Posted by Jim on April 16, 2013
By Gerry Adams (for Leargas)
Margaret Thatcher was a hugely divisive figure in British politics. Her right wing politics saw Thatcher align herself with some of the most repressive and undemocratic regimes in the late 20th century – including apartheid South Africa and Chile’s Pinochet. Her description of the ANC and Mandela as terrorists was evidence of her ultra conservative view of the world.
She championed the deregulation of the financial institutions, cuts in public services and was vehemently anti-trade union. She set out to crush the trade union movement. The confrontation with the miners and the brutality of the British police was played out on television screens night after night for months. The current crisis in the banking institutions and the economic recession owe much to these policies. And she went to war in the Malvinas.
But for the people of Ireland, and especially the north, the Thatcher years were among some of the worst of the conflict. For longer than any other British Prime Minister her policy decisions entrenched sectarian divisions, handed draconian military powers over to the securocrats, and subverted basic human rights.
Thatcher refused to recognise the right of citizens to vote for representatives of their choice. She famously changed the law after Bobby Sands was elected in Fermanagh South Tyrone. And when I and several other Sinn Fein leaders were elected to the Assembly in 1982 we were barred from entry to Britain.
Margaret Thatcher’s government defended structured political and religious discrimination and political vetting in the north, legislated
for political censorship and institutionalised to a greater extent
than ever before collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads.
It under her leadership that in 1982 that the Force Research Unit (FRU) was established as a unit within the British Army Intelligence Corps.
This British Army agency recruited agents who were then used to kill citizens. Among them was loyalist Brian Nelson. He was a former British soldier and member of the Ulster Defence Association who was recruited by FRU in 1983. He became the UDA’s Senior Intelligence Officer and his associates in FRU helped him to update his intelligence files, including photo-montages of potential victims.
In the summer of 1985 Nelson travelled to South Africa where he helped negotiate a deal for that ultimately saw the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance acquire 200 AK47 automatic rifles, 90 Browning pistols, 500 fragmentation grenades, ammunition and 12 RPG rocket launchers. The shipment arrived in the north in late 1987 or early 1988.
The Thatcher government was across all the details of this shipment. Its impact on the streets of the north is evident in the statistics of death. In the three years prior to receiving this weapons shipment the loyalist death squads killed 34 people. In the three years after the shipment they killed 224 and wounded countless scores more.
The extent of the role of FRU in the killing of citizens is formidable.
But it was the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane in February
1989 that reveals the depth of the structured state collusion policy being pursued by the Thatcher government.
Pat was one of several lawyers targeted by unionist death squads at the behest of the RUC and British intelligence agencies. At every level of his killing British agents and agencies had a hand. The leader of the UDA group which carried out the killing was a Special Branch agent – Tommy Lyttle. The man who subsequently confessed to being the UDA gunman who killed Pat Finucane was Ken Barrett, also a Special Branch agent.
The UDA man who supplied the gun was William Stobie, a Special Branch agent – later killed in 2001 by the UDA when he threatened to lift the lid on the Finucane case. And, of course, the man who provided the intelligence for the killing was Brian Nelson, a British army agent.
This is part of the Thatcher legacy in Ireland.
She will be especially remembered by many for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and 81.
The Thatcher government believed that the criminalisation of the republican prisoners would break the republican struggle. It was not interested in a resolution.
This much is evident in government papers released two years ago. For example a report of a meeting at Chequers on May 27th, after the deaths of Bobby Sands, Francie Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O Hara, describes Thatcher commenting that ‘the Government must be ‘rock solid’
against any concessions to the hunger strikers or PIRA.’
The following day on a visit to Belfast Thatcher declared that the hunger strike ‘may well be their [the IRA’s] last card.’
The events of that awful summer of ’81 polarised Irish society, north and south. It was a watershed moment in Irish politics. The Thatcher government policy during the 1980’s was little more than a war policy.
All of the strategies issuing from that policy were aimed at defeating or isolating republicanism. This included the shallow and ineffectual
1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which was about creating a political alliance involving the Dublin establishment, the SDLP, and the British to defeat Irish republicanism. Margaret Thatcher was a prime mover in all of this.
Shoot-to-kill actions by British forces also significantly increased.
This was most evident in the shooting dead of three unarmed IRA activists in Gibraltar in March 1988. It is my view that Thatcher authorised the killings at Gibraltar.
