Sligo and the Corrib gas dispute

Next Wednesday (April 21) a deputation from the Sligo Save our Shops (SOS) campaign is set to meet Minister of State at the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources Conor Lenihan in Leinster House. The campaign is a combination of a number of various organisations and business interests, including the Sligo Fair Dealers Campaign, Sligo Chamber of Commerce, Sligo Council of Trade Unions, individual business owners and local politicians.

The meeting was arranged by Sligo north/Leitrim Fianna Fáil TD Jimmy Devins and is set to discuss calls by Deputy Devins and the SOS campaign to have gas from the Corrib field piped to Sligo and the north-west.

Deputy Devins, according to the recently published TD's Register of Interests in Leinster House, is a shareholder in Standard Life. Standard Life are one of Shell's biggest shareholders, holding more than 46 million shares.

Deputy Devins' wife is Judge Mary Devins, who has publicly revealed extreme hostility towards campaigners opposed to Shell's pipeline. She has also played a key role in trying to criminalise campaigners and imprisoning key activists like Maura Harrington at crucial times.

When questioned by a journalist on Ocean FM today (Friday) about éirígí's contention that Shell would be the sole beneficiaries of the Corrib gas under current arrangements, Devins' unbelievably said that “I look on any natural resource we have in the country as being for the benefit of all the people”.

Accusing Devins' of hypocrisy and lies, Sligo éirígí activist Gerry Casey said that he had “been a consistent and staunch supporter of the planned pipeline by Shell in north Mayo and of the giveaway by his party of our valuable natural resources to Shell and other private companies at the expense of the Irish people.”

Casey added: “Devins, and Fianna Fáil, are willing to trample all over the human rights of the people through whose community Shell are seeking to construct this highly dangerous pipeline carrying raw unrefined gas. They are also willing to trample over the economic rights of the Irish people, to whom this gas rightfully belongs.”

Casey also called on the Sligo SOS deputation scheduled to meet the Minister on Wednesday to publicly support the campaign by the Rossport community to stop Shell's planned pipeline in north Mayo. He also urged them to publicly support calls for the nationalisation of the Corrib gas.

Casey said: “We would like this deputation to make it crystal clear in a public statement and directly to the Minister that while they would like the gas network extended to this region, that they would not support it happening at the expense of the Rossport community. They must make clear that under no circumstances would it acceptable for businesses in this region to be connected to the gas network under the current situation.”

He added: “As things currently stand, the only people who will profit from the gas coming to the north-west or anywhere else will be shell and their shareholders. Shamefully, Fianna Fáil led administrations have given away the rights to these valuable natural resources, believed to be worth well over 500 billion euro, to private companies like Shell, a company with an appalling human rights and environmental record worldwide. So at a time of mass unemployment, increased poverty, savage cutbacks being imposed on social welfare and pay and on health and education budgets, this state is allowing colossal wealth to be taken from the Irish people by these multi-nationals.”

“éirígí and others opposed to the current planned pipeline and Shell's involvement, are not opposed to this gas being utilised. We have consistently called for the nationalisation of this gas and all our natural resources and using the enormous wealth to tackle poverty, create employment, deliver efficient public, accessible and available to all, and to raise the living standards of all the people on this island. This gas belongs to the people of Ireland, it must be utilised for the people of Ireland. It must not be used to create profits for Shell, or for shareholders like deputy Devins.”

“éirígí have written to the Fair Dealers campaign group and have urged them to take a stand in support of human rights, in support of the community of Rossport who are living under a virtual state of siege and to support the right of the Irish people as a whole to enjoy the benefits and economic prosperity that would come from nationalising the Corrib gas.”

He concluded: “I urge the deputation to issue a public statement declaring their support for this stance before meeting Lenihan. Such a statement would go a long way towards dispelling the genuine fears that many people have that there are people and pressure groups willing to secure gas for Sligo and the north-west by trampling over the rights of the people of north Mayo and the people of this island in general. The right to generate profit for private business at the expense of the human rights, the safety, and the social and economic rights of people is never acceptable.”

