Issue 003, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (July, 1987)

              saoi irish freedom uimh 3 iuil — july 1987 20p • pat ward speaker and peter cunningham chief marshal at bodenstown june 14 leinster house stance costs votes the vote for leinster house sinn fein in the june 11 westminster election showed a decrease of 20,000 since a united sinn fein contested in 1983 undoubtedly last year's decision to accept the dublin partition parliament was a contributory factor in this just as it caused a significant fall in the vote south of the border last february neither the london or dublin establishments nor the sdlp can interpret this as an improvement in support for the hillsborough agreement or a rejection of the armed struggle against british rule the republican people of the six counties still support the active campaign but they have shown a reluctance to vote for what is now a semi-constitutional body the return of the thatcher government in britain means continued repression of irish people with all the consequences that follow from that the hillsborough deal has not and will not make any basic change in the matter of british rule in ireland restore irish democracy we uphold the right of all irish people to use force for the restoration of irish democracy which was outlawed by a british act of parliament this is the policy of republican sinn fein and we make no apologies for holding such views history has told us that loughgall and bloody sunday are the only expectations one can reasonably have from a british administration regardless of their political hue this was the clear message at bodenstown on sunday june 14 last from pat ward the former hunger-striker from donegal who was the republican sinn fein main speaker in a powerful speech to the crowd of over 1,000 people from all over ireland he struck the key-note in the statement quoted above i.e that a country cannot call itself democratic which has been partitioned against its own people's wishes by a colonial power instead we have a continuing denial of democracy which can only end with the withdrawal of british power from ireland and the restoration of decision-making powers to the irish people as a unit the text of pat ward's wide-ranging and important speech is carried on pages 4 and 5 it was appropriate that this essential restatement of true democracy in ireland was heard at the graveside of the father of irish republicanism theobald wolfe tone at bodenstown co kildare the commemoration began at sallins field in fine weather where the clonbony pipe band from clare followed behind a twelve-strong colour party carrying the national and provincial flags the marchers drawn up under 30 banners were watched by a large crowd of local people along the route and at the cemetery the proceedings were chaired by liam cotter of kerry and after he welcomed those present the lowering of flags took place tony ruane laid a wreath on behalf of republican sinn fein seamus mac ciarnain of the national graves association in his address spoke of plans for a fitting memorial to the 1981 hunger-strikers on the tenth anniversary in 1991 and made an appeal for financial support pat ward then gave the oration and got rapt attention from the crowd marked by enthusiastic applause for his most im portant points many people afterwards commented with approval on his dispas sionate analysis of british policy and the recent defections from principled repub licanism following amhran na bhfiann the crowd marched back to sallins and dispersed all agreed it had been a day to remember hyster does a costly bunk yet another multi-national made off with the loot on wednesday june 10 when hyster at blanchardstown dublin decided to shut down in the middle of the night before their unsuspecting workers clocked in for their day's work the 225 workers joined the victims of mostek ferenka and black & decker to name but a few when they arrived to find their jobs gone and the safe empty the midnight announcement of closure was typically cynical of the multi-national attitude to irish workers who are always last to know that their livelihood has been snatched from them mr padraic white of the ida who seems to be an expert on everything from organising strike-breaking at packard electrical in tallaght to after dinner speeches advocating non-union industry to page 6