Later when the BBC and the IBA scheduled two programmes about Gibraltar Thatcher tried to stop them. She was “outraged” when the programmes went ahead. Later that year she introduced the Broadcasting Ban on Sinn Fein.
Two years later Thatcher authorised the then British Secretary of State Peter Brooke to reopen the back-channel with republicans. We were wary of this. However, for almost a decade Sinn Fein had been patently trying to build a peace process and unfolding events on the world stage, including the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, and the release of Mandela, were evidence that governments, and apparently intractable situations, could change. So we agreed to reactivate the back channel.
But for Thatcher it all ended in November 1990 when she was forced to resign by her party who perceived her to be no longer an electoral asset. She was evicted from Downing Street with all the ruthlessness, treachery and warped humanity of what passes for high politics.
Thatcher’s 12 years of dictating British policy in Ireland was a legacy of bitterness and entrenched division. Her Irish policy failed miserably.
Posted by admin on
The full text of the address in Castlebar to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis delivered by party leader Gerry Adams.
A chairde,
Ta failte romhaibh uilig chuig Ard Fheis Shinn Fein i gContae Maigh Eo.
Tamid an an sasta a bheith anseo san Iarthar.
A special Cead Mile Failte also to Friends of Sinn Fein from the USA, Canada and Australia; to our comrades from the Basque country, South Africa, Palestine, Cuba, Britain and to all foreign dignitaries.
I want to extend solidarity from this Ard Fheis to the Palestinian
people and urge the international community to take decisive action for peace in the Middle East.
A Border Poll
This week saw the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Fein is proud of the pivotal role we played with others in forging that Agreement.
There would be no peace process and no Agreement without the commitment, initiatives and political risks taken by Irish republicans.
Or, without the great work of individuals like Des Wilson, Harold Good, Inez McCormack and especially Fr. Alex Reid.
It isn’t a perfect agreement.
But Sinn Fein secured the removal of the Government of Ireland Act,
under which the British government claimed sovereignty over the North.
The Agreement provides for a border poll on Irish unity.
It’s no surprise that the two governments are saying No.
But Sinn Fein is saying Yes.
And more importantly nationalist and republican Ireland says Yes.
And we now need to work together for a Yes vote.
It’s time to let the people have their say on the future of Ireland.
It’s time for a referendum on Irish unity.
Government Failure
From the 1798 rebellion to Michael Davitt, from the Hunger Strikers
Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan, to IRA activist and Sinn Fein
Councillor Jackie Clarke, whose wonderful public collection of historic documents and memorabilia charts 200 years of republican resistance, Mayo has a long and distinguished republican history.
So it is particularly appropriate that we meet here.
And proof that the West is Awake.
Is Pairti Poblachtach broduil Sinn Fein.
Ta muid go hiomlan dilis do fior phoblacht a thugann tus aite do chearta gach duine.
We stand for equality, social solidarity and freedom.
Sinn Fein has always stood by the people.
Sin ceann de na priomh difriochtai idir muidinne agus an rialtas i
mBaile Atha Cliath.
This government, like the one before it, has failed the people.
Its core values are those of austerity.
It has refused to negotiate a write-down on the Promissory Note.
It gave away our natural resources.
It tore up the Croke Park Agreement and is now targeting frontline
workers on low and average pay.
It cut child benefit, carer’s allowances and home-help hours.
But it has no problem putting taxpayers money into the pockets of
bankers and financiers.
It and Fianna Fail gave [euro]64 billion to the banks.
Over the last five years, Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail have taken
[euro]28 billion out of the economy in taxes and cuts.
Cuts to hospitals.
To schools.
To garda stations.
Taxes on pensions.
On savings.
And on homes.
In October the Government will take another [euro]3 billion.
Next year, they will take [euro]2.5 billion more.
They have little thought for the social consequences of their actions,
of the divided, polarised, unequal society they are creating.
Of impoverished communities and families hurting from the scourge of
drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide.
But the bankers, developers and politicians who created the mess have
been untouched.
Despite all the election rhetoric from Labour and Fine Gael this is
still the best small country in the world for big bankers, crooked
developers or corrupt politicians.
The Family Home Tax
Be sure of this.
When we make promises and commitments we keep them.
Sinn Fein will put manners on the elites and the fat cats.
Sinn Fein is totally opposed to the Property Tax.
