Force). Hundreds of towns and villages were destroyed and thousands of people killed. As a result of this act of mass ethnic cleansing Israel was illegally founded on May 14th 1948.
Today over five million Palestinians live in refugee camps. Palestinian people have consistently fought for their right to return to their villages, many of which are completely vacant even today. They realise that this is an inalienable right, one which is not open to negotiation or debate. They have resisted continued Israeli attempts to destroy this right.
Settlement building, the illegal Apartheid Wall and army harassment are just some of the tactics used to try and demoralise Palestinians and force them to give up their fight. These attempts will not succeed.
Speaking on the issue, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Pádraic Mac Coitir said, “Nakba Day in 2022 was marked with demonstrations throughout Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Thousands turned out in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus. The demonstrations take place just days after Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in cold blood in the occupied West Bank by Israeli occupation forces.
“Abu Akleh, a longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was killed on Wednesday while covering Israeli army raids in the city of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.
He continued, “Predictably, the occupation forces have made false claims that she was gunned down by Palestinian militants, but this has been disproven by eye-witnesses. These crimes committed by the occupation forces will only serve to increase Palestinian resistance and determination.
“Lasair Dhearg fully supports the right of return of the Palestinian refugees and the popular resistance demonstrated throughout Palestine.”
On the afternoon of Monday the 2nd of May several reports were received by Lasair Dhearg activists that well known anti-women, anti-LGBT Islamophobe Dara O’Flaherty was distributing leaflets at a nearby shopping centre.
Very quickly, anti-fascist activists scrambled small numbers to verify his presence, and shut down the distribution.
Lasair Dhearg’s Pól Torbóid, who was in attendance, said, “Upon arrival we noticed that well-known Galway native Dara O’Flaherty was indeed distributing leaflets outside the Asda West Belfast store. Another male was in attendance, and local election candidate Tony Mallon was in the vicinity.”
“Activists moved in quickly, acquired their leaflets, disposed of them in the nearest bin, and left both men with a clear understanding that Dara is not welcome in Belfast. It has since been claimed by Tony Mallon on social media that both men were assaulted.”
“After the interaction, activists approached Tony Mallon as he arrived on scene. It was made abundantly clear to him that Dara and his politics were not welcome. Tony said that he was unaware of the background of Dara O’Flaherty and that Tony ‘wishes to work with everyone’, that he was working with other election candidates and other Republican organisations which he named, and all who have subsequently denied any link or affiliation with him.”
“Tony understands that the continued presence of Dara O’Flaherty on his campaign, and others like him, will be opposed by anti-fascists.”
Pól said, “A large network of anti-fascists have been organising in Belfast for some time now. They lie in wait and their primary purpose is to respond to the presence of fascists and fascist organising on our streets.”
“They responded in the summer of 2020 when the Irish Freedom Party attempted to organise openly, shutting them down quickly and without hesitation. And I do not doubt that they will continue to respond should O’Flaherty or others raise their heads again.”
50,000 deadly plastic bullets stockpiled – another reason not to join the PSNI!
As the PSNI works to recruit from Republican communities such as our own in attempts to shore up their religious figures, you would do well to examine each aspect of the force’s human rights record, particularly that of its use of deadly weapons; weapons like the plastic bullet.
Since the introduction of the plastic bullet in the 1970’s and until the modern day, hundreds of thousands of them have been fired by British forces on Irish soil.
It is widely believed that the PSNI maintains a stockpile of over 50,000 plastic bullets at any one time, and since their introduction into the Six Counties, 17 people have been killed, seven of which were children. The plastic bullet, despite the death and injury it has caused, is still in use by the PSNI, with the Stormont government refusing to act toward its removal.
In theory, plastic bullets should be fired at the lower part of a target’s body and from a distance of more than 20 meters. But we all know theory doesn’t translate into practice and that these deadly bullets are fired at any part of the body including the upper abdomen and the head, and within that range. This has been borne out by the facts over many decades with many succumbing to wounds to the upper body and head by plastic baton rounds fired well within their range guidance.
Indeed, a 1999 report into the use of these deadly weapons during the Drumcree standoff determined that of the 8,165 rounds fired during the crisis, 39% were potentially life-threatening and impacted the upper part of the target’s body.
The report, carried out by five of the North’s most senior doctors at the time and published in the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical care, considered these injuries inflicted to the body from the abdomen up to the head as constituting a risk to life.
