Cill Dara Shinn Féin Poblachtach

Sinister actions of Special Branch

IN A statement on January 30, Comhairle Chúige Laighean, Sinn Féin Poblachtach criticised the actions of the Special Branch on January 30, 2010.

Republican Sinn Féin views the actions of the Special Branch at the Bloody Sunday picket in Dublin on January 30 as grossly insulting and slightly sinister.

After taking the names and addresses of several members and supporters, they proceeded to enter the GPO where they took pictures, through the window, of those on the picket. Comparing notes, they wrote down the names of those ‘in the [picture] frame’.

We object to the paid lackeys of Leinster House using a hallo
wed Republican building, the headquarters of the All-Ireland Republic proclaimed in 1916, to skulk in and gather information on Irish Republicans which they pass on to the British Colonial police and MI5 spymasters.

Republicans know that such people will use any underhand methods to undermine the Republican struggle. We will continue to highlight the activities of the likes of Det Kevin Doherty and Det Joe Higgins.

We say to people: do not let their tactics intimidate you but rather strengthen your resolve to highlight the injustice of British occupation in our country.

For confirmation, contact Kevin Devlin
PRO Comhairle Laighean (Leinster Executive)
Republican Sinn Féin, Dublin 872 9747


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POW Picket in Carlow

Republican Sinn Fein will be holding a picket in support of the right of Republican prisoners to political status. The picket will take place in Carlow Town on Saturday February 13 from 1.00pm to 2.30pm. The picket will be held at the junction of Tullow St and the Potato Market.

Republican Function

Naas House
Naas, Co Kildare

Friday, 19th February 2010
Doors open @ 8.30pm

Raffle on the night

RSF Cill Dara
Music by Chris

Taille: €5,-

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Republican Prisoners demand right to organise their own landing

Statement from the Republican Sinn Féin PoW Department

The denial of a separate landing for the CIRA PoWs in Portlaoise prison is part of a policy to criminalise the continued Irish Republican resistance to British rule in Ireland.

Since 1917, 22 Irish Republicans have died in defence of their right to political status.

In the 1940s the Republican Prisoners in Portlaoise were among the first ‘Blanketmen’ in opposition to criminalisation. In the 1970s Republican prisoners endured a 47-day hunger strike.

The Republican prisoners in Portlaoise today are defending the same right to political status because they are part of the same struggle.

The CIRA prisoners demand their right to a separate landing. The CIRA PoWs' demand is simple – they want to continue to be treated as political prisoners - as other groups in the jail are.

Read the statement in German . . .


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Portlaoise Prison protest, Saturday 23rd January 2010

IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS ARE NOT CRIMINALS.....
...and Irish Republicans will not stand by while the Free State administration attempts to treat them as such.

Portlaoise Prison protest: the Free State regime are attempting to place Irish Republican POW's on the same prison landing where criminals are presently incarcerated in Portlaoise Prison. A protest against this injustice will be held outside the prison on SATURDAY 23rd JANUARY 2010 from 10am to 4pm.

All those concerned about this latest attempt to criminalise the on-going struggle to remove the unwanted British political and military presence from Ireland are asked to attend this protest. We have political prisoners because of this political conflict; they are not 'criminals' and we will not stand by as attempts are made to treat them as such.

Portlaoise Prison protest, Saturday 23rd January 2010, 10am to 4pm.

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British rule has always been resisted

Speaking at Republican Sinn Féin’s annual Fearghal Ó h-Anluain commemoration on Sunday January 10 at Lathlurcan cemetery Monaghan, the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said:

“Throughout Irish revolutionary history in each phase of the freedom struggle the sacrifice of individual Irish patriots have come to personify the fight for Irish freedom. Following their deaths Seán Sabhat and Fearghal Ó h-Anluain names would be forever more linked together. They represented in the eyes of people both at home and abroad the historic demand of the Irish people for national independence.

“ ‘Thoughtful, well read, deeply convinced and dedicated Irish Republicans’, was how Ruairí Ó Brádaigh described both men on the 50th anniversary of their deaths in 2007.