IPSC/éirígí joint demo for release of Palestinian political prisoners

Saturday April 17 marks the 34^th anniversary of Palestinian Political Prisoners day. As part of this, International events have been organised around the world to highlight the ongoing abuses suffered by detainees at the hands of their Israeli captives and to demand the immediate release of ALL Palestinian political prisoners.

Since 1967, the Zionist regime has detained more than 650,000 Palestinians, a figure which is 20% of the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza and roughly 40% of the male population of those areas. The vast majority of detainees have been held in prisons within the Israeli state in beach of International humanitarian law.

Under the Geneva Convention, it is forbidden to remove prisoners from occupied territories to the state of the occupier or elsewhere. Article 49 states: "....forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons (including prisoners) from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

Currently there are believed to be over 7000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for resisting the zionist occupation of their lands. This includes around 300 children. Also amongst those detained are 18 democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Up to 800 detainees are serving life sentences.

Approximately 300 prisoners are interned without trial in what is known as “administrative detention” while those who have been “convicted” have been tried by heavily biased non-jury Israeli military courts that are anathema to any notion of justice. These 'courts' and 'trials' have been repeatedly condemned by Palestinian Human Rights organisations as well as by Amnesty International and other international human rights groups.

The conditions in which they are held are appalling and in violation of International law, with ill-treatment, physical and psychological torture and even death a regular occurrence at the hands of their Israeli captors.

Prisoners endure arbitrary strip-searching, are beaten with batons, tear gassed, shot with live ammunition, have their meagre possessions confiscated and placed in solitary confinement for very long periods of time.

Sickness is rife amongst prisoners as a result of cramped, unhealthy living conditions. Prisoners meals are insufficient in quantity, poor in quality and often inedible, leading to many cases of malnutrition. Sick prisoners are routinely denied proper medical care, with others being treated as guinea pigs being tested with dangerous new medicines.

Many political prisoners, particulary those from Gaza, have been repeatedly denied visits from family members. According to the Al Mazen Center for Human Rights over 900 Palestinian detainees from Gaza have been deprived of their right to have family visits since July 2007.

As an act of solidarity, on April 1, Palestinian prisoners in ten Israeli jails announced a strike until the end of April. The prisoners stopped meeting their families and commenced a hunger strike for five days commencing on April 7, again on April 12 and will continue on April 17, 22, and 27 to show their support for their Gazan colleagues and to protest against the ill-treatment and abuse that their own families receive during their visits.

Palestinian Political Prisoners day will be marked here in Ireland with a demonstration to be held outside the Israeli Embassy on Pembroke Road in Dublin 4 at 2PM.

As well as demanding the release of ALL Palestinian political prisoners, the protests will also focus on the specific cases of two prisoners. Those are the co-ordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall Abdallah Abu-Rahmah, as well as Ahmed Sa'adat the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both of whom currently remain in Israeli custody.

The demonstration has been jointly organised by éirígí and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). Among those who are set to address the rally are IPSC spokesperson Freda Hughes and éirígí spokesperson Dáithí Mac An Mhaistir.

Show your support for an end to the abuse and torture of Palestinian political prisoners by Israel.

Show your support for the immediate release of all Palestinian political prisoners.

Show your support for a sovereign and independent Palestine free from Israeli occupation.

Join the demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy, 122 Pembroke Road, Dublin 4 this Saturday at 2pm

For more information on Palestinian Prisoners day click here

For more information on the IPSC click here

éirígí warn of potential conflict over onshore gas exploration in north-west

Sligo éirígí activist Gerry Casey has slammed the Fianna Fáil/ Green party coalition for inviting applications for licences to carry out onshore prospecting for natural gas in the north-west. He also highlighted the potential for disputes similar to that ongoing in the Rossport area of north Mayo if they proceed under the current licencing arrangements.

He was responding to the public invitation by Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources to the petroleum industry to apply for licensing options to allow prospecting in the area for up to two years.