The health and medical community have clearly laid out the lethality of these types of weapons and yet, in the face of decades of campaigning, with families torn apart by the pain of the loss of their loved ones, and with countless others permanently maimed and injured, the use of these weapons continues.
The British Government, its puppet assembly in Stormont, the PSNI and so-called ‘Policing and Community Safety Partnerships’ know exactly where our community stands when it comes to the use of these lethal weapons. Some of them have had decades to take them off the shelves if they wanted to. Instead, they continue to buy them, to store them, to train with them and to shoot them on Irish streets.
So you should remember the next time you see a PSNI recruitment poster on your street, that the PSNI have and continue to deny justice for those families who lost loved ones due to the use of these deadly weapons.
Derry Socialist Republicans mark 1916 Easter Rising on Republic Day
A small crowd gathered at the Republican plot in Creggan Cemetery to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
Main speaker, Lasair Dhearg Derry’s Lorcán Ó Duine started proceedings by calling upon Caolan McKeever to lay a wreath on behalf of Lasair Dhearg Derry, before inviting Pól Torbóid to read the 1916 Proclamation.
Lorcán said:
“On this day 106 years ago, hundreds of women and men seized strategic positions across Dublin City. Among them were the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan and na Fianna Éireann.
“As armed lines of marching women and men gathered in front of Dublin’s GPO, they, along with the population of the city, were read the Proclamation. That historic document is and was the foundation of our 32 County Republic. A Republic that was to cherish all the children of our nation equally.
“A Republic realised in the heroic acts of the women and men who faced all the might of the British empire, and though gravely outnumbered, they fought like lions.
“Their deed, and the executions that followed, inspired an otherwise passive population to take up arms. In just a few short years the battles fought from street to street in Dublin City on Easter week, were to be fought in the ditches and roadsides of rural Ireland.
“As towns and villages across the country committed support and personnel to the effort, the deeds of Easter week were to be eclipsed and surpassed by the heroic acts of those who committed themselves to a monumental military effort. An effort met by the barbarity of Britain’s war machine, as it gunned, raped and pillaged its way across our country.
“Unable to reign in the guerilla tactics of the IRA who faced down British military units in the field, Perfidious Albion, deceitful as they are, sued for supposed common ground. What followed was partition, counter-revolution and the foundation of more bloodshed in years to come.
“This was the context within which this sectarian statelet was formed. And though conflict ebbed and flowed, the state’s war against the Irish population never ended. This was a state that discriminated against anything green, for fear that it might dilute its Orange character.
“Our language then, as now, was discriminated against. Because they know, like us, and in the words of Pádraig Pearse, that “a country without a language is a country without a soul”.
“This was a Unionist state for a Unionist people. From its foundation, its borders harboured Unionist death squads. The state not only protected them, but supplied them, funded them, and utilised them in their war against our people.
“This past year marked a number of dates worth noting –
“100 years of partition, and the centenary of this sectarian statelet. This state will not see another one.
“The 30th anniversary of the Sean Graham Bookies massacre. A unionist death squad, supported by the state and its armed mercenaries in the RUC, gunned down five innocent people on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.
“The 40th anniversary of the 1981 Hungerstrike. Where ten brave men died fighting the criminalisation policies of the state.
“And the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, where 14 unarmed civilians were gunned down by Britain’s notorious parachute regiment on the streets of this very City.
“These acts occurred before this supposed “new dispensation” in the late 1990s.
“We were told that support for a stormont government would allow us the space to achieve justice for those slain in massacres like Sean Graham Bookies and bloody Sunday.
“We were told that stormont would help us achieve our ideals of a Socialist Republic.
“Instead, families are still fighting for justice as the armed wing of the state, the psni and others, use courts and legal procedures to hide evidence and cover up the truth.
“Our ideals have not only been unachievable through countless Stormont governments and various new agreements, but it has allowed the state apparatus to reap rewards for the rich and landlord class, and to wreck our communities.
“More have died through suicide since the end of the war than those who were killed during it. An issue our City knows only too well.
“Poverty is endemic. Homelessness is prevalent. Families are having to choose between buying food or heating their homes. And the costs continue to rise.
“Be under no illusions. A war is at hand. This is a war between classes. Between the haves and the have nots. The state and the stateless. A war between us and them.