“Fearghal Ó hAnluain came from a staunchly Republican family imbued with a passionate love for his language – like Seán Sabhat he was a fluent Irish speaker - his games and his culture. A footballer of note he represented Monaghan at minor, junior and senior level.

“Fearghal Ó hAnluain took his part as a member of the Pearse Column in the attack on Brookborough RUC barracks on the evening of January 1 1957. His presence in Brookborough on that fateful evening was for him the natural and practical expression of his deeply held Irish Republicanism. Like Pearse he believed that in the face of continued British rule in Ireland ‘the only honourable attitude for Irishmen and Irishwomen is an attitude of revolt.’

“The sacrifice of Sabhat and Ó hAnluain was acknowledged within months when four Republican Sinn Féin TDs were elected to an All-Ireland parliament –including Fearghal’s brother Éineachán. Songs and ballads eulogised them and GAA teams were named in their honour .

“While the flame of Irish nationality burns their names will live on in the hearts of the people.

“Sabhat and Ó hAnluain died so that future generations would live in a Free Ireland.

“British rule in Ireland has always been met with resistance by a section of the Irish people. The attacks in recent days and weeks on British Crown forces testify to this iron law of Irish history. There are those who would wish it otherwise but that is the reality, which must be faced if a lasting settlement is to be secured for all of the Irish people.

“Irish history is a cycle of coercion - mixed with pacification - and resistance. It is time to break that cycle and for that to happen the British Government must accept that the only constructive role they have to play in our country is their leaving of it.

“A public declaration of intent by the British Government to withdraw from Ireland would create the dynamic within which all of the Irish people could negotiate the basis for a New Ireland.

“We believe that the EIRE NUA proposals can provide the framework for the pluralist, non-sectarian and Democratic Socialist Republic set out in the 1916 proclamation. Such a Republic stands in stark contrast to the present discredited, sectarian scandal and crisis ridden Stormont and Leinster House regimes.

“In Lurgan, Ardoyne and other areas of the Six Counties young people have taken on the forces of British occupation. They have been dismissed as ‘A-political and anti-social by Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House.

“Again those who have signed up to holding Ireland for the British Crown are not prepared to face up to the reality confronting them.

“We salute this new generation of Irish people who have neither been purchased nor intimated. It is the duty of Sinn Féin to give clear leadership and a political voice to that section of the Irish people who refuse to accept British rule in our country.

“Thomas Davis said: ‘The people of the country are its wealth’, believing this to be true we must view our struggle to be both political and economic. The struggle for a free Ireland must be about bringing fundamental change .

“In both partitionist states within Ireland today the political establishment is intent on squeezing the most vulnerable and weak in order to protect the vested interests of the powerful and wealthy. Protecting the discredited political and economic system whatever the cost in human terms is the priority in Lenister House, Stormont and Westminster.

“In a recent collection of essays published by Social Justice Ireland Prof PJ Drudy of Trinity College Dublin points out that the measure of what is a successful economy needs to be based on meeting the needs of people: ‘Indeed, we need to turn away for good from the obsession with economic growth and the philosophy of the market to focus instead on a philosophy and a set of values and ethics which facilitates and nurtures human development.’

“This is the philosophy which underpins SAOL NUA Sinn Féin’s proposals for economic democracy. As Irish Republicans we must always return to Wolfe Tone: ‘Our strength shall come from that great and respectable class, the men of no property’. Political and Economic democracy must be the twin pillars of the New Ireland for which we strive.

“On the 1st anniversay of Operation Harvest on December 12 1957 the Republican Movement issued a manifesto setting out the task that remained to be completed: ‘We must win for the Irish people democracy, unity and sovereignty. To achieve these objectives we must end forever interference in our affairs by an outside power. We must drive from our shores the forces of this outside power. We must establish national independence.’ It is a task which remains for us to complete.

“We believe like Pearse that: ‘our patriotism is measured, not by the formula in which we declare it, but by the service which we render.’ We must live up to the legacy of Sabhat and Ó hAnluain by rendering that service.”


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RSF give leadership to a new generation

New Year statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton

Speaking at the annual Dáithí Ó Conaill commemoration in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin on January 1 the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton set out the challenges and opportunities which face Republican Sinn Féin in the New Year.

