Posted by Jim on May 21, 2017
Raymond McCreesh
A quiet, good-natured and discreet republican
THE THIRD of the resolutely determined IRA Volunteers to join the H-Block hunger strike for political status was twenty-four-year-old Raymond McCreesh, from Camlough in South Armagh: a quiet, shy and good-humoured republican, who although captured at the early age of nineteen, along with two other Volunteers in a British army ambush, had already almost three years active republican involvement behind him.
During those years he had established himself as one of the most dedicated and invaluable republican activists in that part of the six counties to which the Brits themselves have – half-fearfully, half-respectfully – given the name ‘bandit country’ and which has become a living legend in republican circles, during the present war, for the courage and resourcefulness of its Volunteers: the border land of South Armagh.
Raymond’s resolve to hunger strike to the death, to secure the prisoners’ five demands was indicated in a smuggled-out letter written by Paddy Quinn, an H-Block blanket man – who was later to embark on hunger strike himself – who was captured along with Raymond and who received the same fourteen year sentence: “I wrote Raymie a couple of letters before he went to the prison hospital. He wrote back and according to the letter he was in great spirits and very determined. A sign of that determination was the way he finished off by saying: Ta seans ann go mbeidh me abhaile rombat a chara’ which means: There is a chance that I’ll be home before you, my friend!”
Captured in June 1976, and sentenced in March 1977, when he refused to recognise the court, Raymond would have been due for release in about two years’ time had he not embarked on his principled protest for political status, which led him, ultimately, to hunger strike.
FAMILY
Raymond Peter McCreesh, the seventh in a family of eight children, was born in a small semi-detached house at St. Malachy’s Park, Camlough – where the family still live – on February 25th, 1957.
The McCreeshes, a nationalist family in a staunchly nationalist area, have been rooted in South Armagh for seven generations, and both Raymond’s parents – James aged 65, a retired local council worker, and Susan (whose maiden name is Quigley), aged 60 – come from the nearby townland of Dorsey.
Raymond was a quiet but very lively person, very good-natured and – like other members of his family – extremely witty. Not the sort of person who would push himself forward if he was in a crowd, and indeed often rather a shy person in his personal relationships until he got to know a person well. Nevertheless, in his republican capacity he was known as a capable, dedicated and totally committed Volunteer who could show leadership and aggression where necessary.
Among both his family and his republican associates, Raymond was renowned for his laughter and for “always having a wee smile on him”. His sense of humour remained even during his four-year incarceration in the H-Blocks, as well as during his hunger strike where he continued to insist that he was “just fine.”
SCHOOL
Raymond went first to Camlough primary school, and then to St. Coleman’s college in Newry. It was at St. Coleman’s that Raymond met Danny McGuinness, also from Camlough, and the two became steadfast friends. They later became republican comrades, and Danny too then a nineteen-year-old student who had just completed his ‘A’ levels was captured along with Raymond and Paddy Quinn, and is now in the H-Blocks.
At school, Raymond’s strongest interest was in Irish language and Irish history, and he read widely in those subjects. His understanding of Irish history led him to a fervently nationalist outlook, and he was regarded as a ‘hothead’ in his history classes, and as being generally “very conscious of his Irishness”.
He was also a sportsman, and played under-sixteen and Minor football for Carrickcruppin Gaelic football club as well as taking a keen interest in the local youth club where he played basketball and pool, and was regarded a good snooker player.
When he was fourteen years old, Raymond got a weekend job working on a milk round through the South Armagh border area, around Mullaghbawn and Dromintee. Later on, after leaving his job in Lisburn, he worked full-time on the milk round, where he would always stop and chat to customers. He became a great favourite amongst them and many enquired about him long after he left the round.
RESISTANCE
During the early ‘seventies, the South Armagh border area was the stamping ground of the British army’s Parachute regiment, operating out of Bessbrook camp less than two miles from Raymond’s home. Stories of their widespread brutality and harassment of local people abound, and built-up then a degree of resentment and resistance amongst most of the nationalist population that is seen to this day.
The SAS terror regiment began operating in this area in large numbers too, in a vain attempt to counter republican successes, and the high level of assassinations of local people on both sides of the South Armagh border, notably three members of the Reavey family in 1975, was believed locally to have been the work both of the SAS, and of UDR and RUC members holding dual membership with ‘illegal’ loyalist paramilitary organisations.