“As another generation strives for the realisation of the vision laid out in 1916, we appeal to like-minded comrades to join us. We cannot do it alone.
“Nothing less than a 32 County Socialist Republic will help us achieve a more equitable society. This is what those who marched in Dublin City on this day 106 years ago fought and died for.
“The only lasting tribute to them, will be the achievement of their ideals, and you can help make that happen.
Irish Socialist Republicans commemorate Easter Rising in Scotland.
Saturday 23rd of April was the date chosen by Lasair Dhearg Scotland to hold a wreath laying ceremony at the graveside of Volunteer Patrick J. Maguire, a 1916 veteran, in a Glasgow cemetery to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
This event marked the first Easter commemorative event by Lasair Dhearg in Scotland since our formation and followed members and supporters of Lasair Dhearg Scotland attending Lasair Dhearg Belfast’s Easter commemoration on Easter Monday in Milltown Cemetery. The video of which can be viewed here.
The small, assembled crowd were welcomed by a Lasair Dhearg member and thanked for their attendance at the event to remember all those who died for the Irish Socialist Republic.
A short biography was read detailing Volunteer Patrick J Maguires contribution to the Republican struggle in the years before, and after 1916 and his involvement in the Easter Rising itself.
The Proclamation of the Irish Republic was read by a member of Lasair Dhearg Scotland and a minute’s silence was observed.
Following this a wreath was laid on behalf of Lasair Dhearg to remember Volunteer Patrick J Maguire and the contribution of all Scottish based Republicans in the struggle for Irish Freedom.
Scores gathered at the gates of Milltown Cemetery on Easter Monday to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
Following a full colour party to the Harbinson Plot, and before main speaker Máire Drumm, the event was chaired by Lasair Dhearg’s Pól Torbóid:
“A chairde agus comraidaithe, I want to welcome you all here to commemorate with us, the 106th anniversary of the Rising of 1916.
“We gather here, like thousands of others in recent days across our thirty two counties, to remember those brave women and men that gave their lives in the pursuit of a Socialist Republic. And though today marks the date of one particular Rising, I am reminded of the fact that every generation in Ireland, since the foreign jackboot stepped foot on our soil, has organised against it.”
Pól Torbóid
“We remember not just those who fought and died in 1916, but all those before it and there after.”
“This is the first 1916 Rising commemoration since the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Hungerstrike, where ten brave men died in British gaols on Irish soil. And today, we send solidarity to hungerstrikers Sibel Balac and Gokhan Yildirim in Turkey who have both engaged in a Death Fast resistance since December, and we join the call of the People’s Front that the demands of the prisoners, like the five demands of our hunger strikers in 1981, be met.”
“The struggle against imperialism can often take many forms, and we send solidarity to anti imperialist prisoners across the world, including those languishing in gaols across Ireland.”
“Today, Britain’s war against Republican prisoners takes place away from the public glare. Denial of visits, brutalisation, strip searches, families harassed and denial of basic rights is par for the course for Britain and its Stormont regime. Ireland has a long history of prison struggle and international solidarity. We know well the struggle faced by Sibel and Gokhan and we stand with them in their fight.”
Nicola Nic Gabhann delivering the Proclamation of 1916
Pól then called for wreaths to be laid. Fearghal Mag Uidhir laid a wreath on behalf of Republican ex-prisoners, and a wreath was laid on behalf of Lasair Dhearg by Belfast member Martine Jackson.
A moment of silence was observed during the lowering of the flags, followed by a reading of the proclamation by Lasair Dhearg Belfast branch secretary Nicola Nic Gabhann, before Máire Drumm delivered her oration:
Máire: “Is mór an onóir domh curreaidh a fhail labhairt inniu ar an talamh naofa seo. Coinnion muid inár gcuimhne laoch gach glúine a chuaigh romhainn a thug a mbeatha ar son shaoirse na hÉireann.”
“It is an honour to be invited to speak here today on this hallowed ground to remember all those, from every generation, who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom.”
“Listening once again to those inspirational words contained in the Proclamation, I can’t help but reflect on how those who penned those words would think of the Ireland we live in today. Connolly’s words were indeed prophetic when he wrote of partition leading to a carnival of reaction.”
“The two states on this island of ours is the antithesis of everything that noble document stood for.”
