1.6.04
IRA2
FROM:
IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
http://www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------
Subject: Republican statement: “No More Lies”
Date: Monday, May 31, 2004
In a strongly worded statement released to the press today, a group of
Irish republicans blasted the “tyranny in our midst”, and condemned the
atmosphere of terror and censorship waged on republicans by former
comrades now intent on enforcing a British Treaty in Ireland.
The statement, signed by 21 veteran Irish republicans from Belfast,
Derry, Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Dublin, denounced the
current Stormont Treaty leadership as “shameful and contrary to the
principles of Republicanism”.
The document called for an end to the code of silence enforced by the
Treaty leadership, and the pervading threat of being “disappeared” for
continuing to express republican beliefs.
The statement re-affirmed “the honor and integrity of the cause which
sustained our beliefs”. It further stated that republicanism “… does
not belong to a clique – it is owned by all the people who believe and
participate in it” and that the “true spirit of republicanism is not a
cult of personality. “
The statement is printed in the Letters section of today’s Irish News,
and is reprinted in full below the following a story from the same
paper.
The Irish Freedom Committee®
************************************************
For further reading see: GFA ENFORCERS
http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/provo_broy_harriers.htm
************************************************
Irish News
Monday May 31, 2004
'Tyrannous' Sinn Fein blasted by republicans
By Sharon O’Neill Chief Reporter
DISAFFECTED republicans opposed to the Sinn Fein leadership have called
for a "congress" to "stand against the tyranny in our midst".
In today’s Irish News the 20-strong group, which reflects a broad range
of political opinion, round on mainstream republicanism.
A strongly-worded letter, clearly directed at Sinn Fein and the IRA,
was penned after a series of recent meetings in Belfast.
“Today the ideals we fought for are never spoken of, and those who do
remember them silenced. Our beliefs were traded for the realities of
the current process, a process that suits the interests of political
parties and not the common peoples,” the letter says.
“These realities include a criminalisation of the people’s armies;
corruption that fills the coffers of the elite and expands their
empire, rather than advances the Republic; children beaten, shot, tortured;
comrades isolated, spat upon, silenced, imprisoned, disappeared.
“No more...We stand against the tyranny in our midst. It is time to
come together, to convene a congress of republicans.”
The letter is signed by former Sinn Fein members and other
ex-mainstream republicans including some whose parties are aligned to groups linked
to armed splinter organisations.Good Friday Agreement supporter John Kelly recently
resigned as a seniorSinn Fein politician branding the party a “control dictatorship”.
“I am in support of the sentiments of the statement. There are different
voices who can come together and pick up an agenda of freedom of
speech, freedom of thought,” he said. “As a life-long republican I don’t feelother
republicans should be policing the peace process.”
Former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre said: “I feel all republicans
should have a right to express their opinion.
“People have a right to speak, Sinn Fein should not be able to suppress
them and that the IRA should not be able to abduct, kidnap or torture
them. “I am pro-peace, the problem with the Sinn Fein leadership is they are
not, they are pro-process. They are involved in the peace process and
if that process is to be violent, they are violent.”
Ex-IRA hunger striker Dolours Price said she was “entirely frustrated
by the nature of the current process and the way Sinn Fein have been
conducting themselves”. “Their methods of suppressing opinions like John Kelly’s
is becoming quite frightening,” she added. However, a Sinn Fein spokesman said the party
is “happy to engage with the breadth of republican opinion and have done so”.
“As far as I am aware this group has not contacted Sinn Fein. What they
do is entirely a matter for themselves. Sinn Fein have a strategy to
achieve peace and deliver a united Ireland and that remains our focus,”
he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Irish News
Monday May 31, 2004
Letters
Republicans must make a stand for the ideals of their ancestors
THROUGHOUT the month of May, a group of republicans met in Belfast. The purpose of the meetings was to facilitate all republican ideas, defend the right of people to pursue them free from fear and ensure that the freedom to think is safeguarded.The republicans surveyed the options available to those intent on promoting republicanism. As a result the following points were agreed:
Within the Republican family there should be room for the open airing of our disagreements; we cannot move forward until we are able to do so.
We believe the criminalisation of republicanism in the vacuum of the current process is shameful and contrary to the principles of
republicaism.
It is our duty to stand up against it and speak out.
It is time for republicans to reclaim the honour and integrity of the cause which sustained our beliefs; to stand together against the tyranny of abuse and intimidation employed against anyone who has the courage and fortitude to speak out against the wrongs and injustices they see, or suffer themselves.
