17 July 2008 Edition

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2,000 honour Martin Hurson

By Cathal Mallaghan

MARTIN HURSON died on hunger strike on 13 July 1981 in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh; 27 years later, 2,000 republicans from all over Tyrone turned in Galbally out to show much Martin and his comrades’ sacrifice still mean to our struggle.
They assembled at the Community Centre to take part in a parade led by a colour party and two bands: the Martin Hurson Memorial Flute Band from Gortin and the South Derry Martyrs Flute Band.
There were banners which represented Pomeroy, Galbally, Aughnacloy and Ógra Sinn Féin from Derry. The parade followed a football match played at Galbally GAA grounds in which teams from the county competed to win the Martin Hurson Cup.
The parade went to the Republican Monument in the village of Cappagh. There was a wreath-laying ceremony with tributes from Óglaigh na hÉireann, Sinn Féin and the National Graves Association. A special mention was given to a wreath laid by Councillor Brendan Farrell, from Longford Town Council, who laid a wreath on behalf of the McManus/Hurson Sinn Féin Cumann in Longford, where Martin Hurson was the Smash H-Blocks candidate in the 1981 general election.
Barry McElduff, Omagh councillor and MLA for west Tyrone, said:
“Tyrone has a very distinguished list of Volunteers. That is something we are very proud of. Martin Hurson’s death on hunger strike swelled the ranks of the IRA in Tyrone.”
McElduff thanked everyone who turned up and he urged the building of political campaigns to proudly assert the Irishness of the people of Tyrone and the use of every available tactic to dissolve the unnatural, British-imposed border between the North and South of Ireland.
More republican events are listed for August in Loughmacrory, Clonoe and Derry City.

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