“Last weekend I visited the site where Liam Lynch was shot and mortally wounded on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains in South Tipperary. I could not help but think, that not only was it the end for a brave freedom fighter, but also the end of an era, as the hopes and vision of the men and women of 1916 also died on the slopes of those mountains, as the forces of reaction, both north and south brought an end to that revolutionary phase of struggle.”
“However, regardless of the hard years that followed, brave men and women kept the dream alive.”
“Many of us will know friends, comrades, and family, from this phase of struggle who gave their lives for Irish Freedom, for an Ireland where all the children of the Nation would be cherished equally.”
“Unfortunately, we most definitely do not have that Ireland today.”
Máire Drumm delivered the main oration.
“This land that so many fought for and that so many lost their lives fighting to free from oppression, now lies divided and under the control of two partitionist assemblies.”
“In the north of our country, Stormont, not surprisingly, has failed to deliver any meaningful change for the vast majority of our people.”
“Undoubtedly a privileged few, of course, have secured for themselves, a comfortable life, but that is not Republicanism. They fool themselves into thinking they have power, but they only have the power that the British – their paymasters- allow them. They can do nothing, even if they had the will, with the small amount of Block Grant the British Chancellor awards them – which is nothing more than pocket money – to divvy up. Meanwhile our people suffer. People can’t afford to heat their homes. More and more people depend on food banks to feed their families, and parents find it hard to sleep at night wondering how long it will be before they lose their homes because of rack renting landlords and mortgages that they struggle to pay.”
“The gombeen Republic is still alive and well. Is this what we fought for and what so many of our comrades died for?”
“Things are no different in the Free State, where nothing can be done without the say-so of their European masters. Banks saved and bailed out; big businesses having to pay little, or no taxes,. but families have to queue daily at soup kitchens, and resort to living in cars, or in hostels. More often than not any help they receive is through charities, not from their government.”
“Thousands can be spent across this island on fawning over British Royals but day and daily citizens in both parts of this divided island are left to suffer hardships.”
“’If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic, your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her property owners. Through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.’”
“Those words are as relevant to us today as they were when James Connolly wrote them in January 1897.”
“We have heard a lot lately about welcoming refugees to our shores, and while it is right of course that people from war situations are given shelter in their hour of need, it is also important to remember that all those throughout the world who are affected by oppression, are cherished equally. There has been an outcry about Ukraine, but the double standards are so blatant. Thousands of children are starving in Yemen, Syria has been torn apart and the Palestinian people have their homes destroyed and stolen from them on a daily basis. Everyday someone in Palestine loses their life at the hands of the Zionist government in Israel. The suffering of a Palestinian child is no different to that of a Ukrainian child, but the approach of Western states would suggest otherwise.”
“As we leave here today, the last resting place of so many of our comrades, let us continue in the pursuit of an independent 32 County Socialist Republic, with the connection to England broken, and where the citizens of our Republic are treated with dignity and respect, free from poverty and homelessness; a Republic which provides proper health care and guarantees the rights of workers.”
“This was the vision of:
Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy and Mary Ann McCracken, James Connolly, Padraig Pearse, Liam Mellows, Tom Williams, Charlie Kerins, Joe McCann, Máire Drumm, The H Block Martyrs, Mairead Farrell, and all those patriots who gave their lives.”
“Nothing but the achievement of the Socialist Republic will honour their sacrifice.”
“I would like to conclude with words spoken by my own mother:
‘We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward, for if we don’t, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country will haunt us for eternity.’
“Go raibh mile maith agaibh”
Before the colour party was asked to fall out, proceedings were brought to a close by Pól Torbóid:
“Bobby Sands, who lies mere yards from where we gather today, said that our revenge would be the laughter of our children. There are those today that frequently use this quote as though the Good Friday Agreement has provided us the space for the laughter of our children.”
“They told us that the setting aside of political violence and any subsequent ‘peace’ would allow our kids the space to thrive.”
“I want to remind you all that in the more than two decades since, our children still live in a very violent society. They live with the daily violence of poverty, houselessness, suicide, hunger and more.”
“James Connolly was not shot in a chair so that erstwhile Republicans could become landlords, turning those laughing children out into the street.”
“Bobby Sands did not die on hungerstrike so that our kids could suffer the violence and trauma of extreme poverty.”
“Mairead Farrell was not gunned down so that more of us could die from suicide after the conflict, than all those that died during it.”
