9 November 2006 Edition

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Ballymurphy republicans remembered

Daithí Doolan, delivered the main address

Despite the biting November cold, hundreds of Belfast republicans turned out on Sunday, 5 November, for the annual Greater Ballymurphy Commemoration parade.

Men, women and children - many of whom were the relatives of local republicans who lost their lives in the course of the struggle - marched from the Memorial Plaque on the Ballymurphy Road to the recently-opened Garden of Remembrance at the Upper Springfield Road.

The parade was headed up by a colour party of young republican men and women from the area.

The Garden, which was opened just last year, is testament to the sacrifice of the many people from the 'Murph' who have always stood firm despite the heavy toll they paid in their struggle against British rule.

Their commitment to a free Ireland is inscribed in gold lettering on the marble memorial stones that form the backdrop to the memorial.

At the ceremony in the Garden, chaired by Sinn Féin councillor Marie Cush, local republican Patrick Adams read the Roll of Honour while Caillín Donnelly read the Roll of Remembrance.

Daithí Doolan, a native of Cork who represents Sinn Féin on Dublin City Council, delivered the main address. Expressing the solidarity that republicans throughout Ireland have with Ballymurphy, Doolan said: "This is a proud area; you are a proud people." He stressed that the criminals and anti-community elements that have done so much to damage the reputation of Ballymurphy would not succeed.

Doolan said, "The republican people of the area, who withstood British guns and loyalist death squads and the worst they could inflict over four decades of war, will come through this latest test of their resolve."


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