Issue 107, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (March, 1996)

              wear an easter lily honour ireland's dead easter lilies now available 25.00 per 1,000 from peig king 29 all saint's park raheny dublin 5 applications for speakers at county easter commemorations should be sent to an runai coiste cuimhneachain naisiiinta 223 sraid pharnell bac 1 republicanism uimh 107 marta — march 1996 50p usa 1 • belfast wall message - the proposed all-party talks will be on a six-county basis only allowing the unionists to dominate and construct a new stormont regime v the resumed summit in london on february 28 attempted to breathe life into the current process like all other attempts at an internal settlement based on the failed political entity of the six counties it will not succeed because the existence of that state under british occupation is the problem not the solution spokespersons were repeatedly telling the media that such a date could satisfy the criteria for another cessation speaking of how talks could lock people into a process from which they could not walk away the bruton/major summit made it absolutely clear that the british government is remaining in ireland and has no intention whatever of leaving our country this is a recipe for future conflict as inevitable as the resistance to british rule down through the years the all-party talksand thenegotiations leading up to them will be confined to the six counties and that means it will be controlled from the start by the unionists access to these talks is dependent on acceptance of the mitchell report which accepts partition and the artificial six-county statelet with its built-in unionist veto it also demands the surrender of arms if the provisionals in particular do not sign up to mitchell then they will not be allowed to participate in these unionist-dominated talks in summary they are being forced to accept the unionist veto and to surrender arms the provisionals now find themselves in a cul de-sac carefully prepared for them by the british and indeed by their own constitutional leadership the all-party talks date they sought has been supplied and another ceasefire by their military organisation must follow indeed their own vindicated republican sinn fein is vindicated in its view repeatedly enunciated since 1986 that those who abandon republican principlesand attempta solution through the existing 26-county and six-county statelets inevitably become absorbed into the british-imposed system they have surrendered their position before they have even gotten started the breakdown in the provisionals1 ceasefire came as no surprise given the fraudulent basis of the process out of which it emerged a renewal of conflict merely for the purpose of gaining a place at all-party talks rather than to force a british withdrawal is clearly not justified no doubt among the factors behind this decision to end the ceasefire was the emergence at the new year of the continuity ira and the provisionals sought to prevent themselves from being sidelined by those who declared themselves republican sinn fein president ruairi o brddaigh the summit will not bring a permanent peace to be the true oglaigh na h-eireann opinion polls in britain and ireland following the ending of the ceasefire showed that 61 of people blamed the british government for what happened the massive government by media and peace-at-any-price demonstrations in ireland since then are intended to turn public opinion around to the point where all the blame is assigned to the provisionals in a statement on february 28 ruairi 6 bradaigh president of republican sinn fein said that the summit agenda did not go to the heart of the matter and will not therefore bring a permanent peace the british are not setting about winding down their operation in ireland for good and this being the case future resistance to british rule here is inevitable in the future he said it was einstein who said once that you cannot solve a problem from within the mindset of the people who created the problem the problem in ireland is the original partition settlement of 1922 and it is no use trying to solve it from within the boundaries of that settlement instead it is necessary to step outside the problem and look beyond those people whose careers are based on the flawed 1922 settlement to try to solve it republican sinn fein's eire nua proposals for a new four-province federal ireland in the context of a public british declaration of intent to leave ireland forever is such an attempt to solve the problem by transcending it an elected all-ireland constituent assembly would provide a mechanism to discuss proposals such as eire nua formaximum decentralisation of power and decision-making to local communities this is the real way forward to freedom justice and permanent peace for majorities and minorities alike throughout ireland