Republican Network for Unity | Easter Statement 2010
The REPUBLICAN NETWORK for UNITY extends Easter greetings to our activists and supporters within the thirty-two counties of Ireland and abroad, especially those in America, to all organizations or independent Republicans who have worked with us through the Irish Republican Forum for Unity initiative, and to all Republicans who today remain faithful to the sovereign and indefeasible right to national freedom enshrined in the 1916 Easter Proclamation.
We particularly wish to remember all Irish Republican political prisoners, whether in Maghaberry, or Portlaoise or beyond and their families from whom they are separated today.
On this day when we honour Ireland’s patriot dead, we remember all of those who gave their lives, and remember especially that they made the supreme sacrifice in a struggle to end British rule not to serve its administration. Young men and women stood together against the British onslaught and went to war with courage and determination and the belief in achieving and United Ireland, free of foreign rule and interference. We pledge that the full meaning of their sacrifices will remain a living inspiration to all true Republicans
The message of Irish republicanism is as vital to Ireland today as it ever was; as the failed tactic of compromise once again delivers the inevitable fruits of British rule; sectarianism, poverty, repression and the continued partition of our nation. RNU do not accept that such a settlement as good enough for our people.
Three years ago, concerned Republican veterans, most of whom were ex-prisoners -of –war, joined together to campaign against the RUC-PSNI, against British law and rule which this re-named crown constabulary imposed, and against the violence and injustice it inflicted. We recognized that the crown was conspiring to hijack Republicanism, by maneuvering some Republicans into token places within a British Stormont administration, then deploying them to affirm British law and rule, to recruit for its constabulary, to rubberstamp repression at constabulary board and partnership meetings and to condemn and criminalize those Republicans who would not follow them.
RNU was forged from that campaign. We pledged to continue this political fight to reclaim Republicanism from those who were being used to masquerade a British regime at Stormont .Our means were to present a Republican alternative political analysis and to establish channels of communication or a network of cooperation with other like-minded organizations and individuals.
Events continue to prove us, in RNU, right. Only a few weeks ago, Sinn Fein, coupled with the scandal weakened DUP, agreed a compromised ministry for crown courts and constabulary. This was heralded as somehow being a major transition away from British rule, worth the price of new arrangements, which the DUP and Orange Order believe, will ease the way for Orange feet trampling down nationalist roads.
Meanwhile their handpicked nominee to head this ministry “pointless” David Ford, rubbished the Saville Inquiry as a pointless waste of money and insulted the Bloody Sunday families and their long battle for truth about the murder of innocent civil rights marchers .Ford’s ignorance and insensitivity about one of the worst injustices inflicted by the British during the conflict showed him unfit for even a compromised crown justice ministry. He should have been repudiated. Instead Sinn Fein hastily arranged a meeting with some families and pronounced Ford rehabilitated.
Will not the British see the haste to rescue Ford and calculate that they have little to fear if what emerges from an MI-5 censored report is not the truth which the families deserve but a watered-down Widgery?
In nationalist areas, Section 44 searches that have been declared illegal by European Court of Human Rights, are wielded at will to repress Republicans and intimidate their wives and children. Only last week, RNU’s Vice Chairman, Tony Catney, along with Paul Duffy, were arrested in publicized raids clearly intended to disrupt and undermine our commemoration of Easter 1916 and Ireland’s patriot dead.
Diplock Courts, set-up as a plank in a policy of criminalization, are extended again, now coupled with 28 day internment without charge and internment by remand.
MI-5, responsible for so much injustice, is given free reign again and again. Meanwhile, in the crown courts, Colin Duffy is held without bail on discredited DNA framework which would not be entertained outside a Diplock Court. Gerry McGeough continues trial on stated charges that he joined the IRA in the 1970s and was involved in an IRA attack on crown forces in 1981, while the real charge is retaliation for campaigning in an election against the RUC-PSNI.
Terry McCafferty had his license revoked without serious protest at any constabulary meetings. He is now free only because a crown appointed investigator admitted last week that the secret evidence used to jail him amounted to nothing.
The family of John Brady, a veteran Republican who died in the hands of the RUC-PSNI must wait and wonder will they receive any thing more than a whitewash or cover-up
The crown constabulary boards and partnership meetings have become charades used by the British to give stage-managed acceptance to RUC-PSNI repression and providing accomplices rather than accountability.
The British have not succeeded and will not succeed! Today there are growing numbers of Irish people who are awakening to the reality. In the past year RNU has been in the forefront of efforts along side others to protest at constabulary partnership meetings and deny them legitimacy. RNU have stood behind residents whose areas are invaded by sectarian Orange marches, highlighted cases of crown repression and injustice, organized historic forums on issues like the 1981 Hunger Strike striven to provide a Republican alternative analysis to Stormont and stood at commemorations like those today challenging any attempt to place a mantle of Republicanism over a British dead-end at Stormont.
RNU exists to provide space for any individual, serious about establishing freedom and socialism in Ireland, to utilise their talents in the pursuit of that goal. A young and developing movement (yet with roots set firmly in the struggle for Irish freedom), RNU organise in a democratic and comradely manner, ignoring all internal divisions of the past and instead putting only our end goal to the top of our agenda.
RNU repeats publically today, as we have done in the past, our readiness to co-operate with other republicans on issues that affect our communities, with the possibly of working together to create an eventual Republican Congress.
We pledge ourselves as Republicans to the goal of peace and justice, based upon freedom for every county in Ireland, and say that Irish National Reunification is the only solution.
Standing by our maxim, “what matters is not where you are coming from but where you are going to”, and the dedication of our members, RNU is determined to chart a way out of this chaos and towards the only solution fit for a free people… national sovereignty and economic equality.
In conclusion, RNU would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for supporting us here today to remember the men and women of Ireland who died for Irish freedom and we look forward to your continued support in our future campaigns.
Slan agus beir bua
