RSF President Des Dalton in New York this week

Republican Sinn Fein President Des Dalton will be speaking at the Flannery Dinner this Saturday (April 30 - 6pm- 9pm) at Connolly's Restaurant, 121 W. 45th Street, NYC.

He will be joining the Honourees Peggy O'Hara (Derry) Mother of INLA Hunger Striker Patsy O' Hara and Vic Sackett (Long Island) & Pat Frawley (Bronx). Tickets $ 80.00 this includes 3 hours of open bar with hot starters/appetizers followed by dinner and dessert, coffee and tea after. Traditional music will be performed by Mary Courtney & Morningstar.

The themes for this year's Dinner will be: Countdown to 2016 --- The Centenary of the Easter Rising & The 30th anniversary of the deaths of the 1981 Hunger Strike Martyrs. More information at www.irishfreedom.net

Des appeared on Radio Free Eireann Saturday which can still be heard on http://archive.wbai.org/ with Peggy O'Hara and members of her family and Martin Galvin. The President of Republican Sinn Fein also gave the oration at the National Irish Freedom Committees Easter Commemoration on Sunday. He will be on the show again later this week just prior to the Dinner which can be heard live at wbai.org on the day

Statement from the CIRA POWs in Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim, Easter 2011

We the Republican POWs incarcerated in Maghaberry concentration camp, Co Antrim, would like to take this opportunity on this the 95th anniversary of the Easter rising to send greeting to our comrades in Portlaoise gaol and in Republican Sinn Féin / Sinn Féin Poblachtach. We would also like to pay tribute to the leadership and Volunteers of the ContinuityIRA for your continued fight against the British forces of occupation.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the hunger strikes and 30 years on we still find ourselves once again in a struggle for the restoration of political status - a status that our gallant comrades in the H-blocks and Armagh gaol fought and died for. At present tensions are running high in the gaol. Like our comrades in 1981 we find that a deal brokered between ourselves and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and in the prison, the agreement is not being implemented. On August 12 an agreement was reached after a protracted protest. A fundamental part of this agreement was to see a total end to the degrading practice of strip searching. Despite this strip searching is still being practiced in the gaol and this is April 2011. So far we have refused to comply with these searches and as a result we are being forcibly striped by the jails riot squad. We the POWs will not stand by and let the NIO and the Brits renege on the agreement - it needs to be implemented in full or we will be forced to take more action.

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the ÉIRE NUA programme along with SAOL NUA to provide a way forward for all the Irish people. We must liberate the Irish people and establish a democratic system based on justice and equality, to build ÉIRE NUA – a New Ireland for the people of Ireland. The ideal proclaimed by the leaders of the 1916 Rising still inspires those who today (in 2011) continue the armed struggle for a 32-County All-Ireland Republic that was proclaimed on Easter week by the 1916 leaders. We Irish Republicans today need to continue the struggle for freedom and not allow the deaths of all those who gave their lives for Irish freedom to be in vain.
We must fight on defiantly and pledge our allegiance to the all Ireland Republic; we must carry on the armed struggle until the British leave our country, there can be no compromise whatsoever.

After all we didn’t invite the British they came by force of arms many hundreds of years ago and they are still here. This is not acceptable they are still occupying our country as said by Patrick Pearse “while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”. The British remain here with a presence of force, we the people of Ireland will always resist their presence in Ireland until we gain a united Ireland and the occupation of British rule in Ireland has been removed. We will not tolerate their presence on our land and so we will continue our resistance campaign of arms until the British leave
Ireland.

There will be no compromise where the British are concerned we will not stop until there is a total withdraw of British rule from Ireland. “In matters of principle there can be no compromise” as said by Terence Mc Swiney.

Victory to the CIRA!

O/C CIRA Maghaberry

Statement in German: http://www.irish-solidarity.net/db1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=406:stellungnahme-der-ira-gefangenen-maghaberry-co-antrim-ostern-2011&catid=44:republikanische-gefangene&Itemid=65

Easter Statement from the Leadership of the Republican Movement

ON the 95th anniversary of the momentous Easter Rising of 1916 the Leadership of the Republican Movement once again sends greetings to all who are gathered in commemoration at the graves of the patriot dead or at monuments in their honour.

From Easter Sunday 2010 the Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim embarked on a five-month long protest in support of their just demand for political status. That status was taken away when the Provisionals signed the 1998 Stormont Agreement.

On August 12 last this protest ended with an agreement in which facilitators, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and others were involved. More than six months later key elements of that agreement were not implemented. Specifically, the “BOSS chair” x-ray machine was installed to replace the strip-searching of prisoners, but despite the availability of that machine the original degrading practice was continued.

As a result Republican prisoners refused to cooperate with further strip searches. This, in turn, led to two prisoners being denied parole. The facilitators of the agreement returned to the prison in March and met the prisoners and the prison governor. The governor refused to abide by the terms of the August Agreement. The responsibility for reneging on the compact entered into in good faith lies with the Stormont Minister for Justice who sits at the cabinet table beside the Provisionals.

