RSF launch leinster.rsf.ie
In the 1990s Republican Sinn Féin was among the
first political organisations in Ireland to have a permanent and
professional online presence by launching the national website www.rsf.ie and an online archive of the republican paper Saoirse on www.saoirse.info.
Since then the internet became an essential part in the life of most
people. To fulfil the requirements of the 21st century Republican Sin
Féin decided to develop a new and modern online presence.
Following this decision RSF established a new official Facebook page, a Twitter account and a YouTube account in 2012. Further steps to develop the profile of Irish republicanism on the internet were made by setting up a new international website which is accessible on www.rsf-international.org and a campaign website of the Republican campaign against the EU Austerity Treaty in May 2012.
The next step to polish up the online profile of our organisation and to make the republican voice be heard on a local level in Ireland is the launch of four provincial websites. RSF in the four provinces of Ireland is now available on http://leinster.rsf.ie/, http://ulster.rsf.ie/, http://munster.rsf.ie/ and http://connacht.rsf.ie/. These four provincial websites will provide news and events relevant to each province. All websites are regularly updated and we welcome all readers and our new provincial websites.
Following this decision RSF established a new official Facebook page, a Twitter account and a YouTube account in 2012. Further steps to develop the profile of Irish republicanism on the internet were made by setting up a new international website which is accessible on www.rsf-international.org and a campaign website of the Republican campaign against the EU Austerity Treaty in May 2012.
The next step to polish up the online profile of our organisation and to make the republican voice be heard on a local level in Ireland is the launch of four provincial websites. RSF in the four provinces of Ireland is now available on http://leinster.rsf.ie/, http://ulster.rsf.ie/, http://munster.rsf.ie/ and http://connacht.rsf.ie/. These four provincial websites will provide news and events relevant to each province. All websites are regularly updated and we welcome all readers and our new provincial websites.
Annual Kevin Barry Commemoration, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow
Sunday 18th November at 3PM.
Everybody welcome.
Main speaker: Diarmuid MacDubhglais, BAC
Kevin Gerard Barry was the first Irish republican to be executed by the British since the leaders of the Easter Rising. Barry was sentenced to death for his part in an IRA operation which resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers.
Abolishing councils marks power grab by Dublin elite
Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton
The decision of the 26-County Environment Minister Phil Hogan to abolish all borough and town councils marks a decisive shift in the balance of power between local communities and the Dublin administration. The 26-County State, already one of the most highly centralised states in Europe according to Dr Jane Suiter of Dublin City University, has increased further the imbalance of power between the Dublin administration and the people. This comes on top of the relentless power grab of the EU political elite at a national level. The cumulative effect is to place ever increasing power in the hands of small and in many cases unaccountable political elites in Dublin and Brussels while disenfranchising people on the ground.
Republican Sinn Féin identified this imbalance in power relations over 40 years ago and forecast that it would only worsen. Through Éire Nua we put forward a credible alternative to what was then and is clearly now a dysfunctional political system. The type of real decentralisation of decision making from national to provincial, local level as advocated by Éire Nua has never been as relevant or as necessary as it is today. Éire Nua would empower people in a tangible way, ensuring that they, and not an unaccountable elite would make the political, social and economic decisions that directly affected them and their communities.
In defence of Irish Republicanism
Many
will find the following uncomfortable reading while more will argue the
issues dealt with here should be avoided at all costs in the interest
of ‘unity’. I believe that to brush these issues under the carpet
instead of confronting them head on would be to do a disservice to Irish
Republicanism. I would go further and say that to confront these issues
is a duty that can no longer be ignored. A time comes when certain
things must be said and placed on the public record.
Irish Republicanism
is possibly one of the oldest revolutionary traditions in the world.
Its roots reach right back to the end of the 18th Century and the
foundation of the Society of United Irishmen in 1791.
Throughout that
long history it has faced many threats and at certain periods it
appeared that it had been extinguished – in the 1940s 26-County Justice
Minister Gerry Boland boasted that the IRA was dead and that he had
killed it. Boland was no more successful than many who went before or
would come after him, despite centuries of coercion the revolutionary
flame has been kept alight.
Republicanism has survived the gallows, the
firing squad, internment camps, and prisons.
The full panoply of
draconian laws and repression has been employed by Westminster,
Stormont and Leinster House in an attempt to extinguish that flame. That
they have not succeeded in doing so can be put down to a number of
reasons. However one reason that stands out over all others is the
simple fact that Irish Republicanism has commanded, at the very least,
the respect and regard of large sections of the Irish people.
Even those who
would declare themselves as opponents of the revolutionary Republican
tradition have admitted to a grudging respect for the idealism and
integrity that underpins it. Writing in the Irish Times
on September 14 John Waters, whilst dismissing the organisations to
which Bobby Sands and Patsy O’Hara belonged to in withering terms he
still acknowledged: 'there was something noble and redemptive about the conviction and sacrifice of these men'.