The vast area, which has the potential to develop Ireland's first on-shore gas fields, is known as the Northwest Carboniferous Basin. It covers 8,000 square kilometres including parts of counties Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Donegal, Mayo, Roscommon and Monaghan. The basin also extends across the border into parts of Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Northwest Carboniferous Basin

Lenihan is also inviting applications for the Clare basin which includes parts of counties Clare, Cork, Limerick and Kerry.

Casey said: “Such exploration and extraction has the potential for grave environmental damage and danger to human health and safety. We have seen in north Mayo the conflict that can arise when such developments, with the potential risks involved, are imposed on local communities. Once again in these instances, there has been no proper in-depth consultation with local communities who may be effected by this prospecting and possible extraction of gas.”

He added: “If our natural resources are to be exploited, then it needs to be done in consultation with local communities, in a manner that protects the environment and protects peoples health and safety. To date, the record of the political establishment and of the exploration companies, as exemplified in the ongoing dispute over Shell's planned pipeline in north Mayo, on environmental and safety issues does not breed confidence.”

“Where natural resources can be extracted in a safe manner, then the right to extract that enormous wealth should not be handed over to private companies to make profits at the expense of the Irish people. While the Dublin government are slashing health and education budgets as well as cutting pay and social welfare, they are shamefully giving away hundreds of billions of euros worth of oil and gas to private companies such as Shell, who have an appalling environmental and human rights record worldwide.”

“This wealth should instead be used for the benefit of the Irish people, to create employment, eradicate poverty, deliver efficient well funded public services and ensure a decent standard of living for all.”

He concluded: “Lenihan need to put a stop to this entire process. They need to begin a serious and genuine consultation with the local communtities in the areas involved. They need to nationalise all our natural resources, including the corrib gas field off the Mayo coast, and any future discoveries off-shore and on-shore, including here in the north-west. If Lenihan continues on his present course, then conflict similar to the ongoing dispute in north Mayo which has been ongoing for the past decade, is more than likely.”

For what died the sons of Róisín? Smash the NAMA Republic

Protest 12pm, Saturday 24th, Anglo Irish Headquarters, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

At midday on Easter Monday April 24th 1916 Pádraig Pearse stepped out of the GPO and read aloud the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The Proclamation declared ‘the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland’ and guaranteed that the new republic would cherish ‘all of the children of the nation equally’.

Ninety-four years later the dream of those who signed the 1916 Proclamation lies in tatters. The Six Counties remain under British occupation while the Twenty-Six Counties has been turned into a NAMA republic which has enslaved generations to come with massive debts.

Nobody, including the Dublin government, know how much NAMA and the bank bale out scheme will ultimately cost, but is may well exceed a staggering one hundred billion euro [£88 billion]. That is €100,000,000,000 that should have been spent on hospitals, schools, homes and employment which will instead go to private banks in Ireland, Europe and beyond.

In advance of the ninety-fourth anniversary of the 1916 Rising on April 24th, éirígí have produced a ‘Proclamation of the NAMA Republic’ to highlight the contrast between the Ireland of 2010 and the Ireland envisioned by the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation.

Within this satirical document the names of the 1916 signatories have been replaced by Brian Cowen, Sean Fitzpatrick, John Gormley and the other architects of the current economic depression. And the aspirations of freedom, equality and justice contained within the 1916 Proclamation have been supplanted by the slavery, inequality and injustice espoused by the political establishment. The ‘Proclamation of the NAMA Republic’ can be seen here.

It is now crystal clear that the only people that can stop NAMA are the Irish people themselves, by taking to the streets and staying on the streets; by withdrawing their labour; by refusing to pay taxes, rents and mortgages; by refusing to be ruled by a corrupt political class; by bringing the whole sorry NAMA republic to its knees. The time for quiet talking and polite debate has passed. The time for action is upon us. The very future of Ireland and the generations to come are at stake.