“We have been fooled. Our people have been marched into a political cul-de-sac and told that the only way out is to march onward like lemmings toward each coming election and a border poll that is not even on the horizon.”
“What then is to be done?”
“We can be in no doubt, that the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent surrender of arms, goes down in history as one of the greatest defeats in the history of our proud struggle. And that this generation is now presented with the task of rebuilding Republicanism into the force that it once was.”
“And I want to ask you, each and every one of you as you leave here today, to rededicate yourself to the struggle.”
“The path to the Socialist Republic begins today comrades.”
“Otherwise, there will be no tomorrow.”
“Join us. Bigi linn. Gabh raibh míle maith agaibh.”
SSE profit gouging as half of Six Counties in fuel poverty
SSE profit gouging from energy supply as half of homes in the Six Counties living in fuel poverty. As SSE and others continue to push up energy costs and bring home bumper profits of over £1B a year, Lasair Dhearg yesterday (01/04/2022) highlighted the issue with a banner and leaflet drop at the locally sponsored ‘SSE Arena’ in Belfast.
Though the PSNI were swiftly called by security at the venue, activists distributed hundreds of leaflets. It is estimated that about half of all homes in the Six Counties are now living in fuel poverty.
Only a Socialist Republic can properly deal with the profiteering of capitalists – bringing all reserves and energy production into public ownership and for the public good.
The TRUTH – We’ve updated PSNI recruitment advertising.
Just like the RUC was retained and rebranded, it’s much despised ‘Special Branch’ did not go away either. Well known for its part in British state collusion and its links to loyalist paramilitaries, RUC Special Branch received the same lick of paint as the RUC itself, and was rebranded and re-formed into what is now known as ‘C3 Intelligence Branch’.
C3’s responsibilities include intelligence gathering by undercover agents, the infiltration of political organisations for the aim of disruption and gathering intelligence, and the recruitment and running of informers. It is public knowledge that this recruitment includes the use of children as informers, as part of PSNI policy.
Well known amongst Republican political activists in the Six Counties and working hand in glove with C3 Intelligence Branch are the PSNI’s ‘Tactical Support Group’. The TSG are trained in ‘specialist tactics’, its duties include search, methods of entry, ‘counter terrorism’ and surveillance amongst others. TSG patrols support C3 Intelligence Branch, Britain’s National Crime Agency and other intelligence agencies including Mi5. They are well known for their use of Stop and Search legislation to harass political and community activists.
These two agencies, C3 and the TSG, provide the basis of a re-branded RUC Special Branch. They use the same tactics and methods as the Special Branch, and for the same purpose. And it is not only the political, tactical and methodical approach to ‘policing’ that has remained the same, their religious balance stands in stark contrast to the PSNI’s broader statistics and that of the Six Counties as a whole. A 2016 ‘Labour Force Survey’ indicated that, of the working age population in the Six Counties, 44% were Catholic and 40% were Protestant.
But according to recent statistics published by the PSNI, their broader religious make-up comprises 67% perceived as ‘Protestant’ and 32% perceived as ‘Catholic’.
Compare this with the C3 Intelligence Branch, a huge 79% of which are Protestant personnel, of which 92% are former RUC officers.
In 2013 the PSNI stated that ‘…the average length of total Police service for Regular Police who are currently attached to C3 Intelligence is 19 ½ years. There are prerequisites to transfer into C3 Intelligence Branch based on qualifications and other factors. Therefore the 50/50 recruitment since…2001 will not have had a major effect on Community Background in C3 Intelligence Branch’.
Indeed, many years of a 50/50 recruitment policy has done little to impact the makeup of the new Special Branch. It remains almost 80% protestant, a dim representation of a population that is almost 50% Catholic; not that it would matter anyway.
Little wonder then that, employing the same modus operandi, the same political direction and indeed the same workforce, we have the same outcomes.
C3 Intelligence Branch is, for all intents and purposes, RUC Special Branch.
This is just one reason why you shouldn’t join the PSNI.
Removed: British Army recruiting children in West Belfast.
Recruitment posters for the British Army cadets have appeared on Belfast’s Falls Road as this video shows.
Speaking as posters were being removed, Aindriú Mac Ruaidhrí said, “This is the same force that run amok on these very streets, shooting indiscriminately and killing innocents as it sought to subjugate our people.”