Today the ranks of
the enemy have been swelled with erstwhile comrades now prepared to
administer and enforce British rule, but a new threat has emerged in
recent years and in many ways one which is potentially the most serious
of all that Irish Republicanism has faced throughout its long history.
The emergence of
groupings styling themselves as ‘Republican’ but who in reality are
merely using that noble title to mask their real purpose of extortion
and racketeering. In some cases such groupings masquerade as anti-drugs
activists, posing as ‘champions of the community’. These gangs are an
insidious threat to the very survival of the Republican ideal.
These
pseudo-Republican groups seek to control their communities through fear.
Posing as revolutionaries hides the grim reality that the only war they
wage is not one of national liberation but instead a war on the youth
of their own communities. The forcing of a father to present his son for
a punishment shooting as happened in Derry is medieval and far removed
from any ideal of progressive Republicanism.
The drugs’ gangs
who peddle their wares in communities throughout Ireland and across all
classes are enemies of the Irish people. The community and political
activists who oppose them deserve our full and active support. Irish
Republicans are rightly proud of the part they played in groups such as
Concerned Parents Against Drugs in the 1980s, and today it is vital that
Irish Republicans continue to stand by their communities both urban and
rural in opposing these dealers of death and social destruction.
However the
pseudo-Republican groupings that take money from the drug dealers are no
less parasitical than the drug dealers themselves. In many ways they
are worse in that they leech from the communities they purport to defend
– in effect they are drug dealers by proxy with the added insult of
sullying the noble name of Republicanism in doing so. The activities of
these pseudo-Republican gangs have the potential to eat away like a
cancer at the very heart of Irish Republicanism, leaving in their wake
an empty husk with neither relevance nor credibility.
The duty to halt this slide lies with those who claim the title deeds of Republicanism. We
have a bounden duty to hold out against this hijacking of the
Republican ideal; we must lead by example in ensuring that authentic
Irish Republicanism continues to live in the hearts of the Irish people.
It is not enough to
claim those title deeds without acting on them. To do so we in
Republican Sinn Féin must ensure that a clear distinction can be made
between what represents true Republicanism and those who instead provide
a perverse and twisted parody of it. Over the past two years Republican
Sinn Féin have been direct targets of such activity. A Limerick led
grouping has attempted to steal our identity and good name in order to
cloak their criminal activities. This particular gang meet the criteria
of the classic black operations or ‘black ops’ engaged in by state
forces whereby a shadow grouping is set up which is a perversion of
everything that the legitimate revolutionary movement represents. The
purpose of these bogus groupings is to sow confusion, lower morale and
discredit the genuine revolutionary movement.
In the past,
Republican Sinn Féin has been accused by its opponents of being
“elitist”. I believe this is an accusation we should not be afraid of
but indeed embrace. When it comes to ensuring our movement is a
credible, motivated revolutionary political organisation to be described
as elitist should be considered a badge of honour.
The Republican
Movement throughout its history has prided itself on attracting the most
idealistic, sincere and able of each generation. In his seminal history
of the IRA The Secret Army writing
of the Republican Movement in the 1920s, J Bowyer Bell had this to say:
'The army council meetings and GHQ conferences seethed with ideas,
disputes, options and suggestions; despite the attrition of time and
politics, there remained within the leadership as much talent as could
be found within one group in Ireland.' Thomas
Davis sets out the what is required in forging a national movement: 'We
must be disciplined – disciplined in rigorous virtue and made strong in
a sense of justice, truth and national trustfulness.'Terence Mac Swiney
too sets a high standard: 'We must get a proper conception of the great
cause we stand for, its magnitude and majesty, and that to be worthy of
its service we must have a standard above reproach'. In
the Ireland of the 21st century that should be the bar we aim for. It
is from such material that revolutions are fermented and through whom
ideals and a cause live on.
To do other wise is
to surrender a revolutionary tradition - which has survived the best
efforts of both the British and 26-County states to destroy it – to dark
forces dancing to the twitch of many puppet-masters.
I
believe it is fitting to finish with the words of the 1916
Proclamation; these are words which all who seek to take up the standard
of Republicanism should ponder long and hard: 'we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine.'
Éire Nua would give practical benefit to Ulster’s growth in population
The latest census figures for the Six-County State (Irish Times July 17) puts
the population of the Six Counties at 1,810,900, while the other three
counties of Ulster have a combined population of 204,803 giving a nine
county Ulster a total population of 2,105,803 out of an All-Ireland population of 6,399,152. What this means is that Ulster accounts for 32.91% or
one third of the total population of Ireland. In practical terms for
unionists this means that under the proposals for a Federal Ireland
contained in the Éire Nua
programme a nine county Ðáil Uladh would have considerable clout within a
New Ireland along with the regional assemblies which come a level below
that.