We are against plans to raid salaries, social welfare payments and
pensions to get it.
We will fight this family home tax tooth and nail.
We have published legislation to scrap it.
And in government we will abolish it.
Sinn Fein is also opposed to the introduction of water charges and will
resist any legislation to introduce them.
The only way to restore our economy and rebuild society is to break with
the self-serving politics of Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail.
They refused to share the wealth during the boom years.
But they socialise the debt afterwards.
They are taking from those who have least to benefit those who have
most.
Fairness
Sinn Fein was right during the era of the Celtic Tiger when we said that
the wealth should be used to build public services, infrastructure and
sustainable jobs.
Sinn Fein is right when we say the economy needs growth and jobs – not
debt and cuts.
We were right in our demand to burn the bondholders.
We are right in our call not to pay the Promissory Notes.
We are right to tackle the high pay of politicians and top civil
servants.
Taimid ceart faoin ga ata le smaointi nua agus focas nua ar cruthu
poist.
Fairness is at the core of Sinn Fein’s approach.
Of course the deficit must be tackled.
But those with the broadest shoulders must bear the heaviest load.
In a fair Ireland the weak, the vulnerable and the least well-off would
be protected.
If this was a real republic working people would not be punished for the
greed and corruption of others.
If the Proclamation of 1916 was a reality families would not be
punished.
Women would not be punished.
Children would not be punished.
Citizens with disabilities would not be punished.
People in rural Ireland would not be punished.
The poor would not be punished.
Change is Possible Now
But change cannot wait until there is a real republic.
Ta Sinn Fein go han-soileir faoina priomh cheisteanna seo.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Change is needed and change is possible now.
Sinn Fein is offering a realistic alternative.
We are committed to investing [euro]13 billion in job creation and retention.
And we have presented realistic and costed, alternative budget proposals
to reduce the deficit, create growth, and protect families under
financial pressure.
Is seo cloch coirneal ar bpolasai.
The mortgage crisis is a direct result of Fianna Fail policy and this
government’s failure to help struggling families.
Sinn Fein proposes the establishment of an independent mortgage distress
body to adjudicate and enforce agreements on mortgages between banks and
mortgage holders.
Public Services Delivered Fairly
The mark of a real republic has to be in the quality of its public
services.
Ta cearta ag saoranaigh.
These include the right to a home; the right to a job; the right to
education; to a health service from the cradle to the grave; the right
to a safe and clean environment; and to civil and religious liberties.
This is what republicanism is about.
This is what real democracy should be about.
Public services delivered fairly and paid for by direct taxation.
This should include decent childcare facilities at affordable prices.
No matter what government Ministers say no parent should be forced from
their job because they earn less than the cost of childcare.
Standing up for Rural Ireland
Last year, along with others, I visited many rural communities blighted
by unemployment and poverty.
In places where our young people should have an opportunity to build
their lives we saw at first-hand how emigration is tearing the heart out
of rural families.
We met families bereft by the scourge of suicide.
Sinn Fein will shortly publish a comprehensive report – “Standing up for
Rural Ireland”.
This report outlines the need to:
Reverse Fianna Fail’s decision to cut Garda numbers. Provide a full
grant to upgrade septic tanks. Overhaul CAP to create a fairer
distribution of payments. Ensure that income support for farmers is
directed at those who need it most. Creating jobs, particularly in the
agri-food industry, and investing in our fishing industry, are key to
ensuring a future for rural communities.
Especially in the west of Ireland.
But people who live in rural communities also need schools, an
accessible health service, decent infrastructure, public transport and
an end to isolation.
Gaeltacht areas need active regeneration.
And across this island the Irish language needs to be actively promoted,
including an Acht na Gaeilge in the north.
Women Victims Need Justice
Women are among those most shamefully denied their rights under the
conservative culture, which has dominated this state.
Mary Lou spoke for everyone on the day that the Magdalene report was
published when she said it was time for a full apology to these brave
women.
That happened eventually.
Now they need justice.
The victims of Bethany Home need justice.
The victims of symphysiotomy need justice.
People across Ireland have been moved this week by the reports from the
inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar and by the grace and great
dignity of her husband.
I want to extend solidarity to Praveen and his family and friends.
Savita’s death brought into sharp and tragic focus the failure of
successive governments to legislate in the X case.