“A so-called ‘peace’ has allowed this organisation and others like the PSNI, to attempt to recruit in these areas whilst also holding back justice for those that they shot, killed and maimed.”
“Lasair Dhearg will continue to remove this material if it continues to appear. If you see recruitment posters or other material like this. Do you’re community a favour and take it down.”
Collusion is no illusion – families vindicated in new report
The latest Ombudsman’s investigation into RUC handling of loyalist murders and shootings in South Belfast during 1990-98 has vindicated what Republicans and victims families have claimed for decades: that collusive action between the British state and loyalist paramilitaries was authorised to terrorise Catholic and Republican comminuties.
The three-hundred plus page report detailed how 8 British agents were involved in 27 murders and attempted murders during the 1990s. It is a damning report that is undiluted evidence of the policy of collusion as it was practised in South Belfast, and across the North.
Collusion is no illusion – families vindicated in new report
The ‘Operation Achille Report’ contains a litany of patterns which illustrate a policy of collusion. Detailing:
Routine destruction of evidence & documentation
Routine failures to share information on murder suspects by RUC Special Branch
Routine failures in murder investigations by CID
Failures to investigate the known persons involved in importing and distributing weaponry from South Africa.
Some of those involved in this importation and distribution were police informants
8 UDA members linked by intelligence to murders and attempted murders of 27 people. All were police informants
Threats to the lives of catholic civilians were not passed on
2 x SA80 rifles + 2 x 9mm browning pistols were “stolen” from Malone UDR Barracks and used in multiple attacks
A .357 Magnum Ruger RUC revolver was “stolen” and used in 7 shootings including 3 murders
Special Branch gave deactivated weapons to UDA members whom they knew could reactivate the same weapons
RUC Special Branch routinely gave active weapons to the UDA
Routine use of informers who RUC Special Branch knew were involved in serious criminal activity up to and including murder
Failing to test alibis of murder suspects
failing to conduct forensic investigations linking murders and murder suspects
Appalling failures in identification processes re murder suspects and placing eye witnesses at risk, reading out eye witness names’ and addresses’ in front of suspects, and ID parades with no screen between eye witnesses and known suspects
Crucially It confirms the previous accusations that a gun used in a 1992 massacre at Sean Grahams bookmakers Ormaeu Road, in which ultimately 10 people were to die from, was handed to a known loyalist terrorist serving as ‘Quartermaster’ of the UDA.
This report is just the latest in a long line of evidence that has put beyond doubt that collusion was NEVER an illusion, but instead an integral part of the British war machine in Ireland. The deployment of Loyalist death squads was part of a policy developed by British War Criminal Frank Kitson to complete targeted assassinations of Republican activists and wage Britians ‘dirty war’ against the IRA.
We in Lasair Dhearg applaud the efforts of the victims families who have brought this report to fruition due to their years of tireless campaigning. The ombudsman and HET remain toothless tigers, and it will be down to the might of the families again to attain further justice.
On this day in 1991: IRA Mortars Land on Downing Street.
At approximately 10am on the morning of the 7th of February 1991, as British Prime Minister John Major sat down with his War Cabinet in the Cabinet room of number 10 Downing Street, a white Ford Transit van, parked itself over 200 yards away, at the intersection of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall, outside Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
A large hole cut from its roof, its driver door opened and out stepped a Volunteer of the Irish Republican Army, who calmly made his way to a waiting motorcycle driven by another Volunteer in the IRA Active Service Unit, upon which they promptly made their escape.
Concealed within the van, were several improvised metal mortar tubes secured to its floor, containing Provisional IRA developed Mark 10 Mortar rounds, three to four feet long, each with a short-fuse timing device and armed with warheads containing 40lbs of high-grade plastic explosive Semtex.
This operation was like many others conducted by the IRA. The mortar devices they had developed were first used in combat in 1979 by the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade, and employed extensively in attacking British Army Barracks. These, and later variants, caused the British Army to significantly adapt their tactics and strategy, and move a significant number of their Base’s at least one mile from their imposed border in Ireland, such was the IRA’s technical capabilities.
But this operation was also quite different. It had to be conducted in unfamiliar territory. Moreover, there was no direct line of sight between the launch site and their intended target. IRA Volunteers had to be meticulous, and mathematically devise the exact location that the mortars should be fired from in order to hit their intended target. Too close and they might overshoot. Too far away and they might not reach.
