As we predicted the Dublin Government has extended an invitation to the British Queen to visit the Twenty Six County State. Brian Cowen declared that no obstacles remain preventing the British royal from an official visit. What he failed to explain was that the obstacle as far as London were concerned was Dublin’s territorial claim over what the Queen determines to be sovereign British territory. Now that that claim is relinquished, and the Irish are back in their place, Her Majesty can descend amongst us.
There will be those who will welcome this development. There are those who will feign indifference but will secretly welcome it. And there are those who will maintain a strategic low profile lest their hypocrisy is exposed by what they signed up for.
This visit is not merely symbolic but an affirmation of political intent. This State is declaring to both our history and our future that the issue of British sovereignty in Ireland is finally settled. This is how they will celebrate the centenary of the Easter Rising. For these people the abandonment of the Proclamation is not an obstacle. The continuation of partition is not an obstacle. The abuse of our people by British police officers is not an obstacle. The deliberate and systematic abuse of republican prisoners is not an obstacle. The enslavement of future generations to financial institutions is not an obstacle.
The only obstacles to stand in their way are republican separatists. And our ability to be effective at this depends on our ability to work together. This visit must be strenuously opposed by all republicans and it must be done so publicly and on the streets. The terms under which this visit is taking place screams to the world that Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Thomas Davis, Padraig Pearse, James Connolly and all our great patriot dead were wrong. Our country remains occupied by an army of which this Queen is Commander in Chief.
She held this position whilst her army slaughtered our people on Irish streets for thirty years. Her Secret Service detonated car bombs in Irish cities and towns to ensure repressive legislation was introduced against those who fought to remove her army. She pinned medals on the perpetrators of these acts and stood over the lies of these soldiers when the world demanded the truth. She imprisoned thousands in her gaols and allowed brutality and murder to be committed in her name. We cannot welcome her. We cannot move on until she and her Parliament move out. This is the connection which Wolfe Tone sought to break. This was the starting point through which our people could be truly unified. And this commemoration is a fitting venue to once again rededicate ourselves to Tone’s ideal.
As National Chairperson of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement I am placing all our activists on notice: our preparations for opposing this visit begin now. As an Irish republican I am putting all other republicans on notice: go back to your organisations and prepare likewise. If we fail to make an impact on this visit we have no right to march to the GPO in 2016. These are how high the stakes are.
Our immediate attention is once again drawn to Her Majesty’s Prison at Maghaberry. Without question political direction from Westminster is behind the brutality against republican POW’s. It’s not a case of rogue officers or random occurrences but a systematic and strategic assault on the prisoners.
We must match the prisoners resolve when we campaign on their behalf. There is a momentum gathering around this issue as can be seen by the size, frequency and diverse areas where protests are held. We need to do more.
The prisoners are engaged in a dirty protest. They are demanding an end to strip searches, free association and an end to controlled movement.. But they are acting in the capacity of political prisoners and the resolution to the dispute must begin with the recognition of their political status. We welcome all assistance but we make it clear that concessions in return for acceptance of criminalisation is a non starter. Just as we refused to horse trade our sovereignty for a better partition we also refuse to horse trade on our prisoner’s political status for short term gain.
The momentum that is growing behind the prisoner’s struggle will attract attention from various quarters; some friendly, some hostile and some that will attempt to neutralise this momentum as a political force. This is why we must make it absolutely clear that political status is the starting point. The first question we must ask of them is where do you stand on this central issue?
There are many protests planned for the future and I urge all republicans to both attend these protests and to organise similar protests in their own areas. All ideas for advancing political status are welcome. Raise it in the media, at work, on the internet; raise it where ever people gather. The prisoners resolve will be our strength and the justice of their cause our motivation.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement welcomes the Saville Report in so far as it vindicates the victims of Bloody Sunday. But it remains fundamentally a British Inquiry into British war crimes in Ireland. Its provenance stems from the horse trading which led to the Good Friday Agreement. This establishes its credentials not as an independent inquiry into events in 1972 but rather as part of a wider political agenda. Even on the day of its publication those who gathered in Derry were described as supporters of the so called peace process. This is the drum which establishment nationalists were permitted to beat. Its din was designed to drown out the fact that these same drumbeaters were recognising the Parachute Regiment as the legitimate armed forces in the Six Counties. The British Prime Minister’s apology exacted a heavy price.
Now there are calls for inquiries into other similar events. Our political analysis tells us that Saville is as far as London is prepared to go. Their absolute refusal to cooperate with the inquiry into the Dublin Monaghan Bombings is very telling. The British establishment will only engage in such matters if there is a political benefit for them. They will not countenance an international dimension because as far as they are concerned such issues are internal matters to be dealt with internally.
In truth the only relevant inquiry should be one which examines the British presence in our country. The Sovereignty Movement set out our stall with our submission to the United Nations. True closure for the victims of our long conflict must surely be the final resolution of that conflict. Our legacy to them must be a sovereign Irish Republic, free to determine its own future and free to deal with its own past. We struggle for that republic. We struggle for closure.
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