Given this scenario and Raymond’s understanding of Irish history, it is small wonder that he became involved in the republican struggle.
JOINED
He first of all joined na Fianna Eireann early in 1973 and towards the end of that year joined the Irish Republican Army’s 1st Battalion, South Armagh.
Even before joining the IRA, and despite his very young age, Raymond – with remarkable awareness and maturity – became one of the first Volunteers in the South Armagh area to adopt a very low, security conscious, republican profile.
He rarely drank, but if occasionally in a pub he would not discuss either politics or his own activities, and he rarely attended demonstrations or indeed anything which would have brought him to the attention of the enemy.
It was because of this remarkable self-discipline and discretion that during his years of intense republican involvement Raymond was never once arrested or even held for screening in the North, and only twice held briefly in the South.
Consequently, Raymond was never obliged to go ‘on the run’, continuing to live at home until the evening of his capture, and always careful not to cause his family any concern or alarm.
Fitted in with his republican activities Raymond would relax by going to dances or by going to watch football matches at weekends.
WORK
After leaving school he spent a year at Newry technical college studying fabrication engineering, and afterwards got a job at Gambler Simms (Steel) Ltd. in Lisburn. He had a conscientious approach to his craft but was obliged to leave after a year because of a fear of assassination.
Each day he travelled to work from Newry, in a bus along with four or five mates who had got jobs there too from the technical college, but the prevailing high level of sectarian assassinations, and the suspicion justifiably felt of the predominantly loyalist work-force at Gambler Simms, made Raymond, and many other nationalist workers, decide that travelling such a regular route through loyalist country side was simply too risky.
So, after leaving the Lisburn factory, Raymond began to work full-time as a milk roundsman, an occupation which would greatly have increased his knowledge of the surrounding countryside, as well as enabling him to observe the movements of British army patrols and any other untoward activity in the area.
ACTIVITY
Republican activity in that area during those years consisted largely of landmine attacks and ambushes on enemy patrols.
Raymond had the reputation of a republican who was very keen to suggest and take part in operations, almost invariably working in his own, extremely tight, active service unit, though occasionally, when requested – as he frequently was – assisting other units in neighbouring areas with specific operations. He would always carefully consider the pros and cons of any operation, and would never panic or lose his nerve.
In undertaking the hunger strike, Raymond gave the matter the same careful consideration he would have expended on a military operation, he undertook nothing either a rush, or for bluff.
CAPTURE
The operation which led to the capture of Raymond, his boyhood friend, Danny McGuiness, and Patrick Quinn, took place on June 25th, 1976.
An active service unit comprising these three and a fourth Volunteer arrived in a commandeered car at a farmyard in the town land of Sturgan a mile from Camlough – at about 9.25 p.m.
Their objective was to ambush a covert Brit observation post which they had located opposite the Mountain House Inn, on the main Newry – Newtonhamilton Road, half-a-mile away. They were not aware, however, that another covert British observation post, on a steep hillside half-a-mile away, had already spotted the four masked, uniformed and armed Volunteers, clearly visible below them, and that radioed helicopter reinforcements were already closing in.
As the fourth Volunteer drove the commandeered car down the road to the agreed ambush point, to act as a lure for the Brits, the other three moved down the hedgeline of the fields, into position. The fourth Volunteer, however, as he returned, as arranged, to rejoin his comrades, spotted the British Paratroopers on the hillside closing in on his unsuspecting friends and, although armed only with a short range Stengun, opened fire to warn the others.
Immediately, the Brits opened fire with SLRs and light machine-guns, churning up the ground around the Volunteers with hundreds of rounds, firing indiscriminately into the nearby farmhouse and two vehicles parked outside, and killing a grazing cow!
The fourth Volunteer was struck by three bullets, in the leg, arm and chest, but managed to crawl away and to elude the massive follow up search, escaping safely – though seriously injured – the following day.