Additionally, the direction of the mortars’ aim created the biggest issue, just a few degrees to the left or the right and they’d be knocking out buildings on either side of their intended target.
The van had to be parked perfectly.
Just eight minutes later, as a uniformed officer of London’s Metropolitan Police walked his way to the abandoned weapons platform, the firing mechanism contained inside initiated, and the van shuddered backwards.
Launched using fast-burning propellant made of weed killer and sugar, they were fired in two volleys: first as a pair to balance the recoil, then a single in the middle. The trajectory sent them in an arc over the roofs of the Horse Guards buildings on Whitehall, with two landing in Mountbatten Green behind the Foreign Office, on Downing Street. The third mortar landed in the rear garden of number 10 Downing Street, just yards from the British War cabinet.
The substantial building shook violently, and the Cabinet Room’s bomb-proof windows buckled inwards, as the Prime Minister and his War Cabinet scurried like rats, taking cover underneath their substantial table. The damage to Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street – the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer’s official residences – was substantial. The direct hit left a crater several feet deep at its impact site.
Almost immediately, British security personnel in the capital scrambled to secure all Government buildings for fear of impending attacks. Hundreds of officers sealed off the entire area in Central London around the main British Government offices, from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square, leaving Whitehall almost deserted, as a secondary device contained within the van ignited, causing the vehicle to burst into flames and seriously curtailing any British attempts at forensic examination of both it and the weaponry.
Greater still was the damage caused to Britain’s war and propaganda machine, as the IRA displayed their ever-growing capability to strike at the heart of the British Government and bring Britain’s war in Ireland to the capital of their crumbling Empire.
“Like any colonialists”, said P O’Neill, nom de guerre of the IRA’s Army Council, “the members of the British establishment do not want the result of their occupation landing at their front or back doorstep … Are the members of the British cabinet prepared to give their lives to hold on to a colony? They should understand the cost will be great while Britain remains in Ireland … Let the British government understand that, while nationalist people in the Six Counties are forced to live under British rule, then the British Cabinet will be forced to meet in bunkers”.
Stormont resignation signals time for Socialist Republic
At 4.30PM today the DUP’s Paul Givan, ‘First Minister’ of the failed Six County statelet, attended a press conference in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belfast and formally resigned his seat. His departure ejects ‘Deputy First Minister’ Michelle O’Neill from her joint role as well, effectively halting all government business for the Stormont regime until the roles are re-nominated.
Paul Givan, former DUP Six County ‘First Minister’
The massive face-saving exercise was delivered initially by a pathetic Paul Givan choking back tears as press and photographers jostled for position, followed up by a DUP conference featuring party heavyweight Jeffrey Donaldson who, noting their strategy and reasoning, blamed everything on the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’.
Among the concerns noted by Donaldson were the supposed rising costs for consumers in the Six Counties, an issue his party didn’t seem to have when it came to the public millions lost through the massively fraudulent RHI scheme and other Stormont debacles such as Red Sky.
What is clear however, is that a looming election in the Six Counties is likely to bring the DUP’s world to a sudden crashing halt. The impending car crash will no doubt eject multiples of their MLA’s from their Stormont teams, alongside advisors, workers and support staff if the most recent polling is to be believed.
The writing is on the wall for the Irish language hating ‘Democratic’ Unionists and rather an abrupt and crashing halt, a controlled collision within the context of supposed opposition to the ‘NI Protocol’ will no doubt allow the DUP to slow their hemorrhaging of support from the Loyalist and Unionist community.
Sinn Féin also held a press conference today in response to the unfolding events, this time in Belfast’s Europa Hotel. Mary Lou McDonald, flanked by Michelle O’Neill and Conor Murphy, delivered their message to the assembled press; in short, ‘we want an election and we want one now’.
Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin have had their eyes on the big seat for a period of time now. It is expected that in the coming election they will become the biggest party in the Six County executive, allowing them to nominate a ‘First Minister’ into the role. Due to the nature of the Stormont regime and the workings of its remit as underpinned in the ‘Good Friday Agreement’, this means absolutely nothing beyond the acquisition of a title for the party. The ‘First’ and ‘Deputy First Minister’ roles are a joint office, with equal footing, and a position that Sinn Féin have held for several years already.