The Provos repeat Bobby Sands’s name while as the new jailers they deny Bobby Sands’s objective of political status to present-day Republican prisoners. They flaunt the Easter Lily in Leinster House while they punish the prisoners for wearing an Easter Lily in Maghaberry Prison.

Meanwhile the Continuity IRA has been carrying the war to the enemy and Republican Sinn Féin has campaigned tirelessly in support of the prisoners. To the Republicans prisoners in Maghaberry and Portlaoise the leadership sends greetings and congratulates and salutes their courage and sacrifice.

In the 26 Counties the hard-won rights of working people are under attack and must be defended. World-wide corrupt practices and bad management at home has resulted in almost half-a-million being unemployed and 1,000 per week emigrating in search of work. Whatever economic independence existed has now been ceded to the EU and the IMF. Real revolutionary change is necessary based on the principles of the 1916 Proclamation. ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA provide the basis for such a New Ireland.

Now to put the seal on the surrender process and the 1998 Agreement, which is not a settlement, the Queen of England is being brought to the 26 Counties – the first such occasion in 100 years. This is a political action designed to normalise and make acceptable British rule in Ireland.

Republicans must protest and tell the world that the English government will never be normal or acceptable here. The struggle is not over. It never will be over until the English government leaves Ireland – for all time. Spending €8 million on security for the Queen of England is sheer waste of the people’s money.

Up to this when the Dublin Administration and the British government joined together with Stormont in repression and coercion, their objective was, of course, to destroy the Republican Movement. In this they always failed.

In our time, they seek to go further. They are attempting to demolish the basic idea of Irish Republicanism, Irish national independence and control of our own natural resources. They have given away our Six north-eastern Counties to England and have handed over our natural resources for nothing to multi-national companies. The creeping tide of Anglicisation sweeps over our people gradually every day. In all of this they have the support of former comrades masquerading as Republicans.

We must resist this surrender process. We must be true to the ideals of the men and women of 1916 and of those who stood in the Bearna Baoil, the Gap of Danger, before 1916 and since 1916. Let us arise!

An Pboblacht Abú!

-- Issued by the Leadership of the Republican Movement, Easter 2011

Statement in German: http://www.irish-solidarity.net/db1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=404:oster-stellungnahme-der-fuehrung-der-republikanischen-bewegung&catid=38:reden&Itemid=60

Easter Commemorations 2011

Kildare

Easter Sunday, Burgage Cemetery, Blessington, 12 noon.

Easter Monday, St Corban's Cemetery Naas, wreath-laying at the Republican Plot, 12 noon.

Wreaths will also be laid throughout county.

Carlow

Easter Saturday, wreath laying ceremony at the Republican Plot, Carlow cemetery at 3.30pm.

Mobilise to oppose visit of British Queen

Statement by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton

Republican Sinn Féin are calling for an active campaign of opposition to the visit by the Queen of England to the 26-County State in May. Republican Sinn Féin have organised a nationwide campaign in opposition to this visit and we are calling on all people who believe in Ireland’s inherent right to national freedom to come out join the protest campaign and make their voices heard.

This visit is intended to symbolise the normalisation of British Rule in Ireland. Irish Republicans in opposing the visit will be sending out the clear message that British Rule in Ireland will never be either normal or acceptable.

At a time when over 400,000 people are unemployed, thousand more are being forced to emigrate or fear losing their homes in excess of 8 million Euro is being spent on a parade of pomp and imperialism which is being foisted on the people by the same political elite responsible for the economic collapse.

Our message will be the same in Dublin, Kildare, Cashel and Cork –the head of the British State will never be welcome in any part of Ireland as long as that state continues to partition and occupy Ireland.

Republican Sinn Féin will actively oppose visit of British Queen

Statement by Kildare Republican Sinn Féin

In a statement Kildare Republican Sinn Féin said they would actively oppose the upcoming visit by the Queen of England to the 26-County State and in particular the proposed visit to the National Stud in Co Kildare:

“This visit is part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to normalise British rule and the enforced partition of Ireland. Irish Republicans will actively oppose this visit in order to send out the clear message that British rule and the partition of Ireland will never be either normal or acceptable. Kildare Republican Sinn Féin will play our part in this nationwide campaign and will take the lead in opposing this visit to Co Kildare.

“The head of the British State will never be welcome in any part of Ireland so long as that state continues to occupy part of Ireland.

“As part of the campaign we will be joining with the Myles Shevlin/Tony Ruane Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin in Carlow on Saturday April 9 for a protest to highlight opposition to this parade of pomp and imperialism. The protest will take place in at the Liberty Tree 1798 monument in the Haymarket from 1pm to 2.pm.”