Issue 012, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (April, 1988)

              wear an easter lily uimh 12 aibrean - april new stormont easter lilies have been sold without a police permit every year since 1916 they are worn at easter to honour all who have died for ireland in every generation in 1925 the easter lily in its present form was brought out by cumann na mban various breakaway groups from the republican move ment including the workers party have obtained the protection of the free state to sell the lily - merely as a fund-raising exercise now free state sinn fe"in has applied for and been denied a permit by the 26-county police free state lilies will be on sale this easter it would appear however irish republicans will proudly wear repub lican easter lilies — sold without the protection of the free state a spokesperson for cumann na mban asked for a comment said the men of 1916 sought no permit to die for ireland and we will seek no permit to comm emorate them - wear an easter lily !" as we go to press we learn that matt leen tralee secretary of kerry comhairle ceantair was arrested tuesday march 29 for non payment of a 50 fine im posed last year for selling easter lilies he was taken to cork prison to serve a month's sentence matt who spent seven years in portlaoise prison refus ed like other principled republicans to seek a permit to sell easter lilies no solution i the pressure of events in the struggle for national liberation by the irish people against the english ruling class continued throughout march and the end of the month saw the utter collapse of the dublin gov ernment in the face of the british establishment meanwhile as the pace quickened towards the establishment of yet another new stormont the hillsborough security pact was put on a life support mechanism until the new and extended arrangements to replace it which had her certain sanction republican sinn fdin,in a statement from a meet ing of comhairle uladh on march 19 see page 3 struck a positive note by commending the bravery of the people themselves who defended both funer als fr matt wallace has said at a mass on march 18 for thomas mcerlean to page 2 are put in operation however as happened when the sunningdale agree ment fell in 1974 all security aspects and military gains by the british from hillsborough will be retained the increased levels of collaboration achieved will be main tained and political extradition will be set working through yet another compromise by dublin on its safe . guards " of december 3 last . in the six counties according to a utv/fortnight magazine poll taken at the end of february 81 per cent of the nationalist population believed that the much acclaimed hillsborough pact was useless to them an sdlp party officer admitted to the irish news march 26 that the findings were a major blow and blamed the british government for its bad faith " in operating the pact three unarmed irish citiz ens mairead farrell sean savage and danny mccann all of belfast if the british continued to use it to increase cross border collaboration then the 81 per cent figure would keep rising he ad mitted an irish press ed itorial march 26 agreed that the poll showed that in nationalist eyes noth ing of substance had been achieved by hillsborough throughout march the catalogue of british repres sion was extended on i march 4 the relatives of martina shanahan held in prison in england on the flimsiest of charges were arrested and abused under the prevention of terror ism act her sister was ex pelled from england and thus prevented from ever visiting her again on sunday march 6 in the british colony of gib raltar — taken from spain in the early 18th century — sas assassins summar ily executed in the street in broad daylight and in front of eyewitnesses thatcher celebrates in the british house of commons following the killings margaret thatcher led the mob in a celebrat ion of blood-lust inter viewed by the french daily ouest-france ruairi 0 bradaigh asked that thatcher accept a state of war in the six counties rather than prating about the rule of law and due process in the courts while shooting-to-kill on sight and before the world in blatant contradiction of such claims with the official with drawal of british troops and ruc from the funer als of the gibraltar three in milltown cemetery the unofficial forces of imper ialism — known as right wing death squads in latin america — stepped in to fill the gap and mur dered three more unarmed irish citizens who sought with bare hands to defend the mourners british ploy the purpose of these killings was clear — to force a return by british forces to saturation of such funerals the ploy was seen before during the bilateral truces of 1972 and 1975 — and even with the truce of 1921 when the official forces are compelled to move back their unofficial allies fill the vacuum on the british side usually by random murder of cathol ics who are presumed by them to be nationalists this enables the crown forces to pose before the world as peace-keepers among the lawless irish and not as agents of im perialism at the funeral of kevin brady mown down by a loyalist assassin two arm ed undercover british sold iers drove their car into the cortege people feared a repitition of the mass acre three days earlier and attacked and killed them this time thatcher built up anti-irish hysteria des cribing the action as an act of revolting savagery ". this was indeed a change from her glorying in the gibraltar killings two weeks earlier — a deed republican sinn f&n picket on this year's fianna fail ard fheis