18 September 1997 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

Mála Poist

Sympathy or not



A chairde,

The recent utterances of sympathy to the English people on the death of a member of their royalty is a contradiction for republicans, and should not have occurred, as Ciaran Heaphey rightly stated (AP/RN 4 September). Instead of falling into line with the status quo that the death of high-living manipulative, Princess Diana was a tragedy republicans should have welcomed her passing and any other event which would hasten the collapse of the corrupt, imperial and military junta in England.

Aligning Sinn Féin with the millions who sheepishly joined in the mass media-created hysteria at her death, and their portrayal of her as a charitable, caring and wronged ex-member of the House of Windsor ignores the realities.

Diana never relinquished her role, ceremonial though it's said to be, as head of British army regiments. She relished it and used her `morale-boosting trips to her boys in Ulster' to further enhance her media profile and position in the royal `family'.

These same regiments are responsible for numerous crimes against the Irish people, they enforce the imperial territorial claim in Ireland, and are of an army which uses the very mines to which she was said to be totally opposed.

The English royal family have for too long toyed with the lives of the Irish people for the leadership of the liberation struggle to shed tears, crocodile tears though they may be.

Expressions of sympathy, attending imperial ceremonies, reluctantly opposing imperial visits to Ireland, failing to support anti-imperialists during the US presidential visit are not the marks of revolutionaries and have not and will not further the peace process one iota.

Respect is not earned through capitulation.

Aengus O Snodaigh,
Baile Atha Cliath.

A chairde,

As an English socialist and republican I fully agree with the sentiments expressed by Ciaran Heaphey (4 September) over Sinn Féin issuing a sympathy statement on the death of Princess Diana.

I have not seen the full statement - and it has not been published in An Phoblacht as I would have expected - but according to the Irish Post in England Sinn Féin described her death as a ``devastating blow for the people of Britain''.

Republicans in Britain - and I can assure you there are a considerable number - are not devastated and we have managed to avoid being caught up in a wave of media-inspired mass hysteria.

Princess Diana (or should I say Saint Diana as she will no doubt soon become) was a young woman from a privileged background who married into the English royal family and still craved the high-life and fame it brought her, even after her divorce.

She was one of thousands of people who die in road accidents every year, and yet Sinn Féin do not issue individual ``deepest sympathies'' following every death, nor would I expect them to.

So could someone please tell me why the leadership of Sinn Féin has felt it necessary to do so in the case of Princess Diana?

Is it because she was an ex-member of the royal family and a self-styled ``Queen of Hearts''? Is Sinn Féin now seeking the approval of the English establishment and planning to reinvent itself as ``New Sinn Féin'' as the British Labour Party has done?

I hope not, and I am sure Sinn Féin's grass roots activists would rebel against any such move.

On the other hand, it may be a cunning ploy to soften up the British government and the loyalists before the talks begin.

Whatever the reason, I am sure that republicans and socialists, both in Ireland and over here, would like an answer.

Ian Gardner,
Derbyshire.

A chairde,

If Sinn Féin had not responded positively to the sudden death of Diana Spencer and offered sympathy, then it would have reflected very badly on the party and undermined Sinn Féin's reputation no end. Sinn Féin has a mandate of equality and justice and has stated publicly many times that it believes that all people should be treated with dignity and respect. Offering condolences to the grieving is a humane, dignified and respectful response. Sinn Féin's opponents might well have accused Sinn Féin of not practising what it preaches if its leadership refused to extend condolences to the family of Diana Spencer.

How would Ciarán feel if a prominent Republican died suddenly in tragic circumstances and a British MP was asked to comment on it, and he/she refused to extend condolences?

KJ Coleman,
Manchester.

A chairde,

Unlike a lot of other Americans I wasn't out in front of the British embassy with a dozen roses wailing and rending my clothes after having heard of Diana's death, but to not have any sympathy for her just because she happened to have been born into the British aristocracy seems a bit much.

She seemed to have been a perfectly nice woman just trying to live her life, and after fifteen years or so of being married to that creep Charles I'm of the opinion that she deserved better.

Peter King

New York

Bushmills Whiskey in Casement Park



A chairde,

The acceptance by the GAA Co Antrim Executive of £60,000 cash sponsorship from Bushmills Whiskey Distillery is shameful and indefensible.

As a lifelong GAA member, and a dedicated campaigner against anti-Catholic job discrimination, I spoke personally to the Antrim County Chairperson, Joe O'Boyle, about this decision.

On 11 September, the County Chairperson informed me that he and his County Executive had ``consulted Bushmills; the Fair Employment Commission; `Croke Park'; and the Clubs;'' before agreeing the sponsorship deal.

He told me that the FEC gave Bushmills a clean bill of health, and the County Executive are ``satisfied that the company is doing its best.'' He said the decision to accept sponsorship was made by the Clubs, and the County Executive simply agreed.

Whatever ``consulting Croke Park'' may mean, GAA Clubs in County Antrim were certainly not consulted about this sponsorship, and did not take any decision on the matter. I understand that Club delegates attending the County committee meeting in Toomebridge on Monday 8 September were presented with the fait accompli of a sponsorship deal already agreed with Bushmills Distillery. There was no discussion; there was no consultation; and the decision was most certainly not made by GAA clubs throughout County Antrim.

On a number of occasions, the present County Executive has demonstrated outright disregard for principles of democracy, consistency, or accountability.

In this instance, however, they have gone beyond the bounds of debatable administrative practice in order to enrol the GAA in County Antrim as partners in a grubby deal with a company which is under intense pressure to improve its Fair Employment record from a sustained and highly-organised, two-year-old boycott on the West Coast of the USA.