Raymond and Paddy Quinn ran zig-zag across open fields to a nearby house, under fire all this time, intending to commandeer a car. Unfortunately, the car belonging to the occupants of the house was parked at a neighbour’s house several hundred yards away. Even then the pair might have escaped but that they delayed several minutes waiting for their comrade, Danny McGuinness, who however had got separated from them and had taken cover in a disused quarry outhouse (where he was captured in a follow-up operation the next day).
The house in which Raymond and Paddy took cover was immediately besieged by berserk Paratroopers who riddled the house with bullets. Even when the two Volunteers surrendered, after the arrival of a local priest, and came out through the front door with their hands up, the Paras opened fire again and the Pair were forced to retreat back into the house.
On the arrival of the RUC, the two Volunteers again surrendered and were taken to Bessbrook barracks where they were questioned and beaten for three days before being charged.
REMARKABLE
One remarkable aspect of the British ambush concerns the role of Lance-Corporal David Jones, a member of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute regiment. According to Brit statements at the trial it was he who first opened up on the IRA active service unit from the hillside.
Nine months later, on March 16th, 1977 two IRA Volunteers encountered two Paratroopers (at the time seconded to the SAS) in a field outside Maghera in South Derry. In the ensuing gun battle, one SAS man was shot dead, and one IRA Volunteer was captured. The Volunteer’s name was Francis Hughes, the dead Brit was Lance-Corporal David Jones of the Parachute regiment.
In the eighteen months before going on hunger strike together neither Raymond McCreesh or Francis Hughes were aware of what would seem to have been an ironic but supremely fitting example of republican solidarity!
After nine months remand in Crumlin Road jail, Raymond was tried and convicted in March 1977, of attempting to kill Brits, possession of a Garand rifle and ammunition, and IRA membership. He received a fourteen-year sentence, and lesser concurrent sentences, after refusing to recognise the court.
In the H-Blocks he immediately joined the blanket protest, and so determined was his resistance to criminalisation that he refused to take his monthly visits for four years, right up until he informed his family of his decision to go on hunger strike on February 15th, this year. He also refused to send out monthly letters, writing only smuggled ‘communications’ to his family and friends.
The only member of his family to see him at all during those four years in Long Kesh two or three times – was his brother, Fr. Brian McCreesh, who occasionally says Mass in the H-Blocks.
HUNGER STRIKE
Like Francis Hughes, Raymond volunteered for the earlier hunger strike, and, when he was not chosen among the first seven, took part in the four-day hunger strike by thirty republicans until the hunger strike ended on December 18th, last year.
Speaking to his brother, Malachy, shortly after Bobby Sands death, Raymond said what a great loss had been felt by the other hunger strikers, but it had made them more determined than ever.
And still managing to keep his spirits up, when told of his brother, Fr. Brian, campaigning for him on rally platforms, Raymond joked: “He’ll probably get excommunicated for it.”
To Britain’s eternal shame, the sombre half-prediction made by Raymond to his friend Paddy Quinn – Ta seans ann go mbeid me abhaile rombat – became a grim reality. Bhi se. Raymond died at 2.11 a.m. on Thursday May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike.
Posted by Jim on
Patsy O’Hara
A determined and courageous Derryman
Twenty-three-year-old Patsy O’Hara from Derry city, was the former leader of the Irish National Liberation Army prisoners in the H-Blocks, and joined IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh on hunger strike on March 22nd, three weeks after Bobby Sands and one week after Francis Hughes.
Patsy O’Hara was born on July 11th, 1957 at Bishop Street in Derry city.
His parents owned a small public house and grocery shop above which the family lived. His eldest brother, Sean Seamus, was interned in Long Kesh for almost four years. The second eldest in the family, Tony, was imprisoned in the H-Blocks – throughout Patsy’s hunger strike – for five years before being released in August of this year, having served his full five-year sentence with no remission.
The youngest in the O’Hara family is twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth.
Before ‘the troubles’ destroyed the family life of the O’Haras, and the overwhelming influence of being an oppressed youth concerned about his country drove Patsy to militant republicanism, there is the interesting history of his near antecedents which must have produced delight in Patsy’s young heart.
GRANDFATHER
Patsy’s maternal grandfather, James McCluskey, joined the British army as a young man and went off to fight in the First World War. He received nine shrapnel wounds at Ypres and was retired on a full pension.
