Issue 009, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (January, 1988)

              uimh 9 eanair-january 1988 f laistigh 1 the hillsborough wall p.4/5 barrington's hospital closure p 2 sdlp call for elections ban p 8 liam mellows commemorations p.3 at the beginning of 1988 nothing has changed for the nationally-minded people in the british-occupied six counties indeed most british establish ment figures pretend that nationalists do not exist there at all for example in the extensive media coverage given on both sides of the border to the british military commander of the udr on december 20 brigadier bray refused to acknowledge six county nationalists as such and called them the minority on new year's eve ruc inspector-general hermon likewise had prime time on the media as he addressed himself to all 32 counties of ireland shades of the old r1c and in effect made a highly propagandist case for internment without trial north and south job prospects ? towards the end of 1987 an official british gov ernment human rights ag ency announced once more that unemployment in nat ionalist areas was two-and a-half times that in union ist areas ten years ago in february 1978 another such body the fair employment agency revealed exactly trie same picture they added that while national ists in work tended to be in ^- unskilled jobs unionists we re usually in skilled em ployment in magilligan belfast " and long kesh iails and es pecially in maghaberry women's prison strip-search ing of political prisoners is the order of the day on the streets and in the count ryside harassment by british forces of nationalists is a daily routine brigadier bray estimated the military pres ence at ten battalions of british regulars and nine battalions of udr over half the latter are full-time soldiers while the ruc and its reserve number in excess of 12,000 the emergency provis ions act and the prevention of terrorism act abrogate all normal law - such has been the case since the foundation of the six-coun ty statelet in 1921 - and non-jury diplock courts with exceptional rules of evidence mete out british injustice their dublin counter part the special non-jury court recently sentenced a cork man to five years maximum remission one quarter for possessing a poster in belfast on jan uary 4 a unionist got two years up to one-half remiss ion for uvf membership and firing a sub-machine gun in a public place while drunk what sentence would a nationalist have received on a similar charge if a nationalist goes to england scotland or wales he/she can still be harassed and even deported at will back to the six counties if he/she goes to the usa for employment it will be illegal with all the exploit ation that goes with such status harassment if he/she goes to the 26 counties harassment will al most certainly follow a northern accent is often sufficient to qualify for this the special political branch freely admit that northerners will be singled out for special attention political extradition now exists without even a prima facie case from the 26 counties back into the hands of the british occup ation forces the commiss ioner of the 26-county pol ice and the head of the ruc met weekly during decemb er to co-ordinate policy and strikes against nationalists on both sides of the border under the hillsborough security pact of november 985 the 26-county forces have received millions of pounds worth of equipment from the british on a semi permanent loan just as they did in 1922 and 1923 the british ambassador was given maximum exposure in rte to articulate british demands on extradition he frequents leinster house and phoenix magazine thin ks he should be made vice roy in dublin and end the sham independence loyalist death squads and of course there is the ever-present danger of assassination by loyalist right-wing death squads who strike at random meanwhile other outlawed peoples suffer similarly twenty-seven palestinian men women and children were shot dead on the streets of the occupied terr itories by israeli soldiers during december see article on page four british foreign office minister mellors complained publicly of this and of housing con ditions in the gaza strip the israelis told him im provements would be made when the protests stop but they have been over twenty years in occupation without large-scale protest has mr mellors never heard of divis flats in belfast or the streets of deny strabane and armagh since october the french government has extradited over 40 basque political refugees to the spanish state it has exiled many others to remote parts of africa resistance to oppression but in all cases of the lesser breeds without the law as the imperialist kip ling described them while the nightmare continues so does the resistance to col onial oppression all seek their own rightful place on the face of the earth and history is on their side