Issue 056, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (December, 1991)

              40p usa 24 per year uimh 56 nollaig - december 1991 12 page paper commencing this month saoirse will have 12 pages of uncensored news we have increased our price to 40p to cover the costs of this expansion thank you to all our readers and subscribers nollaig shonadarleitheoiri uilig major's n democracy • john major turns his back on troops out polls british prime minister john major revealed the unchanging face of british imperialism with his one-word answer to a timely question put to him at the joint press conference after his meeting with charles haughey in dublin on december 4 a dublin-based reporter said that in view of recent mori opinion polls finding that 61 of the people in britain wanted their troops withdrawn from ireland was it not time for a major shift in british policy in that regard no came the reply in true thatcher-like out out out fashion major and haughey were meeting on the 20th anniversary of the mcgurks bar bombing by loyalists which killed 15 people on december 4 1971 two men also died later in what was the first major atrocity of the current phase of the troubles although it has been largely ignored by the british and irish establishments by his blunt refusal the british prime minister was turning his back on the expressed wishes of the british people as well as the fundamental right of the irish people to determine their own future without outside interference he was saying no to democracy with the replacement of margaret thatcher by john major the establish ment media were loud in their praise of the new man as a pragmatist and a more caring face it is clear that what ever about a change of style there has been no change of heart tour square john major told the british conser vative party conference in october that his government would stand four square for the union when young men and women from england scotland ireland and wales stood together in the gulf they were rightly proud of their roots but no one doubted that all fought together in the name of britain major declared in typical jingoistic tory lang uage british foreign secretary douglas hurd followed up by stating that the debate was not about british withdrawal but about how the six counties can run its affairs within the united king dom they are all just as unionist as margaret thatcher that applies equally to neil kinnock the opposition british labour party leader who regularly ignores the majority in the constituency labour parties who have consistently favoured british with drawal at countless labour party conferences the massive trade union block vote and particularly the craft unions who are heavily influenced by their unionist branches in the six count ies are used to defeat motions advocating british withdrawal illusion the other illusion that did not survive the haughey major meeting in dublin was the notion of twice-yearly meetings another journalist gerald barry of the sunday tribune reminded mr haughey that the same twice-yearly meetings were planned after his meeting with mrs thatcher in dublin castle on december 8 1980 almost eleven years ago what became of them ? in the same week the british have also finally refused after six years to im plement the much-heralded promise of the hillsborough deal in 1985 that udr patrols would be accompanied by the ruc they also made 1,400 udr sold iers full-time increased the ruc by 441 and flew in 600 more british soldiers to the six counties it should be noted that the extra forces were all announced after four loyalists believed to be prom inent in loyalist death squads were killed in belfast on november 13 the deaths of six nationalists in the previous two weeks had evoked no response from the british if it did nothing else the december meeting exposed once again the mailed fist that lies the same as always beneath the velvet glove of british policy . • sinn fein poblachtach picket outside the haughey-major meeting in merrion street dublin on december 4 emu:politicians sell-out the rush by all the politicians in leinster house to agree to the economic and monetary union in maastricht reminds the observer of nothing so much as the situation of a small company badly run and bankrupt asking a bigger company to take it over and run it the union envisaged by the emu will not even have the merit of the old union with britain brought in to cover the island of ireland in 1800 — that wealth would flow to the smaller country and directly to the people since joining the eec twenty years ago the gap between ireland and the richer countries has widened not narr owed and the funds from the eec has gone increasingly into the maw of corrupt politicians big business and large farmers and as raymond crotty has pointed out more often than not this has destroyed jobs rather than creating them emu will accelerate this process and the irish people will have less influence not more on the decis ion-making process any referendum in the aftermath of maastricht must be opposed by those who like republicans believe that the 32 counties of ireland has a future as a sovereign independent and self governing state the establishment pol iticians having bankrupted the present system are now preparing a massive sell-out