However, on returning to Ireland his patriotism was set alight by Irish resistance and the terror of British rule. He duly threw out his pension book, did not draw any more money and joined the Republican Movement. He transported men and weapons along the Foyle into Derry in the ‘twenties.
He inherited a public house and bookmakers, in Foyle Street, and was a great friend of Derry republican Sean Keenan’s father, also named Sean.
Mrs. Peggy O’Hara can recall ‘old’ Sean Keenan being arrested just before the out break of the Second World War. Her father’s serious illness resulted in him escaping internment and he died shortly afterwards in 1939.
Mrs. O’Hara’s aunt was married to John Mulhern, a Roscommon man, who was in the RIC up until its disbandment in 1921.
“When my father died in 1939 – says Mrs O’Hara, – “John Mulhern, who was living in Bishop Street, and owned a bar and a grocery shop, took us in to look after us. I remember him telling us that he didn’t just go and join the RIC, but it was because there were so many in the family and times were hard.
“My father was a known IRA man and my uncle reared me, and I was often slagged about this. Patsy used to hear this as a child, but Patsy was a very, very straight young fellow and he was a wee bit bigoted about my uncle being a policeman.
“But a number of years ago Patsy came in to me after speaking to an old republican from Corrigans in Donegal, and Patsy says to me, ‘You’ve nothing to be ashamed of, your uncle being a policeman, because that man was telling me that even though he was an RIC man, he was very, very helpful to the IRA!”
FAMILY
The trait of courage which Patsy was to show in later years was in him from the start, says Mr. O’Hara. “No matter who got into trouble in the street outside, Patsy was the boy to go out and do all the fighting for him. He was the fighting man about the area and didn’t care how big they were. He would tackle them. I even saw him fighting men, and in no way could they stop him. He would keep at them. He was like a wee bull terrier!”
Apparently, up until he was about twelve years of age, Patsy was fat and small, “a wee barrel” says his mother. Then suddenly he shot up to grow to over six foot two inches.
Elizabeth, his sister, recalls Patsy: “He was a mad hatter. When we were young he used to always play tricks on me, mother and father. We used to play a game of cards and whoever lost had to do all the things that everybody told them.
“We all won a card game once and made Patsy crawl up the stairs and ‘miaow’ like a cat at my mother’s bedroom door. She woke up the next day and said, ‘am I going mad? I think I heard a cat last night’ and we all started to laugh.”
The O’Haras’ house was open to all their children’s friends, and again to scores of the volunteers who descended on Derry from all corners of Ireland when the RUC invaded in 1969. But before that transformation in people’s politics came, Mrs. O’Hara still lived for her family alone.
She was especially proud of her eldest son, Sean Seamus who had passed his eleven plus and went to college.
PROTESTS
When Sean was in his early teens he joined the housing action group, around 1967, Mrs. O’Hara’s conception of which was Sean helping to get people homes.
“But one day, someone came into me when I was working in the bar, and said, ‘Your son is down in the Guildhall marching up and down with a placard!
“I went down and stood and looked and Finbarr O’Doherty was standing at the side and wee fellows were going up and down. I went over to Sean and said, ‘Who gave you that? He said, Finbarr!’ I took the placard off Sean and went over to Finbarr, put it in his hand, and hit him with my umbrella.’
Mrs. O’Hara laughs when she recalls this incident, as shortly afterwards she was to have her eyes opened.
“After that, I went to protests wherever Sean was, thinking that I could protect him! I remember the October 1968 march because my husband’s brother, Sean, had just been buried.
“We went to the peaceful march over at the Waterside station and saw the people being beaten into the ground. That was the first time that I ever saw water cannons, they were like something from outer space.
“We thought we had to watch Sean, but to my astonishment Patsy and Tony had slipped away, and Patsy was astonished and startled by what he saw.”
INCIDENT
Later, Patsy was to write about this incident: “The mood of the crowd was one of solidarity. People believed they were right and that a great injustice had been done to them. The crowds came in their thousands from every part of the city and as they moved down Duke Street chanting slogans, ‘One man, one vote’ and singing ‘We shall overcome’ I had the feeling that a people united and on the move, were unstoppable.”