The
Éire Nua proposals allow for the maximum devolution of decision-making
to the four provincial parliaments - with the exception of overall
financing, defence and foreign affairs. Key areas such as health,
education, social and economic development etc would be under the
control of regional assemblies all elected according to local
majorities. This would be real empowerment for all sections of the
people within the nine counties of Ulster unlike the present arrangement
where the people of the six counties exist as a mere region within a
highly centralised British state while Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are
relegated to the margins of the 26-County state both politically as well
as economically.
As
we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising Éire Nua would harness the
power inherent in the population growth and turn it to the advantage of
the people of all four provinces creating in turn a truly democratic
All-Ireland Republic worthy of ideals set out in the 1916 Proclamation.
taken from Des Dalton's Blog The Singing Flame...
Martin Corey: Exposing the truth behind Britain’s role in Ireland
The actions of the British
Government’s Northern Ireland Office (sic) and the British Direct Ruler Owen
Paterson in overturning a decision of the Belfast High Court to release veteran
Republican Martin Corey underlines the fact
- as was pointed out last year with the imprisonment of the seriously
ill Brendan Lillis – that the default position of the British Government when
dealing with Ireland is naked repression.
All the fine talk of the rule of law upon which the British state is supposedly based counts for naught when it comes dealing with those in Ireland or elsewhere whose only ‘crime’ is to seek to break away from that state and assert the independence of their respective nations or engage in political activism on issues which the British establishment deems inimical to its ‘national interests’ . In this case the British state has subverted its own courts in order to block the release of an Irish Republican. What the imprisonment of Martin Corey has done is to lift the veil on the Six-County state and what is revealed is a state where there is no rule of law, where a person can be locked up on the secret evidence of a shadowy and hidden intelligence agency such as MI5. Nobody is safe in such a state and those foolish enough to dismiss Martin Corey’s case as relevant only to ‘Dissident Republicans’ would do well to remember the words of the German anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niemöller:
All the fine talk of the rule of law upon which the British state is supposedly based counts for naught when it comes dealing with those in Ireland or elsewhere whose only ‘crime’ is to seek to break away from that state and assert the independence of their respective nations or engage in political activism on issues which the British establishment deems inimical to its ‘national interests’ . In this case the British state has subverted its own courts in order to block the release of an Irish Republican. What the imprisonment of Martin Corey has done is to lift the veil on the Six-County state and what is revealed is a state where there is no rule of law, where a person can be locked up on the secret evidence of a shadowy and hidden intelligence agency such as MI5. Nobody is safe in such a state and those foolish enough to dismiss Martin Corey’s case as relevant only to ‘Dissident Republicans’ would do well to remember the words of the German anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niemöller:
“First they came for the communists, and I
didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
“Then they came for the trade unionists, and I
didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak
out because I wasn't a Jew.
“Then they came for me and there was no one left
to speak out for me”
What has happened to Martin Corey
constitutes not only an attack on Martin’s human and civil rights but are an
attack on the human and civil rights of all people within the Six Counties. The
continued imprisonment of Marian Price on trumped up charges coupled with the
vindictive imprisonment of Gerry McGeough tell us much about the true nature of
British involvement in Ireland. The apologists and cheerleaders for the
Stormont Agreement and the political arrangements it has led to propogate the
big lie that everything is, if not normal, then is rapidly approaching normality. They trumpet
the new ‘human rights’ agenda of the Stormont Regime with its new police force
etc. Strip away the spin and the dross and what remains is the same
discredited, sectarian undemocratic and colonial statelet with its special
courts, special laws and its re-packaged colonial police force, the RUC/PSNI to
enforce the writ of the British Crown. Nothing has changed in terms of the
relationship of the British state towards the Irish people or indeed any other
people or groups who dare to step outside the conventions set out for them by
the state. Ample illustration of this is to be found in Britain where the
muslim community are being subjected to a campaign of demonisation and
criminalisation, where arbitary house raids and arrests coupled with detention
without-trial are the norm. Again this merely echoes the experience of the the
Irish community in Britain throughout the 1970s and 80s. Off course by and large the subverting of the
judicial process within the Six Counties this week has largely been ignored by
the media particulaly in the 26 Counties and within Britian itself. Where it
has been written or spoken about in the media the emphasis has been on the
background to Martin’s previous 19 year sentence in Long Kesh prison. Again to
do otherwise would be to shine a light on the abnormality of the Six-County
state and that is a political boat which the establishment simply will not
allowed to be rocked. People need to organise around issues such as the
internment without-trial of Martin Corey. One does not have to travel far to
find injustice and inhumanity they are to be found right on your own doorstep.
taken from Des Dalton's Blog The Singing Flame...
taken from Des Dalton's Blog The Singing Flame...
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