Easter 2007, Address from republican POWs Maghaberry Gaol.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Monday April 09, 2007 13:09 by Seán Ó Murchú - Sinn Féin (Poblachtach) - Cork

A Chairde agus a camaradai

It is a great honour that I have the opportunity to address you today on this the 91st anniversary of the historic Easter rebellion. We the Republican POWs send revolutionary and Easter greetings to all true and faithful republicans at home and abroad and to those of you who have gathered here today at the graves and monuments of Ireland’s patriot dead.

You have remained true and faithful to the All-Ireland Republic envisaged by Tone and proclaimed by Pearse on the steps of the GPO in Dublin 1916. Since that very day a vast amount of ground has been covered, a lot of sacrifices have been made and a lot of men, women and children have gone to their graves, all in the name of Irish republicanism. It grieves me to say that in recent years these very graves have been desecrated by the actions of our former comrades in the provisionals, none more sorely then their recent actions of recognizing, accepting and backing the British paramilitary force, the RUC.

They think that by a name change and a uniform change that they can then tell us that this is not the same force, the same force that sent so many of our people to the prisons and to the graveyards, that same force which has and always will work hand in hand with the loyalist death squads. They have told us that by signing up to this anti-republican ragbag that they can make the so-called police more accountable to all. Well we say yet again the Provo’s are wrong, a leopard never changes its spots. We will recognize no police force other than that established by the 32 county all-Ireland republic. The recruitment drive is in full swing for the new Broy Harriers, to help bolster Stormont, home of the British occupiers and the power base of the British/loyalist domination of the 6 northeastern counties of our country. Republicans were right in 1986 and their concerns at that time are now statements of unfolding facts.

Those of us imprisoned at home and abroad have been so, for our ideological beliefs. Our belief in the Proclamation of 1916 and all that it entails is steadfast and will remain so. Here in Magaberry Gaol we are denied the right to political status and whereas in 1972 and 1976 it was the British who refused it, we now have the British and their ally’s in the Provisionals denying to us something for which 10 brave Irishmen laid down their lives for. The Stormont agreement seeks to criminalise us, this they will NEVER succeed in doing. From Thomas Ashe in 1917 to Bobby Sands in 1981 they have tried and failed. We are political POWs and that we will remain. We want most of all for the British to set a date for disengagement from our country, we will never accept the continuation of the occupation of our country and we remain committed to our objectives, whilst the brits remain in Ireland.

We send solidarity greetings to the leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann and we wish to state that we have full faith in our leadership and comrades in arms to continue the struggle for Irish freedom. To our comrades in Portlaoise we also send solidarity greetings and thanks for your acts of solidarity during our present phase of prison protest.

We pay tribute to all of you who have sent us letters and cards of support; they are a source of strength and great encouragement to us. We say a special thanks to RPAG and CABHAIR for all their great support and aid.

Finally last but by no means least, we salute and congratulate all candidates who took a stand in the recent elections on an abstentionist/political status platform. We pay tribute to all who campaigned for the candidates and to those who voted for them. The republican voice must be heard now and in the future.

Victory to the Continuity Irish Republican Army
Victory to the POW’s
AN Phoblacht Abu

O/C Republican Pows
Maghaberry Gaol
Easter 2007