IRSP
Shortly after his release in April 1975, Patsy joined the ranks of the fledgling Irish Republican Socialist Party, which the ‘Sticks’, using murder, had attempted to strangle at birth. He was free only about two months when he was stopped at the permanent check-point on the Letterkenny Road whilst driving his father’s car from Buncrana in County Donegal.
The Brits planted a stick of gelignite in the car (such practice was commonplace) and he was charged with possession of explosives. He was remanded in custody for six months, the first trial being stopped due to unusual RUC ineptitude at framing him. At the end of the second trial he was acquitted and released after spending six months in jail.
In 1976, Patsy had to stay out of the house for fear of constant arrest. That year, also, his brother, Tony, was charged with an armed raid, and on the sole evidence of an alleged verbal statement was sentenced to five years in the H-Blocks.
Despite being ‘on the run’ Patsy was still fond of his creature comforts!
His father recalls: “Sean Seamus came in late one night and though the whole place was in darkness he didn’t put the lights on. He went to sit down and fell on the floor. He ran up the stairs and said: ‘I went to sit down and there was nothing there’
“Patsy had taken the sofa on top of a red Rover down to his billet in the Brandywell. Then before we would get up in the morning he would have it back up again. When we saw it sitting there in the morning we said to Sean: ‘Are you going off your head or what? and he was really puzzled.”
IMPRISONED
In September 1976, he was again arrested in the North and along with four others charged with possession of a weapon. During the remand hearings he protested against the withdrawal of political status.
The charge was withdrawn after four months, indicating how the law is twisted to intern people by remanding them in custody and dropping the charges before the case comes to trial.
In June 1977, he was imprisoned for the fourth time. On this occasion, after a seven-day detention in Dublin’s Bridewell, he was charged with holding a garda at gunpoint. He was released on bail six weeks later and was eventually acquitted In January 1978.
Whilst living in the Free State, Patsy was elected to the ard chomhairle of the IRSP, was active in the Bray area, and campaigned against the special courts.
In January 1979, he moved back to Derry but was arrested on May 14th, 1979 and was charged with possessing a hand-grenade.
In January 1980, he was sentenced to eight years in jail and went on the blanket.
HUNGER STRIKE
What were Mrs. O’Hara’s feelings when Patsy told her he was going on hunger strike?
“My feelings at the start, when he went on hunger strike, were that I thought that they would get their just demands, because it is not very much that they are asking for. There is no use in saying that I was very vexed and all the rest of it. There is no use me sitting back in the wings and letting someone else’s son go. Someone’s sons have to go on it and I just happen to be the mother of that son.”
PRINCIPLES
Writing shortly before the hunger strike began, Patsy O’Hara grimly declared: “We stand for the freedom of the Irish nation so that future generations will enjoy the prosperity they rightly deserve, free from foreign interference, oppression and exploitation. The real criminals are the British imperialists who have thrived on the blood and sweat of generations of Irish men.
“They have maintained control of Ireland through force of arms and there is only one way to end it. I would rather die than rot in this concrete tomb for years to come.
Patsy witnessed the baton charges and said: “The people were sandwiched in another street and with the Specials coming from both sides, swinging their truncheons at anything that moved. It was a terrifying experience and one which I shall always remember.”
Mr. and Mrs. O’Hara believe that it was this incident when Patsy was aged eleven, followed by the riots in January 1969 and the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ in August 1969 that aroused passionate feelings of nationalism, and then republicanism, in their son. “Every day he saw something different happening,” says his father. “People getting beaten up, raids and coffins coming out. This was his environment.”
JOINED
In 1970, Patsy joined na Fianna Eireann, drilled and trained in Celtic Park.
Early in 1971, and though he was very young, he joined the Patrick Pearse Sinn Fein cumann in the Bogside, selling Easter lilies and newspapers. Internment, introduced in August 1971, hit the O’Hara family particularly severely with the arrest of Sean Seamus in October. “We never had a proper Christmas since then” says Elizabeth. “When Sean Seamus was interned we never put up decorations and our family has been split-up ever since then.”
Shortly after Sean’s arrest Patsy, one night, went over to a friend’s house in Southway where there were barricades. But coming out of the house, British soldiers opened fire, for no apparent reason, and shot Patsy in the leg. He was only fourteen years of age and spent several weeks in hospital and then several more weeks on crutches.