Ninety-four years to the day after the 1916 Rising éirígí is organising a public protest outside of the headquarters of Anglo Irish bank on St Stephens Green. The protest will begin at midday on Saturday April 24th. All are welcome. Bígí Linn.

The Reality of Shell law in Mayo

At the end of last month, in four days of special sittings at Belmullet court in County Mayo, twenty seven Shell to Sea campaigners faced charges relating to protests against Shell's planned pipeline in Erris last year. Amongst those facing charges were seven activists who were initially denied legal aid and bail by Judge Mary Devins despite being charged with minor public order offences.

Of these cases 25 out of 27 were dismissed or had the charges withdrawn. This followed the judgement by Judge Gerard Haughton who ruled in the case of Eoin Lawless, that he had been illegally detained by Gardai.

While the Gardai would have hoped to secure convictions against these activists and even secure prison sentences for some of them, in many of the cases they knew the charges would never stand up to scrutiny. However, at the time of the initial arrests last summer, their main aim was to disrupt and bring an end to the ongoing and effective protests that were taking place.

They believed these arrests in particular would cause a major disruption of the campaign to stop Shell as these activists had special sea skills including experience of using Kayaks for protests at sea. These skills made them extremely valuable assets for the campaign as the Solitaire pipe-laying ship attempted to carry out its work in Broadhaven Bay last summer. Likewise, these very skills made them targets for special attention by Shell and the Gardai who decided they needed to take these activists out of circulation and prevent them from continuing their invaluable protest activities.

Laying charges, bogus as they were, against these activists also suited the agenda of Shell and the Gardai as they attempted to portray these campaigners in the media (a largely compliant media it must be added) and, indeed the entire community opposed to Shell, as criminals.

These Garda tactics are not new however. Regularly, peaceful protests have been disrupted by the arrests of demonstrators, who subsequently are released without charge or charged with minor public order offences. We have seen the arrest and jailing of Maura Harrington and other key activists at times which the Gardai and Shell viewed as crucial times in their project.

Indeed, local fisherman and prominent Shell to Sea campaigner Pat O'Donnell is currently serving a seven month sentence in Castlerea prison. His alleged 'crimes' were public order offences. His real 'crimes' was his ongoing defiance in the face of a concerted campaign of intimidation against himself and others opposed to Shell's pipeline and the give-away of our natural resources. Removing Pat O'Donnell from Broadhaven bay and placing him in prison was once again viewed by all the various arms of the state as essential to protect their interests and the interests of Shell at this time.

The Gardai have shown themselves over and over to be nothing more than Shell's police force, enforcing Shell's law, in north Mayo. They have deliberately broken their own laws, in order to assist Shell in their activities. They have continually attempted to intimidate, bully and assault demonstrators and to suppress all forms of peaceful, legitimate protest by the local community in Erris.

The reality is that the 26 county state has abandoned its own citizens in north Mayo and has colluded at every level, political, policing and judicial, in denying them their basic civil and human rights. All of the empty rhetoric about citizens rights is cast aside once the state believes that the status quo and the interests, financial and ideological, of the wealthy elite are somehow threatened.

The reality is that, contrary to what they and their political masters claim, the Gardai and the judiciary are not there to protect the interests of the citizens of this country. Their job is to protect the interest of this state and the wealthy political and business elite who control it, which is a completely different thing from the interests of its citizens.

Countless campaigners have been harassed, assaulted and arbitarily arrested. Some have been released without charge, others charged unjustly with bogus offences and even jailed. Some have had their fishing boats impounded by Gardai. Pat O'Donnell even had his boat boarded by armed and masked thugs who proceeded to sink his boat, with Pat and his crew being left to fend for themselves and had to be rescued from the sea. Yet not one member of the Gardai or of Shell's private security company, Irish Risk Management Services (IRMS) have faced charges for their crimes and illegal activities.