“The coming year presents us all with huge challenges but also opportunities. The two fronts on which it is essential that we engage in 2010 are political and economic.

“Last year and indeed recent days events on the ground in the Six Counties testified to the fact that British rule in Ireland will be met with resistance. The attacks on British crown forces and the wave of repression and resistance, which followed are evidence to the reality that the nature of British occupation in Ireland has not changed but neither has the attitude of a section of the Irish people.

“The young people in the Six Counties who took on the forces of the British Crown were dismissed as ‘ A-political thugs’ or merely representing an ‘anti-social’ sub youth culture. We know what the truth is. These young people represent a new undefeated generation prepared to take on British rule in Ireland. They are young people simply taking their place in the latest phase of the historic struggle for Irish freedom.

“It is our duty in Sinn Féin –the only political organisation representing the revolutionary Irish Republican tradition - to give political expression and leadership to this new generation.

“The coming year is also likely to see an intensification of the normalisation of British rule and partition. Speaking on RTÉ television on Monday night (December 28) the 26-County President Mary McAleese signalled the possibility of a visit to the 26 Counties by the Queen of England. We in Sinn Féin equally signal our intention to oppose such a visit.

“Mary McAleese’s use of the word ‘collegial’ in describing 26-County relations with the British state is worthy of note. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th revised edition 2006 defines collegial as meaning: ‘belonging to or relating to shared responsibility.’ Or alternatively as one of a number of colleges belonging to the same university. This use of such language is a significant pointer as to the thinking of the political establishment in the 26-County State and how they view their relationship with Britain.

“At this time we are also conscious of the Republican prisoners in both Portlaoise and Maghaberry. We extend them our greetings and pledge them our solidarity. Support for the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry in their fight for political status is vital in the coming year. By denying British attempts to ‘criminalise’ them the prisoners in Maghaberry are engaged in a battle to deny the British Government’s criminalisation of the Irish people’s historic struggle for national independence.

“We must recognise like James Connolly: ‘If you remove the English army to-morrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.’

“A war is being waged on working people globally. Here the 26-County administration faced with a choice between taxing the rich or taking from the marginalised and vulnerable, have chosen to put their hands in the pockets of the poorest. Employers and the state are intent on rolling back any advance made by workers over the course of the last century.

“In the face of all this a weak and reformist trade union leadership were deliberately humiliated and wrong-footed by the Dublin administration in their vain attempts to lay the basis for yet another so-called ‘Partnership Agreement’.

“Tinkering at the edges of a discredited and failed social and economic system is not enough. Real revolutionary political and economic change is demanded. In its obituary of Dáithí Ó Conaill in 1991 SAOIRSE pointed out he ‘viewed the Republican Movement not as a political party, but as the main catalyst of progressive forces to achieve Irish Freedom.’ It is the role which we must live up to.

“We would do well to heed the advice of Connolly given to those intent on building a national movement over a century ago: ‘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.’

“Armed as we are with a clearly thought out and radical programme for real political and economic democracy - EIRE NUA and SAOL NUA - we can take our rightful place in the vanguard of the struggle for true political and economic freedom.

“The All-Republic for which we struggle has to be – returning to Connolly again – of such a character that: ‘the mere mention of its name would at all times serve as a beacon-light to the oppressed of every land.’

“Just as imperialism is not confined to one country the solidarity in the fight against it must also be international. Over the coming year we must continue to develop our role in the international struggle against imperialism.

“We extend our greetings to all engaged in the noble quest for national liberation. We face a common enemy but also share the common goal of securing and defending the inalienable rights common to all peoples and nations.

“Our work is clearly marked out for us. It is our duty to bring to the task all our energies and abilities."

"We of Republican Sinn Féin are the nucleus, which represents what Emmet represented,
the soul of Ireland,the prophetic shock minority, those who are neither purchased nor intimidated."

Republican Sinn Féin Kildare © 2008. Powered by Republican Sinn Féin: 223 Parnell Street, Dublin /// 229 Falls Road, Belfast .

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