The people have spoken and firmly placed the responsibility upon their
Oireachtas representatives to legislate on this issue.
It is time doctors had legal clarity.
It’s time for protection for pregnant women whose lives are at risk.
Progress in the North
Sinn Fein opposes austerity across this island.
Despite #4bn pounds of cuts by the British government, Sinn Fein’s
Ministerial and Assembly team under Martin McGuinness’s leadership, has
prioritised finding money to maintain frontline services, protect those
on lowest incomes and assist disadvantaged communities.
The so-called Welfare Reform Bill is another example of the English Tory
Agenda.
Sinn Fein is opposed to these cuts in exactly the same way that we are
opposed to the cuts being introduced by our own Tories in Dublin.
We are also working for the transfer of fiscal power to the Assembly and
Executive and a harmonisation of the Corporation Tax rate across
Ireland.
Dialogue with Unionists and Loyalists
The Orange marching season has begun.
This year sees the added vexation about the flying of flags on public
buildings.
Playing party politics with these issues is dangerous and
counter-productive.
There are many genuine loyalists and unionists, including former
combatants, working in disadvantaged communities who realise the dangers
and risks involved.
They also know that it is citizens from these disadvantaged communities
who will bear the brunt of any violent or disruptive actions.
These communities have more in common with their republican neighbours
than they may realise.
Dialogue between them and Sinn Fein is essential and there is an
imperative on republicans, challenging though it may be, to build
alliances on social and economic issues with working class loyalists and
unionists.
The Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist people are not going away.
And Sinn Fein doesn’t want them to go away.
They are part of what we are and we have to get to know each other
better, to listen and take heed of what is being said.
I commit our party, without preconditions, to be part of such
discussions as we face into the Orange marching season, and to find
solutions to contentious issues and to tackle economic disadvantage.
This is the only way to build a fair society.
It is what the vast majority of citizens want.
The tiny minorities who espouse violence have been rejected.
Ta siad greamaithe san am ata caite agus thart orthu ta Eirinn Thuaidh
agus Theas ag athru.
And there is still work to be done to ensure that policing is
non-partisan and civic.
Recent decisions by the PSNI have failed this test.
And clearly there are elements in the NIO who are uncomfortable with the
new dispensation.
A Bill of Rights is long overdue.
And the continued imprisonment of Marian Price and Martin Corey is
wrong.
They should be released.
A Truth Process
So, much work still needs to be done including the creation of a victim
centred truth and reconciliation process.
Dubhshlan mor a bheidh anseo.
Almost 100 years ago the Tan War against British forces was deadly and
vicious.
But the civil war left a bitterness and a legacy that still shapes
politics to this day.
77 republicans were executed during those terrible years by the Free
State – among them six young men from the west who were executed in Tuam
90 years ago this week.
Members of the Free State Army, of the Garda and civilians died too.
There was never any process of truth recovery or reconciliation after
these events.
Ba choir duinn foghlaim on meancog sin.
During the recent conflict, Gardai and other members of the state’s
forces were killed by republicans.
Republicans were killed also, including Tom Smith, and Hugh Hehir.
During the era of the Heavy Gang many citizens were brutally assaulted.
Innocents were imprisoned.
There was collusion between elements of the Irish establishment and the
British system.
Our friend Councillor Eddie Fullerton and John Francis Green and Martin
Doherty and others died.
There were bombs in Dublin and Monaghan and Dundalk and elsewhere.
All this needs to be faced up to.
Sinn Fein has argued for the establishment of an Independent
International Truth Commission.
The two governments; former combatants, and those in leadership across
Ireland and Britain need to be part of such a process.
There can be no hierarchy of victims.
I and others in the Sinn Fein leadership have met many victims and
victim’s families in the north.
I am prepared to meet with victims’ families in this state if they
believe this will be helpful and I intend to do this in the near future.
Irish republicans will not shirk from our obligations to those who died
as a consequence of the conflict.
Imagine a Different Future
Ireland is a great country.
But we are partitioned.
Our people are divided.
Imagine an end to these divisions.
Imagine a new agreed Ireland.
Imagine the unity of Orange and Green.
Imagine a fair society and an economy run democratically in the
interests of all citizens.
Our vision is based on equality.
It means equal rights for citizens in same sex relationships, ethnic
minorities and those of all creeds and none.
The Challenge for Labour
Our history is replete with challenges, adversity and great injustice.