BLOODY SUNDAY
On January 30th, 1972, his father took him to watch the big anti-internment march as it wound its way down from the Creggan. “I struggled across a banking but was unable to go any further. I watched the march go up into the Brandywell. I could see that it was massive. The rest of my friends went to meet it but I could only go back to my mother’s house and listen to it on the radio,” said Patsy.
Asked about her feelings over Patsy be coming involved in the struggle, Mrs. O’Hara said: “After October 1968, I thought that that was the right thing to do. I am proud of him, proud of them all”.
Mr O’Hara said: “Personally speaking, I knew he would get involved. It was in his nature. He hated bullies al his life, and he saw big bullies in uniform and he would tackle them as well.
Shortly after Bloody Sunday, Patsy joined the ‘Republican Clubs’ and was active until 1973, “when it became apparent that they were firmly on the path to reformism and had abandoned the national question”.
INTERNED
From this time onwards he was continually harassed, taken in for interrogation and assaulted.
One day, he and a friend were arrested on the Briemoor Road. Two saracens screeched to a halt beside them. Patsy later described this arrest: “We were thrown onto the floor and as they were bringing us to the arrest centre, we were given a beating with their batons and rifles. When we arrived and were getting out of the vehicles we were tripped and fell on our faces”.
Patsy O’Hara lies in his coffin.
Patsy O’Hara lies in his coffin.
Three months later, after his seventeenth birthday, he was taken to the notorious interrogation centre at Ballykelly. He was interrogated for three days and then interned with three others who had been held for nine days.
“Long Kesh had been burned the week previously” said Patsy, “and as we flew above the camp in a British army helicopter we could see the complete devastation. When we arrived, we were given two blankets and mattresses and put into one of the cages.
“For the next two months we were on a starvation diet, no facilities of any” kind, and most men lying out open to the elements…
“That December a ceasefire was announced, then internment was phased out.” Merlyn Rees also announced at the same time that special category status would be withdrawn on March 1st, 1976. I did not know then how much that change of policy would effect me in less than three years”.
Patsy O’Hara died at 11.29 p.m. on Thursday, May 21st – on the same day as Raymond McCreesh with whom he had embarked on the hunger-strike sixty-one days earlier.
Even in death his torturers would not let him rest. When the O’Hara family been broken and his corpse bore several burn marks inflicted after his death.
Posted by Jim on May 20, 2017
By Gerry Adams (for Leargas)
We remembered with pride Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes, who died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in 1981. At the weekend the anniversaries will occur of Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara. And in July and August we will celebrate the lives, sacrifice and courage of other six hunger strikers who died 36 years ago; Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine.
I was reminded of all of this as I read the An Phoblacht/Republican News
from July 18th 1981. The paper is a miniature copy that the Sinn Fein
POW department and the AP/RN staff produced for smuggling into the
H-Blocks and Armagh and to other prisons. The miniatures were four
inches by six. They were printed on thin paper to make it easier for
them to be concealed for smuggling. The July 18th edition had the one
word ‘Sadness’ over three photos. One was a picture from Martin Hurson’s
funeral and the other two were of Martin and of Joe McDonnell. This
edition of the paper was reporting on their funerals. It also carried a
profile of Kevin Lynch who was to die three weeks later.
In 1995, on my first visit to South Africa, I met former ANC prisoners
who told me of their experience of hunger strike and of their admiration
for Bobby Sands and his comrades. The hunger strike as a means of
protest has a long tradition in Ireland and especially among Irish
political prisoners in English prisons. But as in South Africa it has
also been used in other places.
Two and a half thousand miles away there are over one thousand
Palestinian political prisoners in the fifth week of a mass hunger
strike in Israeli prisons. Entitled, ‘Freedom and Dignity’ their hunger
strike reflects much that is similar with the 1981 hunger strike,
especially in the response of the British and Israeli states.
In a letter I received from Marwan Barhouti, the imprisoned Palestinian
leader who is leading the hunger strike, he says: “Palestinian prisoners
have always suffered from injustice and violations of their rights. But
in recent years Israeli occupation authorities have ever deprived us of
rights acquired through prior hunger strikes.”
