Kerry says No To Royal Visit

32CSM Bodenstown 2010

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.

No Royal Welcome in the Kingdom

The North Kerry 32 County Sovereignty Movement wish to express their utter disgust at the prospect of a visit from the unelected Queen Elizabeth of England to County Kerry. The invite from inconsiderate Killarney businessmen has been seen as a greedy opportunistic plot to add to their already overflowing barrels of cash, and has sparked outrage amongst the Kerry people. To add insult to injury the sitting Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport Mary Hannifin, and the rest of the Free-State government, have said they would support the venture.

This statement is a principled objection to an offensive and provocative undertaking by the fat cats who have allowed themselves to be bought and sold for English gold.
Sean O’Driscoll, of the Kerry Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, offered a brief history lesson of how 2011 is going to be the 150th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria’s visit to Killarney in 1861. He mentions how he feels it would be appropriate for Queen Elizabeth to visit on the anniversary.
Perhaps we could offer Mr. O’Driscoll another history lesson, the part of our history he, the other business men and the free-state government seem intent on ignoring.

Some objectors may wish to recall the centuries of murdering and maiming of Irish people by British monarchs and their armies; others might recall the plundering of our lands, some of which to this day remain in the ownership of British aristocrats; perhaps some will object to a visit as we still await publication of the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday; while others wish to object because of the instances of British obstruction in investigating such crimes as the Monaghan bombings of 1974 and the Miami Showband massacre of 1975.

Today, Queen Elizabeth is not only head of state in Britain, she is also Commander in Chief of all United Kingdom armed forces. This includes the 5000 British troops still occupying 6 counties in the North of Ireland. How a visit of a British Monarch could even be contemplated at this time is beyond those of us who oppose the visit.

Sean O’Driscoll said a €20m marketing campaign could not generate the publicity that a visit by the Queen would. This is the one thing we tend to agree with. If such a visit did take place, it would cause such uproar in the Kingdom and the country as a whole that the event would not be forgotten for years.

Honor our patriot dead. Honor those who died at the hands of the Queens army in Kerry and in the rest of the country. Do not insult their memory by allowing their murderers descendant parade the Irish roads which they died defending.

There will be no welcome for English royals in Kerry.

Tralee POW Protest 29/05/'10

There were over 400 information leaflets handed out on the day. We got a great response with many people returning after reading the leaflet and asking questions about the situation in Maghaberry and the occupied 6 in general. Even the Sinn Fein van beeped the horn in support! We would like to especially thank the Cork and Fermanagh Cumanns for their support.

POW Protest

Gortaglanna Commemoration

Speech by John Connolly:

I am happy to be here today. I want to thank especially the North Kerry Cumann of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement for inviting me to say a few words at todays commemoration in Gortaglanna. Today we remember 3 brave soldiers of Ireland and IRA volunteers Paddy Walsh, Paddy Dalton and Jerry Lyons who were brutally murdered at the hands of 3 lorry loads of drunken Black and Tans on the 12th of May 1921. I am sure those of you who are here today know the story of what happened to these brave republican soldiers. This is merely one example of a grave injustice suffered by the local inhabitants here in the Co. of Kerry.

Today however we are facing injustice of a different kind. Both the British and Freestate governments have shamefully adopted a criminalisation policy against all Anti Agreement Republicans, starting with our POWs. As I speak our comrades in Maghaberry gaol are suffering at the hands of an old enemy. I believe it is incumbent for all republican groups irrespective of political differences to come together in unity for our POWs.

Recently Republican prisoner Harry Fitzsimmons from Belfast was stripped and beaten, and dragged to the punishment block where he was handcuffed naked to a bed. It is up to us comrades to tell the people of the inhumane conditions and degrading treatment these men have to withstand on a daily basis.

The media have been absolutely deafening in their silence about this torturous campaign waged against our incarcerated republican comrades by another arm of the British occupation. It is up to us as republicans to take to the streets to protest for our imprisioned comrades. We owe them that much.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be stepping up our campaign in support of the POWs.

It is heartening to see here today comrades that the republican flame is still burning strong in the hearts of Kerry men and women, and that they are holding strong the ideals and objectives of the three men we are commemorating today.



Beir Bua

Getting The Republican Message Out