Republicans should stand with each other in repossessing the ownership of their struggle. It does not belong to a clique – it is owned by all the people who believe and participate in it. Republicanism is not about corruption, intimidation, or isolation from one another.
It is not self-serving.
It is about the Republic, and that Republic is about people.
The true spirit of republicanism is not a cult of personality.
It is those who have always been the hidden backbone – once upon a time the volunteer, now the taxi driver... the door man, the day labourer, the support staff in hospitals, waitresses, school workers, the unemployed, marginalised, forgotten...
We have all stood together in times of hardship and crisis.
Increasingly we find ourselves standing apart from one another... our destinies loosened from our grip and out of our control.
We once believed we would deliver to each other the Republic in which we would all be equal – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.
Today the ideals we fought for are never spoken of – and those who
remember them are silenced. Our beliefs were traded for the realities of the current process, a process that suits the interests of political parties and not the common people.
These realities include a criminalisation of the people’s armies;
corruption that fills the coffers of the elite and expands their
empires, rather than advances the Republic; children being beaten, shotand tortured; and comrades isolated, spat upon, silenced, imprisoned and disappeared.
No more.
We stand against the tyranny in our midst. It is time to come together, to convene a congress of republicans, to determine where we are going, to support each other no matter what our differences are, to reclaim our heritage, integrity and honour, to speak out against injustice, corruption and criminality and to stand up for the Republic.
Stand with us. Make your voice heard.
MARTIN CUNNINGHAM, South Down
MICKEY DONNELLY, Derry
PADDY FOX, Tyrone
TOMMY GORMAN, Belfast
BRENDAN HUGHES, Belfast
JOHN KELLY, South Derry
ANTHONY McINTYRE, Belfast
TOMMY McKEARNEY, Monaghan
TONY McPHILIPS, Fermanagh
CLARE MURPHY, Belfast
KEVIN McQUILLAN, Belfast
FRANCIE and GERALDINE PERRY, Downpatrick
MARY ELLEN O’DOHERTY, Derry
FIONBARRA O’DOCHARTAIGH, Derry
NOEL O’REILLY, Belfast
LIAM O RUAIRC, Belfast
DOLOURS PRICE, Dublin
MARIAN PRICE, Belfast
BRENDAN SHANNON, Belfast
ROISIN Ni SHEANAIN, Belfast
CARRIE TWOMEY, Belfast
FROM:
IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
http://www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------
Subject: Republican statement: “No More Lies”
Date: Monday, May 31, 2004
In a strongly worded statement released to the press today, a group of
Irish republicans blasted the “tyranny in our midst”, and condemned the
atmosphere of terror and censorship waged on republicans by former
comrades now intent on enforcing a British Treaty in Ireland.
The statement, signed by 21 veteran Irish republicans from Belfast,
Derry, Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Dublin, denounced the
current Stormont Treaty leadership as “shameful and contrary to the
principles of Republicanism”.
The document called for an end to the code of silence enforced by the
Treaty leadership, and the pervading threat of being “disappeared” for
continuing to express republican beliefs.
The statement re-affirmed “the honor and integrity of the cause which
sustained our beliefs”. It further stated that republicanism “… does
not belong to a clique – it is owned by all the people who believe and
participate in it” and that the “true spirit of republicanism is not a
cult of personality. “
The statement is printed in the Letters section of today’s Irish News,
and is reprinted in full below the following a story from the same
paper.
The Irish Freedom Committee®
************************************************
For further reading see: GFA ENFORCERS
http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/provo_broy_harriers.htm
************************************************
Irish News
Monday May 31, 2004
'Tyrannous' Sinn Fein blasted by republicans
By Sharon O’Neill Chief Reporter
DISAFFECTED republicans opposed to the Sinn Fein leadership have called
for a "congress" to "stand against the tyranny in our midst".
In today’s Irish News the 20-strong group, which reflects a broad range
of political opinion, round on mainstream republicanism.
A strongly-worded letter, clearly directed at Sinn Fein and the IRA,
was penned after a series of recent meetings in Belfast.
“Today the ideals we fought for are never spoken of, and those who do
remember them silenced. Our beliefs were traded for the realities of
the current process, a process that suits the interests of political
parties and not the common peoples,” the letter says.
“These realities include a criminalisation of the people’s armies;
corruption that fills the coffers of the elite and expands their
empire, rather than advances the Republic; children beaten, shot, tortured;
comrades isolated, spat upon, silenced, imprisoned, disappeared.
“No more...We stand against the tyranny in our midst. It is time to
come together, to convene a congress of republicans.”
