Issue 071, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (March, 1993)

              uimh 71 marta - march 1993 40 appeasement of british rule is useless futile exercise on north articles two and three of the 1937 constit ution were never anything more than a smokes screen at best to cover the lack of policy of de valera the constitution's architect and the bankruptcy of his own and successive 26 county administrations when addressing the question of irish unity and independence while article two corr ectly states the national territory to be the whole island of ireland article three confines the oper ation of the dublin govern ment's rule to the same area as the free state ie the 26 counties mr haughey saw these articles being changed in the context of a comprom ise settlement with the british government which included yet another stot mont albert reynolds at bodenstown in october that they were not for sale although they had already in article three sold out the six counties office then dick spring as reynolds deputy and min ister for foreign affairs said within days of secur ing office that there would be constitutional change in this regard six weeks later he was saying that articles two and three were not cast in bronze another labour minister ruairi quinn said at the same time in fortnight magazine that the articles should be replaced by something aspirational that the nationalist people of the six counties can be sold out completely and formally in the here and now these statements came on the heels of albert reynolds words to a meeting in wexford on february 28 a balanced accommodation of con stitutional issues would be necessary he said and official sources said he was particularly keen to use the phrase an agreed ireland this is john hume's term of course and can mean just about anything the same official sources indicated according to the irish times of march 1 that the speech was in line with the continuing policy of wooing the un ionists in a manner similar to the ostpolitik overtures from the west germans to their eastern neighbours in the german democratic republic before the re moval of the berlin wall basic law but the basic law for the federal republic of germany 1949 - pop ularly known as west germany - article 23 sim ply lists the territory in laendar or states where the basic law or constit ution shall apply nowhere does it formally recognise the east german state article 23 speaks of other parts of germany and article 29 6 mentions anotherpartofgermany just as irish republicans refer to the six counties and never recognise the northern ireland statelet the berlin wall came down and the east ger man state fell after more than 40 years when stal inism collapsed in the soviet union and soviet power or what was left of it allowed german reunification to take place compromise unionist reaction to the fianna fail-labour offer of further compromise was to stone-wall even further dup leader paisley's abus ive answer was to call reynolds a lying hypo crite while uup mp for upper bann david trimble said the offers were of no significance he wanted not may but would or will even a constitutional nationalist such as fr denis faul has already gone on record as saying that even if all constitut ional intention of a united ireland were abandoned finally the unionists would advance other de mands such as divorce abortion or even letting go of the irish language what republicans offer to the former unionists in such a situation is direct and immediate access to power in a nine-county ulster within a new fed eral ireland of four prov inces with the british gone home they would have provin cial regional and district power in proportion to their numbers with the nationalists close behind them at ulster level and within reach of provincial control regions and dis tricts would go either way — if present voting patt erns persisted — according to local majority generous what the leinster house parties have been and are engaged in is yet another exercise in futility the republican plan is imag inative and generous but cannot be implemented • until british power goes — as did soviet power in germany meanwhile of course the british government has a territorial claim to the six counties under the government of ireland act 1920 and other legislation not alone do they have such a claim but unlike the dublin government they actually exercise jur isdiction there with the aid of 30,000 armed personnel they kill irish citizens directly or through their unofficial death squads every week that passes in support of that territorial claim wear an easter lily honour ireland's dead ! easter lilies now available 17.50 per 1,000 from peig king 29 all saints park raheny dublin 5 410,209 unemployed good europeans the effects of the ec single market and maas tricht which were sold to the people as being for our benefit continue to be felt at the highest level with jacked-up interest rates and mortgage repayments with closures such as digital and lapple in carlow meaning that a total of 410,209 people are now unemployed in the 32 counties economic opinion app ears to be divided now regarding the erm and the move towards a single currency prof michael maccormac of ucd on february 26 advocated floating the punt of course michael noonan of fine gael said next day that such action would mean the end of the erm and the maastricht process while he did ad vocate another 1 0 per cent devaluation noonan said further as reported in the irish times of february 27 that he did not believe that the state had the expertise to manage a floating currency after 170 years tied to other currencies a lot of other skills were hired and then learned by the irish down the years — as long ago as the shannon hydro-electro scheme the technical expertise is available from norway sweden finland or brit ain all of which have had the experience of a float ing currency is the nat ional inferiority complex really so great mr noonan buy irish out then at a low leve there is the experience of a skibbereen co cork based firm which tendered recently to the co coun cil to supply wheeled garbage bins at 60 each the council gave the con tract to a german firm which offered to supply the bins at 50 each and the co cork firm went out of business even within ec rules a package could have been designed to meet this situation but the national inferiority complex bred by the polit icians won out then there was the case of the free state army wanting 18,000 embroid ered badges for sleeves etc of course uniforms are no longer made in the state — the last com pany making them closed down a few years ago a co dublin firm ten dered to supply the badges 	 continued on page 7 death of sean keen an a.s we went to press we learned the sad news of the death on march 3 of sean keenan derry honorary vice-president of republican sinn fttin in altagelvin hospital in his native city he was 78 ruairi 6 bradaigh president republican sinn ftfin paid an immediate tribute to sean keenan he en dured a lifetime of struggle for the freedom of ireland sean was interned for a total of 16 years in the six counties yet never stood in a court in his life in 1986 he was involved in the walk out from the sinn fein ard-fheis when a motion was passed recognising leinster house and he joined in the re-organis ation of republican sinn f6in in april 1989 he went forward as a republican sinn f6in candidate in the six-county local elections for derry's northland district but was refused nomin ation along with 22 other candidates when he would not sign the political test oath introduced by the thatcher govern ment in britain he tore up his nominat ion papers on the steps of the derry city offices in protest in 1968-71 sean keenan was chairman of the derry citizens action committee his son colm was shot dead by the brit ish army along with another ira vol unteer eugene mcgillan while on patrol in free derry on march 14 1972 at the time of his son's death sean sean keenan was interned on the prison ship maid stone previous to that he was interned from 1940-45 and again during the 1950s campaign when he was oc of the internees in crumlin road jail belfast he toured the usa on many occasions in the 1970s and 1980s for the repub lican movement most recently for the founding of cumann na saoirse in 1986-87 sean keenan was married to the late nancy ward of derry who was herself in terned in armagh jail for over three years in the 1940s she was a sister of terry ward a journalist with the irish press and sean ward she died in 1970 sean keenan is survived by his daughters nora and roisin and sons sean and seamus to all his family saoirse extends heartfelt sympathy ni bheidh a leith eid arfs ann