Shell, a multi-national corporation with an appalling environmental and human rights record worldwide, have regularly broken the laws of this state. They have illegally entered private property. They have broken planning and environmental laws. Their security staff have assaulted protesters. Yet Shell have faced no sanction and have been assisted in breaking the law at every turn by all arms of the state.

There is no justification for piping highly dangerous raw untreated gas ashore to an inland refinery through a populated area that would be incinerated in the event of an accident. Best International practice is that this gas be refined as sea and made safe before been brought ashore.

This appalling threat to the lives of an entire community is being imposed solely in order to decrease Shell's costs and maximise profits for their shareholders and companies who hold shares in Shell, a company that even with the economic downturn worldwide made profits in 2009 of almost $10 billion.

Amongst those with a financial stake in Shell are a number of TD's in Leinster House, including Sligo/north Leitrim TD Jimmy Devins, whose wife Judge Mary Devins has shown publicly a naked hostility towards the Shell to Sea Campaign and who has played a central role in Shell's efforts in attempting to demonise and criminalise campaigners and to take key activists such as Maura Harrington off the streets at crucial times.

However, also at stake here is another major issue that is vital to the future of this country and future generations. That is the shameful giveaway of these valuable natural resources to private multi-national companies such as Shell, with no benefit forthcoming for the people of this island. There are hundreds of thousands of euro's worth of gas and oil lying under the sea bed off our coast that, instead of being used to make profits for Shell, could be used to tackle the current economic recession which has resulted in mass unemployment and ever increasing levels of poverty.

The wealth resulting from these oil and gas finds could be used to create jobs, to create efficient public services such as health and education, to reverse the savage cutbacks in pay and social welfare, to end the scandal of poverty in modern Ireland and to ensure a brighter and more equitable future for our children and grand-children.

The Fianna Fáil led administration in Leinster House say there is no alternative to their current economic strategy of pumping tens of billions of euro's into bailing out the banks, cutting essential public services and cutting social welfare and workers pay. That is a blatant lie.

There is a clear alternative and it is one that does not require the targetting of the weak and vulnerable in our society. They have the power to take back into public ownership the Corrib gas and all of our other natural resources. All that is lacking is the political will to do so.

So if they are unwilling to do so, in the weeks and months ahead, we must all intensify our efforts to ensure that Shell do not get to complete their pipeline. We must all intensify our efforts to ensure that this gas and oil is nationalised and utilised for the benefit of all the people on this island and refined at sea where it is of no threat to the local community in Erris or elsewhere.

Shell and their corrupt political allies in Leinster House must be defeated. The ramifications of who wins this struggle will be felt way beyond the Erris peninsula. This is a battle we must win, not just for the people of Erris, but for the future of our entire island and future generations. We owe it to them. Let us now make sure we dont disappoint them.

éirígí Statement on British General Election

With a Westminster election due to take place on May 6, éirígí wishes to take this opportunity to place its view of these elections on the public record.

In the policy paper ‘Elections, Elected Institutions and Ireland’s Revolutionary Struggle’, éirígí has already comprehensively outlined its view of the role that elections can play in the battle for Irish national and social freedom. That document states that “éirígí believes it is possible for a revolutionary party to move closer to its objectives by tactically contesting elections and tactically participating in specified elected institutions.”

With regard to the upcoming Westminster election, the question is, therefore, a tactical one, summed up with the simple question ‘Will the contesting of these elections bring Irish republicanism closer to, or further from, its objective?’

éirígí believes that the answer to this question lies in accurately assessing the objective strength of Irish republicanism at this point in its historic struggle. Without such an assessment, it is impossible to navigate the future direction of the republican struggle and the role that elections might, or might not, play in that struggle.

Irish republicanism has suffered a major defeat over the course of the last 15 years. For tens of thousands of Irish republicans, this period has been defined by disbelief, disappointment, frustration, anger and, all too often, despair. A once strong, confident Irish republicanism is now in a state of confusion, division and fragmentation.

The demand for Irish national reunification and independence has been removed from the political centre stage, only to be replaced by a petty sectarian squabble, with the British government happily acting as the arbitrator of the ‘settlement’. While it may be unpalatable to acknowledge this reality, that does not make it any less true.