This is such a time.
A time for real leadership.
A real Labour Party with a principled leadership should not be in
government with Fine Gael.
If Fine Gael is set on implementing Fianna Fail policy then let them do
that with the support of Fianna Fail.
Whatever the case for entry into coalition after the last election,
there is now only one principled position for Labour.
Fagaigi an bealach ag sloite na bhFiann.
Stand by working people as Connolly and Larkin did.
Leave this government and leave it now!
Building a New Republic
We are internationalists in solidarity with people in struggle
everywhere.
So, from this Ard Fheis I want to extend our love and solidarity to our
friend and comrade Madiba – Nelson Mandela.
Our people have come through a lot.
In every generation brave men and women have shown the way.
In three years we celebrate the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
The government is contemplating bulldozing the area around Moore Street
into the ground in the interests of private developers.
I commend the work of the families of the 1916 leaders who have
highlighted this hugely important issue.
Every person with a sense of national pride will oppose such a shameful
act of vandalism.
The Moore Street laneways of history should be developed as a 1916
Revolutionary Quarter.
This year also marks the Centenary of the 1913 Lockout.
The Lockout showed the courage and fighting spirit of the Dublin working
class.
They chose to resist rather than submit.
They showed the way.
In Ireland today parents defending children with disabilities, frontline
workers defending each other and vital public services, carers,
teachers, health workers, citizens who are standing up for themselves
and their communities, are showing the way.
Sinn Fein believes in the people of Ireland.
Join with us in building a New Republic.
Sin e. Ar aghaidh linn le cheile
Posted by admin on April 8, 2013
There has been a mixed reaction in Ireland at news of the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
At official level, the response in Dublin to news of her death was tight-lipped.
In an ambivalent statement, President Michael D Higgins said Mrs Thatcher’s would be “remembered as one of the most conviction-driven British prime ministers” who “drew on a scholarship that demanded markets without regulation”.
“The policies of Mrs Thatcher’s government in regard to Northern Ireland gave rise to considerable debate at the time.
“However, her key role in signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement will be recalled as a valuable early contribution to the search for peace and political stability.”
Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny described Mrs Thatcher as a formidable leader.
“Mrs Thatcher was a formidable political leader who had a significant impact on British, European and world politics. During her 11 years as prime minister, she defined an era in British public life,” he said.
“While her period of office came at a challenging time for British-Irish relations, when the violent conflict in Northern Ireland was at its peak, Mrs Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement which laid the foundation for improved North-South cooperation and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement.”
But on the streets, there were bitter memories, particularly in Belfast.
Memories of her prolonged and murderous military and security campaign, the deaths of Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers, and murders directly linked to Downing Street, such as that of Pat Finucane, remain painful for many.
Others, however, expressed satisfaction, even delight, that an old enemy had gone. There were street celebrations in Scotland, England and Wales, where her notorious ‘poll tax’ and privatisation of coal mines profoundly divided British society in a manner which still has serious repercussions today.
Known as the “Iron Lady”, Thatcher dominated Irish politics for two decades. While mostly associated with her vicious determination to secure a military victory in the Six Counties and her tragic efforts to criminalise Irish political prisoners, she gained enemies both across the globe and at home in Britain with an aggressive, right-wing ‘Thatcherite’ approach with which she became synonymous.
British prime minister David Cameron lavished praise on the ‘Iron Lady’, and said she would be given a full ceremonial funeral with military honours.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said Thatcher had done “great hurt” to the Irish and British people during her time as British Prime Minister.
“Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies,” he said.
“Her role in international affairs was equally belligerent whether in support of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, her opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and her support for the Khmer Rouge.
“Here in Ireland her espousal of old draconian militaristic policies prolonged the war and caused great suffering. She embraced censorship, collusion and the killing of citizens by covert operations, including the targeting of solicitors like Pat Finucane, alongside more open military operations and refused to recognise the rights of citizens to vote for parties of their choice.
“Her failed efforts to criminalise the republican struggle and the political prisoners is part of her legacy.
“It should be noted that in complete contradiction of her public posturing, she authorised a back channel of communications with the Sinn Fein leadership but failed to act on the logic of this.
“Unfortunately she was faced with weak Irish governments who failed to oppose her securocrat agenda or to enlist international support in defence of citizens in the north.
“Margaret Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and 81.
“Her Irish policy failed miserably.”