Issue 032, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (December, 1989)

              issn 0791 - 0002 uimh 32 nollaig - december 1989 25p usa 18 per year itish crown forces defending britain's border at lackey bridge near clones co monaghan during november bulk rate us postage paid hummel dist corp return address saoirse box 1053 south orange n.j 07079 sean sabhat limerick sunday jan 7th assemble bedford row 12.45pm iron curtain raised in europe but ireland's wall remains the dazzling november days of 1989 that have seen the pro cess of self-determination renewed among the peoples of eastern europe after over 40 years of soviet domination must give the irish people hope and determination in their struggle against the undemocratic british pres ence in the six counties the tearing down of the berlin wall in particular on the weekend of november 10—12 under the glare of the world's media was immediately relevant to all the local people along the hundreds of miles of ireland's wall — the british imposed border that has artificially divided our people for almost 70 years the people who have been engaged in a struggle for self-determination in eastern series of re-openings of border crossings in the last two months have not had any thing like the media attention which the people of berlin received in many cases they have undertaken the task of re-open ing border crossings after 18 or more years under the threatening guns of the british crown forces and have been as saulted and arrested while engaged in this work people power in the spring of 1972 there was similar activity all along the border which was also met with british terror firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds attempt ing to fill in the cratered border roads its resurgence in 1989 is a remarkable ex ample of people power exposing as it does the colonial nature of britain's rule in ireland needless to say the peace trainers are deafeningly silent about the closed border roads they are made up of unionists and neo-unionists who support the partition of ireland as well as the similarities between the europe and in ireland however there are also some important differences for one thing none of the momentous changes in poland east germany hungary or czechoslovakia would be happening if the soviets under gorbachev had not decided for their own reasons to voluntarily withdraw its power from the centre of europe and renounce what was known as the brezhnev doctrine this called for intervention if soviet domina tion was threatened and resulted in the tanks rolling into hungary in 1956 and czechoslovakia in 1968 to crush the moves towards democracy no intervention this time the people of warsaw berlin budapest and prague knew that there would be no such intervention this time and they grasped the opportunity with both hands this is why there was no repeat of the tianenmen square peking massacre in these cities it is facile and shallow therefore for ««**«* «*««*«*«««*«*«***** the parade of innocence j.30pm parnell square candle-lit march and pageant tor the release of the birmingham six »+»*******+**»»* john hume and others to argue that the peaceful nature of the revolution in the east this year has lessons for british occupied ireland change there has come peacefully because the russians allowed it and the people knew they could get away with it when the iron fist was re moved the british have had no such change of heart secondly there is the massive collabor ation in ireland by the 26-county admin istration propping up the british-imposed border dublin's minister burke announ ced on november 24 last that an extra 180 million has been spent this year on securing the border and that 2.5 billion has been spent on this over the last 20 years can we imagine west berlin's rulers spending such vast sums on guarding the hated wall for the 28 years of its exis tence ? or the government of west germany spending more money per head of population in securing the frontier with the east than east germany itself ? those people who have witnessed the hundreds of thousands of people pouring into wenceslas square in the centre of prague would do well to remember that the nationalist population have never been allowed to march into the centre of belfast or derry or any other town in the occupied six counties since that statelet was set up in 1920 and were beaten off the streets any time they attempted it and were shot down in cold blood in derry on bloody sunday on january 30 1972 this is what happened to the civil rights campaign in 1969 and to the anti partition campaign in the 1950s there is no glasnost in whitehall or downing street but the struggle against the last remnant of the british empire in ireland will not be daunted that empire will with the efforts of the irish people them selves inevitably go the way of all tyrann ies it is up to us to hasten the day ofiaich's comments timely welcome as we go to press we wish to comment on the statement by car dinal tomas d fiaich mater hos pital radio november 26 that what would be a good move would be if the british said look we are not going to stay here for all time ". this is heartily welcomed by saoirse such a statement the cardinal said would do more good at the moment than anything else he continued that such a declaration would put it up to the ulster unionists to work out a relationship with the rest of the people in this island if i were a northern protestant and the british said to me as long as you want us we will stay i would have no motivation for ever trying to build a relationship with the rest of the country following his appointment to the see of armagh in 1977 the cardinal visited the h-blocks of long kesh where the blanket protest and diet strike were taking place and condemned prison conditions roundly in a public statement saying they were to be compared to the worst degradation of calcutta that famous statement in 1978 was followed by another a year or two later in which he called for a british withdrawal from the six counties and hinted at an independent state there republicans would not agree with the latter obser vation of course in 1981 he spoke feelingly of the death of south armagh volunteer raymond mccreesh on hunger strike in long kesh and later in march 1985 he said on radio in boston usa that a british with drawal was about the only thing which would succeed now he has been attacked by margaret thatcher and her six county supremo peter brooke the oup the dup the alliance party the workers party the sdlp etc john hume of course ref used to comment himself cardinal o fiaich was president of maynooth college and professor of modern irish history there before going to armagh he is a native of crossmaglen and is an enthusiast for the irish lan guage and games saoirse welcomes his courayeous plain speaking at this time it may not be fashionable in establishment circles on both sides of the irish sea but then neither is the easter week rising of 1916 these days