It is éirígí’s view, however, that all is not lost. As a result of the determination and selfless work of political activists around the country, Irish republicanism is slowly emerging from this bleak period of its long and noble history.

But the process of rebuilding republicanism has, in historic terms, only just begun. It is a process that must have a bottom up approach and be centred in every working class community in Ireland. That is the only way that a new, radical republican movement, one that is capable of challenging the vested interests of occupation and exploitation, can emerge. This will be a long and arduous task; one that will take place out of the glare of the media spotlight. It will be a process that will often seem thankless and painfully slow-moving. But it is one that must be undertaken if republican objectives are to be secured.

This is the objective reality against which any republican participation in the upcoming Westminster elections must be evaluated. From its current position of weakness any republican participation in this election would, in éirígí’s opinion, be unwise.

Irish republicanism cannot afford to have its political agenda set by the elections of the political establishment. Participation in elections should only be considered from a position of relative strength, where the results are likely to advance the struggle and not retard it. For this reason, éirígí will not be contesting the forthcoming election, nor will it be supporting any non-éirígí republican candidates should they choose to stand.

Now is the time for republicans to focus on the process of rebuilding the ideas, the organisations and the wider movement that will bring about the victorious conclusion of the struggle for freedom and independence. For its part, éirígí will be continuing its work to repopularise the socialist republican message in working class communities and to nurture the still fragile green shoots of a resurgent Irish republicanism.

Dublin government declares Class War

On Tuesday, the Twenty Six County Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan exploded the myth that we live in an economic democracy with the announcement that, far from the people being sovereign, they would be paying the debts of private banks for decades to come. By his actions, Minister Lenihan has confirmed the contempt in which the political establishment holds the very people who elect them.

The detail of the further bail-out of the banking system is truly staggering in its scale: a total of €21 billion to rescue a failed and corrupt system.


Of this total, €8.3 billion will be pumped into Anglo-Irish Bank, for so long the play-thing of the Twenty-Six County state's biggest property developers. It doesn't end there either, as Minister Lenihan announced that a further €10 billion will be required for AIB alone. Prior to Tuesday's announcement, AIB had already received €4 billion of taxpayers' money. To put this €21 billion in context, the combined health budget and education budget in the year that the bank guarantee scheme was agreed was €23 billion.

The consequences of this decision will be felt for a long time; the mass of people face unemployment, reduced public services and chronic levels of debt for generations to come.

Across Ireland, there are now half a million people out of work, while, in Donegal alone, 21,000 are unemployed and many more are being forced into that most Irish of career moves – emigration.

The right of the people to quality healthcare, housing and education is being made subordinate to the interest of banks, speculators and developers. Workers pension rights are being sold off so that the fat-cats that bankrolled Fianna Fáil for decades can be saved.

On Tuesday, many of these property developers, almost all of whom regularly attended the Fianna Fáil fundraising tent at the Galway races during the so called boom years, had their loans transferred into NAMA. These developers, facilitated by their political wing in Fianna Fáíl, simply inflated the property bubble, forcing thousands of households to take out 100 per cent mortgages on homes that were incredibly over-valued. These householders are now expected to pick up the tab for this gambling greed.

The consequences of the bank guarantee scheme of September 2008; a scheme that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and Sinn Féin all supported, is now painfully evident. The loans and deposits of all banks were guaranteed on that September night in 2008 with little detail provided as to the exact state of the banks' loan books. Any semblance of democracy has been truly torn to shreds and all that is offered is the tired Thatcherite mantra, 'There is no alternative'.

The same parties that got us into this situation and who voted for a scheme that has led us nowhere but to the brink of disaster cannot now pose as a radical alternative – regardless of whether they are inside or outside of government in the Twenty-Six Counties.

Voters in Donegal should keep this fact in mind for the upcoming by-election.