The Palestinian hunger strike is about the inhumane treatment of and the
appalling physical conditions currently being endured by Palestinian
political prisoners in Israeli prisons. It is also has its roots in the
all-pervasive oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state;
the poverty and deprivation that is the daily experience of
Palestinians; the military raids; the theft of Palestinian land and
water; the separation Bill, and the construction of illegal settlements.
I know from my own visits to the west Bank and Gaza in recent years that
there is a deep sense of despair, helplessness in the face of an Israeli
state that Europe and the USA refuse to stand up and hold to account by
international laws. As a result there is a lack of hope, and lots of
anger, especially among young people, and there is huge frustration
within the Palestinian refugee camps, the Gaza Strip and the west Bank.
Currently there are six and a half thousand Palestinians held I Israeli
prisons. Approximately 300 of these are children. 53 are women and
nearly 550 are being held under what the Israeli’s like to call
administrative detention – in effect internment without trial. According
to Addameer, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association more than
800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel in the
last 50 years.
The conditions under which the prisoners are held are appalling. Torture
has been documented. Addameer has reported the case of Arafat Jaradat
who died six days after he was arrested by the Israelis in 2013. The
post mortem showed he had six broken bones in his spine, neck, arms and
leg. He died of cardiac arrest.
The hunger strike among the prisoners, as well as some former prisoners
on the outside of the prisons, has already seen one Palestinian hunger
striker, Mazan al-Magrebi, die. The prisoners are protesting the mass
incarceration of Palestinian people by the Israeli authorities as well
as the serious deterioration of prison conditions. The prisoners are
seeking basic demands, including access to books, newspapers and
clothes, and the resumption of bi-monthly family visits. They are also
seeking the installation of air conditioning in prisons where summer
temperatures can regularly be over 40 degrees centigrade; an end to the
extensive use by the Israeli Penal Service of solitary confinement and
access to study and educational facilities, including exams.
Several months ago the worsening crisis in the region saw the United
States and Israel succeed in having a United Nations report entitled:
Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of
Apartheid – withdrawn after just two days.
The report was published in March by the United Nation’s ‘Economic and
Social Commission for Western Asia’ (ESCWA). It examines the practices
and policies of Israel with regard to the Palestinian people in its
entirety. It concludes that ‘Israel has established an apartheid regime
that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole. Aware of the
seriousness of this allegation, the authors of the report conclude that
available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is
guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid
as legally defined in instruments of international law.’
The report draws heavily on international law and specifically refers to
the definition of apartheid in article II of the International
Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
It defines apartheid as; ‘… inhuman acts committed for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons
over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing
them.’
An Israeli spokesperson described it as “despicable and constitutes a
blatant lie,” while the Israeli Foreign Ministry likened the report to
Nazi propaganda. The head of ESCWA, Rima Khalaf, resigned rather than
withdraw the report.
All of this amounts to an escalating crisis in a region which has known
little else. Some Palestinian leaders, exasperated and outraged by the
Israeli stance, and speaking about a possible intifada, have said there
is an onus on the United Nations, and all those genuinely interested in
peace in that region, to speak out against Israeli aggression.
Just over two years ago a Sinn Fein motion calling on the Irish
government to formally recognise the state of Palestine received
unanimous support in the Dail. The Irish government has refused to take
that necessary diplomatic step. Sinn Fein will raise this issue this
week in the Dail. In the meantime, there are a growing number of
protests in support of the Palestinian hunger strikers taking place
across the island. Support them if you can. Organise protests if you are
able. In words that resonate with those of Bobby Sands, Marwan in his
letter writes: “Some believe that this is the end of the story, that II
will perish here in solitary confinement. But I know, even in this
forced solitude, that we are not alone. I know millions of Palestinians
and many more around the world stand with us.”
36 years ago the hunger strikers and the political prisoners in the
H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s prison were uplifted by reports of
international solidarity. Let’s send our Palestinian brothers and
sisters a message of hope and support and solidarity. Victory to the
Hunger Strikers.
Posted by Jim on
A loyalist bonfire group has said unionists will never remove any flag
“at the behest of Sinn Fein/IRA” after the party complained about flags
erected near Belfast City Airport.
