Statement from Gerry McGeough Oct. 12th, 2012

Posted by Jim on October 13, 2012

A Cairde,

May I begin by extending my warmest and heartiest greetings to you all. This evening’s event is a tribute to the organisational skills, fundamental decency and great Patriotic spirit of the wonderful people of Dublin. May God bless you all.

When I was arrested following the 2007 northern Assembly elections, in which I had stood as an Independent Republican candidate, the British were sending a very clear message to the Irish people: Any expression of Irish Patriotic political sentiment or opinion by any Irishman within the 6 counties would not be tolerated.

When this was followed-up by my being ritualistically dragged through the corrupt Diplock court system and finally flung into jail, the British were issuing another warning that this was to be the expected fate of any Irish Patriot who did not bow the knee to English rule and Orange domination in the North of Ireland. In other words: “Croppies lie down”

Encouraged by the disgraceful submissive silence of the Sinn Féin leadership in my case, the British believed that they had won and there would be no further ramifications over my incarceration.

Once again, these foreign rulers had failed to take into account the refusal of the Irish people to be bullied or intimidated by them. The courageous men and women of the Irish Republican base are made of stern stuff.

The British wanted me to rot in silence in jail, but thanks to the efforts of great people like yourselves and members of our Justice Campaign in Ireland, north and south, in the United States, Spain and throughout the world, the political persecution and injustice that had been perpetrated upon my family and I has been highlighted and exposed for all to see. For that I am truly and deeply grateful.

In your refusal to be subjugated to the dictates of alien rule, you are following in the ancient tradition of Independent Irish nationhood. It is fitting that tonight’s event should be held in Dublin just a few miles from the site of the Battle of Clontarf where, almost a thousand years ago in 1014, the great king Brian Boru, champion of the Irish Christian Nation, literally drove the Viking heathens, who had been terrorising our country for centuries, into the seas around Dublin Bay.

Though born in Munster, this great leader of our people was buried in Armagh as a mark of his kingship of all Ireland. There, his bones lay honoured and undisturbed until the 19th century when a group of drunken British soldiers, enraged by the Irish pride in Brian and our reverence of an ancient nationhood, vandalised his tomb and pulverised his remains into dust.

The British hatred of our sense of independent nationhood continues to this day and my arrest and continued incarceration is a manifestation of this. To the people of Dublin and Ireland I say pay tribute to Brian Boru by celebrating with gusto the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf in the Spring of 2014.

To the English occupation Establishment still in Ireland, meanwhile, I say: For God’s sake, just go home!

Finally, in once again thanking you all for your prayers, support and solidarity. I would like to acknowledge the tremendous work that has been done on our behalf by Mr. Éamon Ó’Cuív TD, a true stalwart and great Irishman.

On that note, I wish everyone an enjoyable evening and a great night’s craic! Beannact Dé oraibh agus Éireann go Brách !

Gerry McGeough