“Put Up Or Shut Up” RNU Tell Provisional Sinn Fein
Statement from Danny Mc Brearty, National Chairperson, Republican Network for Unity.
“From July 13th until the present Provisional Sinn Fein, Gerry Kelly in particular, have been categorically stating to anyone with ears that the events surrounding the Orange march of hate forced through the Nationalist communities of Ardoyne and Mountainview in North Belfast was the orchestrated work of ‘Dissident Republicans’.
On July 14th Gerry Kelly was busy naming names to the media of certain Republicans that he said bore responsibility for the civil unrest. At the same time DCI Mark Hamilton of the RUC/PSNI was visiting newsrooms in Belfast giving off the record briefings to selected journalists wherein both the Republican Network for Unity and these same Men were named as both the instigators of the rioting and of holding senior positions within a proscribed organisation.
Co-incidental or co-ordinated? It is for the nationalist community and the greater Republican family to decide. What we in the Republican Network for Unity do know is this;
- Our activists were on the ground and were clearly seen to be attempting to participate in a peaceful protest on the Crumlin Road at the Ardoyne shops.
- This can be verified by independent sources including the International press who both witnessed and photographed/filmed Republican Network for Unity members remonstrating with youths who, provoked by the militaristic display of the RUC/PSNI, began throwing stones.
- The firing of lethal plastic bullets and the use of four high pressure water cannons at the first sign of stones being thrown. Facts which Gerry Kelly and Provisional Sinn Fein overlooked on that very day and then when giving interviews in the days which followed.
- That the responsibility for the civil unrest which took place in Ardoyne on the 13th, 14th and 15th of July was in the first instance that of the Orange Order. The rioting was in response to the provocation and conduct of the RUC/PSNI who made any attempt of peaceful protest at the Ardoyne shops impossible. The behaviour of the same paramilitary force in the subsequent days i.e. swamping the streets of Ardoyne, stopping youths and residents under section 44 of the PTA, sectarian insults from armoured land rovers, the raiding of homes and subsequent arrests guaranteed that the youth of the area would respond as they did.
- The naming of individuals without any proof or veracity, a clear case of ‘felon setting’ by Gerry Kelly was and is shameful. The repeating of these names and unsubstantiated allegations was made (to journalists known to us) by DCI Mark Hamilton RUC/PSNI. One of those named, Tony ‘TC’ Catney, is currently taking legal counsel with a view to pursuing an action on their behalf in the courts.
From July 13th the Republican Network for Unity have publicly called upon Gerry Kelly to show proof to substantiate the wild charges that he has made about ourselves and the individual Republicans that he has effectively set up to be arrested or attacked. In essence for Gerry Kelly to “put up or shut up”. To date he has yet to have the courage to do either.
Tonight at 7pm in the Crumlin Star social club, the same premises where Gerry Kelly and the ‘blue bib brigade’ of Provisional Sinn Fein stewards (a majority of which were ‘bussed in’ from all areas of West Belfast) sat away from the events as they unfolded outside, Provisional Sinn Fein will be holding a meeting with Ardoyne residents to account for the position they took over the days of unrest. This is to be chaired by Bobby Storey and will be addressed by Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly.
The Republican Network for Unity once more call upon Gerry Kelly to use this opportunity to repeat and give proof to his allegations or to do the honourable thing and that is to withdraw his allegations and comments and then to unreservedly apologise to the Nationalist / Republican community for his behaviour and that of his party over these events .
