Issue 011, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (March, 1988)

              laistigh arraign margaret thatcher call in armagh page 3 staid na gaeilge sna h-oileain bhride ich 4 under the shadow of sellafleld pages 4/5 easter commemorations throughout ireland page 8 u1mh 1 1 marta - march british net widens tom king march 2 1988 says that resistance to british rule cannot be beaten by military means alone ". political means must also be employed brigadier kitson british counter-insurgency expert any popularly based guerilla movement which is not defeated militarily within two years must be absorbed into the system ". the period from january 25 to march 2 1988 will surely be regarded as remarkable in that the english ruling class showed its teeth with regard to ireland and demonstrated con tinually its utter contempt for the irish people and in particular for the dublin government and its opposition the refusal to prosecute ruc lawbreakers in the stalker affair was quickly followed up by the contemptuous rejection of the berming ham six appeal the making permanent of the racist and anti-irish prevention of terrorism act the blunt refusal to operate mr haughey's alleged safeguards in extradition cases the murder cardinal o fiaich's word of aidan mcanespie at aughnacioy by british troops and the release of private thain having served two years and two months for murder and his immediate reinstatement in the british army this window-dressing is mainly for the internat ional scene because the macbride principles have been adopted by several state legislatures in the united states labour spokesperson kevin me namara characterised the new british proposals as containing merely good intentions but having no teeth to enforce them the dublin government's response to the mcanespie murder was to send depu ty commissioner crowley to monaghan on a shadow boxing mission where he quickly drew free state sinn fe"in councillors from both sides of the border into his net on march 2 the british government announced new anti-discrimination measures for the six-coun ty statelet which from its inception by the british in 1921 was based on ruthless sectarian discrimination how can satan cast out satan basic outline on march 2 also the bri tish have proposed to mr haughey that a basic outline should accom pany warrants for extradi tion rather than a detail ed background as re quired by dublin the british were supposed to have been satisfied last december through their ambassador nicholas fenn who almost took up residence in leinster house during the extradi tion debate now the brit ish renege on what was a mere gesture it will be interesting to watch haug hey slip back and u-turn on this one too meanwhile the british establishment is busily protecting itself the brit ish army - rightly descri bed as a nation within a nation - looks after its own regardless of the politicians and private thain is set free in spite of the courts lord denning gives in terview after interview from retirement and asserts that it is better for a few innocent irish people to spend the rest of their lives in jail rather than that the british jud iciary should be seen to have been wrong time after time bbc tv feb 21 and of course the police the forensic scien tists and the prison war ders have to be upheld as well security pact renewal but where is all of this leading ? the key to the answer lies in the fact that the hillsborough security pact as the basic british political instrument for maintaining direct imper ialist rule in ireland is coming up for renewal next november the british with the dublin administration tied to their tail are work ing towards an extended and even more effective version of hillsborough in nine months time they want a new stormont yet again this time with the net cast wider than just the two unionist parties plus the alliance and the sdlp they want if at all feas ible as large a section of free state sinn fdin as possible to be included as well and so have the widest acceptance of the british net this would of course be followed up by a new brit ish security force recruit ed heavily with political support from among the nationalist section of the community such a force it is stated would deny targets to liberation forces in the future northern free state what the british want is a northern free state the 26-county free state has served them well to date in guarding british imperial interests and maintaining the border from the south ern side now imperialism demands the political resettlement of the six counties with 26-county moral and material supp ort and is planning for generations ahead will haughey and the leinster house parties swallow all of this ? they will be relieved to accept and enforce it as long as their cosy constituency of the 26 counties is not directly disturbed and their northern border is stabilised remember thatcher publicly tore up the new ireland forum report with her out out out dis missal of the dublin gov ernment's proposals in november 1984 one year later the hills borough pact was accepted by dublin in a bare-faced about turn and the media were unanimous in its praise to page 8