No alternative, it seems, to bailing out the rich and powerful in Irish society with billions of euro of taxpayers’ money, while workers, who actually created the wealth, are consigned to the dole queues. With high rates of unemployment, bosses are using the recession to try and force down the pay and working conditions of those still in work.

War has been declared on workers who are being treated once again as mere cogs in a profit-producing machine. That these egregious amounts of bail out funds can be made available now to rescue the capitalist banking system gives the lie to the notion that there is not enough money in society to take care of the social needs of people.

It is a lie that this type of society serves the needs of anyone but a small minority. We, the working people, need to take as our starting point in our understanding of this the fact that it is the working class alone who are the creators of wealth and that it is only through exploitation that wealth passes out of their control into that of the capitalist. Most importantly, we need to understand that this bank bail out presents stark and condemning proof, if ever more proof were needed, of the fact that, in this type of society, there is an irresolvable conflict between the interests of the capitalist class and those of the working class.

The task for socialists and republicans now is to find ways of highlighting this reality to the working and unemployed people that are the victims of capitalism.

This opinion piece by éirígí Tír Chonaill spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig appeared in the Easter Sunday edition April 5 2010 Donegal on Sunday newspaper. Just click here to see it

éirígí Sligeach mark anniversary of Easter Rising with wreath laying ceremony

A wreath-laying ceremony took place on Easter Monday at the Republican plot in Sligo cemetery to mark the 94th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Wreaths were laid at the plot on behalf of éirígí Sligeach who organised the event. The Sligo Roll of Honour, the 1916 proclamation, the 1919 Declaration of Independence and the 1919 Democratic programme were also recited.

Speaking at the ceremony, local éirígí activist Gerry Casey said that the political establishment north and south of the border had completely abandoned the ideals of those who fought and died in the Easter Rising.

Casey said: “Ninety four years on from the 1916 Rising, the sad reality is that the national and social ideals that these brave women and men fought and died for has been abandoned by the political classes on both sides of the border.”

He added: “The British occupation continues. British troops and a British paramilitary police force remain in Ireland. British rule is now shamefully administered in the six counties by the Stormont executive that includes many who at one time opposed the British occupation of Ireland.”

éirígí Sligeach Easter Monday Wreath laying ceremony April 5 2010 from éirígí Sligeach on Vimeo.

“We live in a society where mass unemployment and poverty is rife and increasing. Workers and working class communities have suffered enormous hardship as a result of savage cutbacks in pay, social welfare and the provision of essential public services imposed by callous anti-worker administrations in Leinster House and Stormont.”

Casey concluded: “For our part, éirígí remain committed to working towards and achieving the goals of those who fought and died during easter week 1916. That is, a united Ireland and the creation of a Democratic Socialist Republic, not a puppet parliament in Stormont. We will continue with our efforts to secure both a British withdrawal from our country and the overthrow of the capitalist system which is based on greed before need and which has caused so much pain and suffering for workers in Ireland and indeed worldwide.”

Belfast Remembers 1916

Upwards of 500 people gathered in Belfast on Easter Monday [April 5] to remember all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom.

Assembling at the gates of Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road, the marchers made their way to the Harbinson republican plot led by the Kilkeel republican flute band, where proceedings got underway.

éirígí national vice-chairperson Rab Jackson chaired the event and began by highlighting the plight of the republican prisoners in Maghaberry Jail, who had begun a protest against appalling conditions.

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic was read by former Armagh political prisoner Maire Drumm, before wreaths were laid on behalf of éirígí’s ciorcal naisiúnta, éirígí Béal Feirste and republican ex-prisoners.

The main oration was read by one-time blanketman and former chair of the Belfast National Graves Association Pádraic Mac Coitir.

To read the full text of Mac Coitir’s speech, click here.

éirígí 1916 Commemorations

Hundreds of people joined éirígí commemorations across the country over the Easter weekend. Click here to find out more about those events that marked the 94th anniversary of the 1916 rising in Dublin, Belfast, Newry, Arklow and Sligo.