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An Phoblacht welcomes readers’ letters. Write in Irish or English, 200 words maximum. Letters may be edited for brevity. Send your letters to [email protected]. No attachments please

Special effort urged for Tyrone Hunger Strike Commemoration

I AM urging local republicans to make a special effort to attend this year’s National Hunger Strike Commemoration given that Tyrone will be hosting the event for the first time in Galbally on Sunday 16 August.
Nowhere was support for the Hunger Strikers more evident than in Tyrone. Towns and villages the length and breadth of the county were a hive of activity and protest during those turbulent days of 1980 and 1981, as people rose up in defiance against the calculated attempts by Thatcher and her regime to defeat the struggle for national independence by attempting to defeat the Hunger Strikers. Thatcher’s agenda failed abysmally and for republicans of all ages, and for peoples struggling for freedom all over the world, the Hunger Strikers are synonymous with the triumph of courage over adversity and the triumph of freedom over tyranny.
While 28 years have now passed since this pivotal period in the course of Irish history, the pride with which the H-Block Martyrs are remembered is ever enduring and I would urge republicans from throughout Strabane District to reflect this sense of pride by making a special effort to attend this major Commemorative event in our own county.
The venue for the main parade on Sunday 16 August will be Galbally, the birthplace of the sixth hunger striker to die, Martin Hurson. Martin died on 13 July 1981 after 46 days of hunger strike. His death had a profound impact on the local community and the wider Tyrone area.
The commemoration will commence in Galbally at 3.30pm. The march will go from Galbally Chapel, where Martin is buried, to the Community Hall where Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP will address the commemoration.
Sinn Féin is organising bus transport to and from the Commemoration from different areas of Strabane District. Anyone wishing to book a seat or seeking additional details should contact the local Constituency Office at Melvin Road, Tel: 71886464.  Strabane town buses will depart for commemoration at 1.30pm (Táille: £7 Adults, £3 Children). 
Cllr , KIERAN McGUIRE (Sinn Féin),
Chairperson Strabane District Council

Ardoyne ex-prisoners day

THE Republican Ex-Prisoners Association in Ardoyne, Bone and Ligoniel elected a new committee at our Annual General Meeting held in January of this year.
Since the meeting, the committee decided to renovate our premises at the top of Brompton Park and agreed to share the use of the premises with the Irish language cultural group Glor an Tuaiscirt and the Ardoyne Safer Neighbourhood Project.
The renovation work on the premises is now well underway and we hope for a completion date for the work in September when we will relaunch services for the Republican Ex-Prisoners community in Ardoyne, Bone and Ligoniel.
The new committee also agreed to run a number of events in the area to enable Republican POWs to meet up with old comrades and build on the friendships forged during our incarceration.
This week we are running an Ex-prisoners day in The Glenpark on Saturday 8 August from 1-4 as part of the Ard Eoin Fleadh celebrations.
This will include an exhibition on the struggle in the prisons and a wide range of ex-prisoners will be there to share their experiences with the public.
We are also running a ‘Teacht le Cheile’ Reunion night of craic and ceol in the Glenpark that evening starting at 8pm with the highly rated Dublin band Clan Carney playing on the night. We hope to see as many ex-prisoners coming to this event as possible as it has been some time now since former POWs in the area have organised any sort of get together.
We are trying to reach as many Republican ex-prisoners as possible and have sent out over 250 invitations to the function. We are aware however, that our list of local ex-prisoners is incomplete. If you know anyone that we may have missed out, could you contact Paddy Flood on 079 3468 1881, Mary Doyle 07596 764960 or Sean Mag Uidhir on 075 9521 9637.
SEÁN Mag UIDHIR,       
Cathaoirleach

Dan O’Brien, the Irish Times and Irish Neutrality

ONE of the good things that can be said of the Irish Times is that they publish articles that put forward different perspectives, one of which was that by Dan O’Brien, a senior editor of the Economist Intelligence Unit (4 August).
He clearly does not approve of the Irish people’s unwillingness to join NATO, a nuclear armed military alliance, committed to use nuclear weapons as a first strike weapon.
It is interesting that the Irish Times decided to publish the article just before the 6 August which marks the anniversary of the decision of the US, which dominates NATO, to drop a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima.
That the EU Parliament decided to mark its opening session by ensuring that the Eurocorps, a military force dedicated to serving the interests of the EU and NATO is a very clear signal that the EU elite want to make the link between the EU and NATO stronger which is of course one of the key reasons why the Peace & Neutrality Alliance campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty and will again be doing so for exactly the same reasons because of course the treaty is exactly the same.
Most (but not all) the articles so far published by the Irish Times that refer to the Lisbon Treaty put forward a case for voting yes. On behalf of PANA therefore I would like to congratulate them on publishing an article that provides an overwhelming and irrefutable case for voting no to the Lisbon Treaty on the 2 October.
ROGER COLE,
Peace and Neutrality Alliance

Fine Gael and expenses

I have been waiting with baited breath for over 3 days now to read in the letter pages or elsewhere an apology from the Fine Gael Leader  Mr  Enda Kenny TD for  his party members who have abused the expense allocated to them.No more mentions of rip-offs. etc.etc.
Well Enda what have you got to say
PÓL Ó DEORÁIN,
Cluain Dolcáin,
Baile Átha Cliath