Provisionals are part and parcel of British administration in Ireland

In a statement on June 22 the President of Republican Sinn Féin, Des Dalton, said:

“The upcoming meeting of British Crown Minister Martin McGuinness with the Queen of England is merely a symbolic confirmation of the fact that the Provisionals are part and parcel of the British administration in Ireland. The reality of British Rule on the ground for nationalists has not changed with arbitrary arrest and internment without trial still used to secure British occupation.

“The continued internment of Martin Corey and Marian Price tells us much about the true nature of British rule in Ireland. The fact that nationalist communities in areas such as Lurgan and Craigavon are under siege from the British colonial police force, the RUC/PSNI, again underlines the colonial statelet which Martin McGuinness and the Provisionals are prepared to administer under instruction from their political masters in Westminster. The next step for the Provisionals will of course be to sit in the British parliament at Westminster. Their protestations to the contrary ring increasingly hollow.

“Irish Republicans will be opposing the visit of the Queen of England to the Six Counties just as we opposed her visit to the 26-County State last year. The state of which she is head by its continued occupation of Ireland denies “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”. The only basis for a just and lasting settlement leading to a New Ireland is a British declaration of intent to withdraw which will create the space within which the people of All-Ireland can negotiate and debate the shape of a truly democratic Al-Ireland Republic.”