Sinn Fein councillor Mairead O’Donnell had called on unionist
politicians to “act urgently” after unionist paramilitary and Union Jack
flags were erected at the entrance to Sydenham train station. They are
one of the first sights to greet visitors using the station.
In a statement on Facebook, Sydenham Bonfire group said the flags “will
always fly in East Belfast”.
“We have one of Sinn Fein’s new agitators poking their nose into
unionist areas of East Belfast. This will not be tolerated and it is
quite conceivable that many more flags will now be erected to send a
strong message to Sinn Fein,” they said.
They added: “The unionist community of East Belfast will never remove
any flag at the behest of Sinn Fein/IRA.”
The same group held a provocative “fun day” on the day of the funeral of
Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness earlier this year.
Ms O’Donnell said: “The display of loyalist flags, including a
paramilitary emblem, is deliberately provocative and intimidatory,
particularly to nationalists who regularly use this line.
“Given the enormous efforts and resources that we expend on attracting
tourists and business people to our city, this sectarian display also
sends out an entirely wrong and negative message to these visitors.
“I would urge unionist politicians in East Belfast to speak out against
this sectarian behaviour and to act urgently to have these flags
removed.”
The PSNI police said they would not intervene. A spokesperson said: “The
removal of flags is not the responsibility of the PSNI and police will
only act to remove flags where there are substantial risks to public
safety.”
UDA flags have also appeared in a mixed area of Glengormley in north
Belfast. The flags were put up overnight at the same time Sinn Fein
election posters were also ripped down in the area.
Local Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly said it was another attempt
to intimidate.
“I would call on community representatives and other political parties
to call for the removal of the flags. This attempted intimidation will
not work but does raise tensions in the area as we approach the marching
season.”
Posted by Jim on
The Gaelic Athletics Association has been accused of ignoring the
anniversary of the murder of one of their senior officials 20 years ago
as they attempt to curry favour with the British establishment.
County Derry GAA official Sean Brown was abducted by a loyalist death
squad as he locked the gates at the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones club 20 years
ago yesterday.
He was taken to a country lane outside Randalstown in County Antrim
where he was shot six times. His remains were found beside his burning
car. No-one has ever been charged in connection with his death.
The Brown family and many nationalists suspect there was British Crown
force collusion in the attack.
Speaking on the anniversary, Mr Brown’s son Damian said his family have
been “greatly heartened” by support at GAA club level in Bellaghy and
elsewhere — but feel let down by the association’s leadership.
“In terms of the GAA we have had a lot of support from the grass roots
level in the north, but active involvement from the GAA at provincial
and national level would be at a minimum and has been lacking up to this
point,” he said.
“We are disappointed at the level of support we have received.”
The GAA was criticised earlier this year when they invited the British
Direct Ruler James Brokenshire to the Dr McKenna Cup final in Newry. In
a public insult to the organisation, the Tory MP then refused to take
his seat until after the Irish national anthem was played.
So far, Brokenshire has refused to make funds available for an inquest
into the killing.
Mr Brown said it was “scandal” that a full inquest has yet to be held.
To date the family has attended almost 30 coroner court hearings linked
to the case. It is one of dozens being held up due to what is claimed to
be a lack of resources.
The Brown family lawyer, Kevin Winters, said his case is one of several
being considered in the High Court over delays.
“We have written to the coroner and families are still waiting,” he
said.
“Yet again families have to resort to the courts to get access to
information about the case.”
The PSNI police has also come in from criticism over delays in
disclosing documents.
In 2015 chief constable George Hamilton was ordered to attend a
coroner’s court to explain why police were refusing to hand over a
report to Mr Brown’s family.
Paul O’Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre, which provides support to
the Brown family, said delays in getting the inquest up and running are
unacceptable.
“It is truly shocking that this family have had to attend so many
hearings and they are having to fight for justice,” he said.
“This case could have been resolved many, many years ago had there been
a proper investigation at the time.”
Mr O’Connor said questions still hang over the ability of the killers to
drive Mr Brown past Toome police barrack, which was on the main road
between Belfast and Derry and was regularly used by the Crown forces to
set up checkpoints.
“For the family it’s one of the absolute key questions,” he said.