A Sinn Féin ‘led’ Stormont executive will bring no qualitative change for the people of the Six Counties. Given the neo-liberal, public-sector-redundancy economics of Sinn Féin, it will be business as usual for the capitalists in our midst. How do we know this? Because Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, the party finance spokesperson in the Twenty Six Counties, told us so when he said, “Big business and investors know Sinn Féin won’t go after them”.
Indeed, in recent months Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the main analyst on the creditworthiness of the Twenty Six county state said that the state’s “business friendly” economic model and “strong institutions” should remain intact through any government changes, when asked if they saw a Sinn Féin-led government posing a negative risk to the country’s credit rating. S&P’s “base case assumption” is that the Republic’s openness to trade, flexible labour market and commitment to put its high public debt levels “on a downward trajectory” will remain in place “regardless of the election outcome”. Big business and those that are profiting us out of our homes are not afraid of a Sinn Féin government.
Our rents will keep rising, our energy bills will continue to soar, our food costs will escalate alongside them, and real-term wages will continue to go in the other direction.
In short, this latest ‘crisis’, strategically created within the headquarters of the Democratic Unionist Party, is simply another bump in the long and winding road that is Stormont. A road that, if the past is anything to go by, will be littered with bumps and pot-holes along the way so long as Stormont continues to exist. You cannot build institutions upon the foundations of a sectarian headcount in order to ensure the continued existence of the failed Six County statelet.
The DUP can’t deliver. Sinn Féin can’t deliver. Stormont can’t deliver.
Only a 32 County Socialist Republic can bring about the desired change that we all so desperately need.
“Stand beside your oven to stay warm” say profiteering gas company as price hikes continue.
This week, we have seen gas companies continue to raise their prices, ripping off customers and pushing people further into fuel poverty. After raising its prices not once or twice, but three times in 2021, yesterday Firmus announced further price increases for towns and villages across the six counties. This 33.57% increase will affect around 59,000 households, who will be charged an additional £300 to their gas bill, bringing yearly bills to £1,300.
The constant price hikes brought forward by Firmus Energy are a worrying sign for working-class homes and families. The company’s latest price increase is the fourth since last Spring, and with the Fuel Poverty Coalition warning that already one in five families in the north of Ireland are living in fuel poverty, it is certain that more people will be left poorer and colder.
Firmus is not alone in its worsening of this financial burden. SSE Airtricity raised its gas prices twice in 2021, increasing the cost by 21.8% in October 2021, which added an extra £112 onto the household’s annual bill. In January 2020, SSE sold its company to OVO Energy, one of the largest British energy suppliers. A year after this sale, OVO were forced to apologise for sending out their customers a blog containing ‘energy saving tips’, so-called ‘advice’ which included telling people to cuddle their pets to stay warm. Other ‘advice’ included to eat a bowl of porridge to stay warm, wear an extra jumper in the house to stay warm, leave your oven on after you’ve finished cooking, as the ‘extra heat’ will help you stay warm.
What these words of ‘advice’ from one of the largest gas companies reveals, is that the people running these corporations are well aware that ordinary, working-class people cannot afford to heat their homes. This ‘advice’ is not just outdated, but offensive. People suffering in fuel poverty, or in any type of poverty at all, already know what they must do to stay warm. How to care for themselves and their families in the cold months, when the price of gas is increased and the bill can no longer be paid.
An ‘apology’ from OVO Energy came on 11 January 2022, the same month that the Utility Regulator warned of gas price increases of at least 30% in the coming weeks. These companies might be sorry for the PR disaster caused, but they are not sorry for the continued raising of gas prices. They are not sorry that working-class people are sinking deeper into fuel poverty, which jeopardises their health and their quality of living.
A real apology would be a freeze in gas prices, for the ongoing raising of costs to end. But as long as these companies continue to profit from the ever-increasing payments made by ordinary working people, this exploitation will not end. This morning, the regulator Ofgem announced a record energy bill increase of 54%, the steepest increase in heating costs ever recorded.
To be clear, OVO Energy Ltd posted increased revenues of £4.5 Billion in 2021 – that’s money straight out of your pocket and into theirs. Think about that as you follow their advice to stand beside your oven for the extra heat.
Such an inhumane system where a private company is allowed to profit from your need to heat your home should not be allowed to exist. Under a Socialist Republic utilities such as this would be brought into public ownership, to be treated as a service and not an enterprise for profit.
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