The letter is signed by former Sinn Fein members and other
ex-mainstream republicans including some whose parties are aligned to groups linked
to armed splinter organisations.Good Friday Agreement supporter John Kelly recently
resigned as a seniorSinn Fein politician branding the party a “control dictatorship”.
“I am in support of the sentiments of the statement. There are different
voices who can come together and pick up an agenda of freedom of
speech, freedom of thought,” he said. “As a life-long republican I don’t feelother
republicans should be policing the peace process.”
Former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre said: “I feel all republicans
should have a right to express their opinion.
“People have a right to speak, Sinn Fein should not be able to suppress
them and that the IRA should not be able to abduct, kidnap or torture
them. “I am pro-peace, the problem with the Sinn Fein leadership is they are
not, they are pro-process. They are involved in the peace process and
if that process is to be violent, they are violent.”
Ex-IRA hunger striker Dolours Price said she was “entirely frustrated
by the nature of the current process and the way Sinn Fein have been
conducting themselves”. “Their methods of suppressing opinions like John Kelly’s
is becoming quite frightening,” she added. However, a Sinn Fein spokesman said the party
is “happy to engage with the breadth of republican opinion and have done so”.
“As far as I am aware this group has not contacted Sinn Fein. What they
do is entirely a matter for themselves. Sinn Fein have a strategy to
achieve peace and deliver a united Ireland and that remains our focus,”
he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Irish News
Monday May 31, 2004
Letters
Republicans must make a stand for the ideals of their ancestors
THROUGHOUT the month of May, a group of republicans met in Belfast. The purpose of the meetings was to facilitate all republican ideas, defend the right of people to pursue them free from fear and ensure that the freedom to think is safeguarded.The republicans surveyed the options available to those intent on promoting republicanism. As a result the following points were agreed:
Within the Republican family there should be room for the open airing of our disagreements; we cannot move forward until we are able to do so.
We believe the criminalisation of republicanism in the vacuum of the current process is shameful and contrary to the principles of
republicaism.
It is our duty to stand up against it and speak out.
It is time for republicans to reclaim the honour and integrity of the cause which sustained our beliefs; to stand together against the tyranny of abuse and intimidation employed against anyone who has the courage and fortitude to speak out against the wrongs and injustices they see, or suffer themselves.
Republicans should stand with each other in repossessing the ownership of their struggle. It does not belong to a clique – it is owned by all the people who believe and participate in it. Republicanism is not about corruption, intimidation, or isolation from one another.
It is not self-serving.
It is about the Republic, and that Republic is about people.
The true spirit of republicanism is not a cult of personality.
It is those who have always been the hidden backbone – once upon a time the volunteer, now the taxi driver... the door man, the day labourer, the support staff in hospitals, waitresses, school workers, the unemployed, marginalised, forgotten...
We have all stood together in times of hardship and crisis.
Increasingly we find ourselves standing apart from one another... our destinies loosened from our grip and out of our control.
We once believed we would deliver to each other the Republic in which we would all be equal – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.
Today the ideals we fought for are never spoken of – and those who
remember them are silenced. Our beliefs were traded for the realities of the current process, a process that suits the interests of political parties and not the common people.
These realities include a criminalisation of the people’s armies;
corruption that fills the coffers of the elite and expands their
empires, rather than advances the Republic; children being beaten, shotand tortured; and comrades isolated, spat upon, silenced, imprisoned and disappeared.
No more.
We stand against the tyranny in our midst. It is time to come together, to convene a congress of republicans, to determine where we are going, to support each other no matter what our differences are, to reclaim our heritage, integrity and honour, to speak out against injustice, corruption and criminality and to stand up for the Republic.
Stand with us. Make your voice heard.
MARTIN CUNNINGHAM, South Down
MICKEY DONNELLY, Derry
PADDY FOX, Tyrone
TOMMY GORMAN, Belfast
BRENDAN HUGHES, Belfast
JOHN KELLY, South Derry
ANTHONY McINTYRE, Belfast
TOMMY McKEARNEY, Monaghan
TONY McPHILIPS, Fermanagh
CLARE MURPHY, Belfast
KEVIN McQUILLAN, Belfast
FRANCIE and GERALDINE PERRY, Downpatrick
MARY ELLEN O’DOHERTY, Derry
FIONBARRA O’DOCHARTAIGH, Derry
NOEL O’REILLY, Belfast
LIAM O RUAIRC, Belfast
DOLOURS PRICE, Dublin
MARIAN PRICE, Belfast
BRENDAN SHANNON, Belfast
ROISIN Ni SHEANAIN, Belfast
CARRIE TWOMEY, Belfast