In his conversation with me, the County Chairperson confirmed that he was aware of the boycott, initiated by the City of San Francisco in January 1996, and he acknowledged that the GAA deal with Bushmills would help to undermine the boycott and lend credibility to the company.

However, Mr O'Boyle said to me, ``We have to start somewhere!''

Precisely what is meant by this fatuous and irrelevant comment is beyond my comprehension.

After twenty years of inadequate Fair Employment Laws, overseen by a flaccid and ineffectual government-appointed agency, the unemployment differentials which existed in 1971 have scarcely even been dented.

Since the people most affected by those differentials are the young men and women who form the backbone of the GAA, Mr O'Boyle has a duty to explain precisely how enrolling Antrim GAA as a partner of Bushmills Distillery will improve that company's Fair Employment record and provide economic equality for young Catholic Nationalists within this statelet.

We do indeed have to start somewhere!

And a very good place to start would be for all the well-heeled Catholic professionals who are immune to discrimination, and who occupy positions of influence within this society, to accept personal responsibility for the consequences of their decision-making on the weakest and most impoverished elements of the Nationalist community.

When thoughtful and well-informed people six thousand miles from Ireland are willing to use their economic muscle to promote social justice in this society, it seems reasonable to demand that those entrusted with the welfare of the GAA in County Antrim should at least pause and reflect before enrolling Cumann Lúthchleas Gael and Roger Casement GAA Park in partnership with Bushmills Distillery.

Before writing this letter, I offered to meet privately with the County Chairperson, to make available to him and his Executive, all correspondence and records of meetings between EQUALITY and Irish Distillers/Bushmills, in order that the deal with Bushmills could be re-evaluated.

Mr O'Boyle has not taken up that offer, and I am now inviting all GAA Members in County Antrim to vote with their pockets on the Bushmills Whiskey Sponsorship of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael.

Oliver Kearney.

Excluding disabled people



A chairde,

I am in my mid-40s and wheelchair bound.

I have until recently been in near isolation from society. This was due to medical circumstances, self-isolation, and society's attitude towards disabled people. The first two, I have done something about.

I wish to stand up and shout for disabled people. However, I find society coming into the 21st century still to a large extent excludes disabled people. We are still treated as half-wits. I feel that we need an informal network of people who find themselves in a similar situation to myself.

Caoimhghín O Raifeartaigh,
Poleglas Disability,
1 Colinmill,
Poleglass,
Belfast,
BT17 OAP.

Money from Fun Run



A Chairde,

During August prisoners in Long Kesh, Maghaberry and Portlaoise completed their annual fun run to raise money for Irish medium education. Their efforts in the past have raised much valued assistance for our children who are learning Irish. This year the proceeds are particularly slow in getting to where they are needed. On behalf of the prisoners I am therefore appealing that money be forwarded ASAP to either of the two locations below:

Marcus Mac Ruairí,
The Sinn Féin Centre,
17 Circular Road,
Castlewellan,
Co. Down;

Michael Brown,
The POW Department,
Conway Mill,
Falls Road,
Belfast.

Leathanach Gaeilge



A chairde,

Chím nach bhfuil leathanach Ghaolainne `An Phoblacht' chomh Ghaolach agus a bhíodh (Déardaoin 4ú Meán Fómhair `97). An é go bhfuil scéal Sellafield ró-thábhachtach don Ghaolainn nó an é nach bhfuil an Ghaolainn sach tábhachtach do scéal Sellafield? Tá súil agam gur `blip' sealadach é seo i bpolasaí Ghaolainne `An Phoblacht'.

R. O hEartáin,
Trá Lí.

Transfer delays continue



A Chairde,

One of the issues concerning the peace process which led to the ending of the IRA ceasefire in 1996 was the treatment of political prisoners.

Though we welcome the decategorisation of the prisoners from the SSU's in England, the issue of repatriation has not been dealt with. It is almost a year since the last repatriation of political prisoners by the then Tory government, at which time the paper work concerning the other prisoners was at an advanced stage. Before Easter 1997 the paper work was completed and was to be signed by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard. However, Michael Howard's vindictive ways prevented him from signing the documents.

Since the election of the Labour Party as the new government in Britain, the responsibility for the delay now lies with Jack Straw, the new Home Secretary. With the documents complete for some months, the delay must now be seen as a deliberate act and part of the British government's policy towards the IRA's new ceasefire, the same as during the last ceasefire of 1994. The British are trying to use the prisoners as political hostages.

This is not acceptable to the prisoners or their families. We call on all those who have campaigned on prisoners issues in the past, and those who wish to see a just and lasting peace in our country to campaign for the immediate transfer of all Irish political prisoners.

Derek Doherty,
Republican Prisoner,
Portlaoise Repatriation Committee,
Portlaoise Jail.

Cork memorial weekend



A chairde,

The annual memorial weekend for the two Cork Volunteers who died in the present phase of struggle, Dermot Crowley (died 25 June 1973 in Tyrone) and Tony Ahern (died 10 May 1973 in Fermanagh) will take place on the 27-28 September in Cork city. The Ahern/Crowley commemoration committee is planning a number of events that weekend to honour the two lads (also remembering the two Tyrone Volunteers Patrick Carty and Sean Loughran who died on active service with Dermot Crowley).

The committee would ask that Republican supporters in Cork - and beyond if possible - attend some if not all of the events planned (for the list of events see Imeachtai, page 16). Visitors will be more than welcome. The Ahern/Crowley Commemoration committee can be contacted at the Cork Sinn Féin office (tel: 311389).

Michael Nugent,
Ahern/Crowley Commemoration Committee.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland