SAOIRSE Eanáir / January 1997 1 The Betrayal of Derry During the Drumcree stand-off and the Apprentice Boys march in Derry last summer a revolutionary situation developed as the British government illustrated to another generation that it was prepared to murder to stay in Ireland. See page 9 inside on how the Provisionals, the SDLP and the Catholic hierarchy combined to defuse and attack those who actively opposed the British Crown Forces. Resist British AS we face into 1997rule there are opportunities for true Republicans to press the message home that British rule in Ireland must end for a just and lasting peace to emerge. The past twelve months has shown that the nationalist community and used all the nothing has changed in regard to British pressure at their disposal to stop resistance colonial interference in our country. The to British rule. In Derry this amounted to same overwhelming apparatus of repression acting as an auxiliary police force for the is being used by the British to crush the British during Augusts Apprentice Boys nationalist community in the Six Counties. parade (see page 9 inside). Their intentions can be clearly identified Those who argue that the Provisionals in the announcement at the end of 1996 that will return to a demand for a British there would be an increase of £120 million withdrawal and to active resistance to that in military spending in the Six Counties over presence if their current policy fails received the next three years. It is their overriding their answer at Drumcree. They are totally priority, as befits a colonial occupier, just committed to the constitutional, reformist like the Israelis in the Occupied territories or road and the futile process they are still the Indonesians in East Timor. pursuing with their constitutional allies is As the photograph here shows, punitive based on a lie. It is not their new friends raids on nationalist homes in Belfast and who are being deceived, but their own elsewhere have increased over recent weeks supporters. with the British Crown Forces showing great But Drumcree placed the demand for a zeal in destroying property and abusing British withdrawal back on the agenda and residents. No peace process there. showed that a solution in the Six Counties Britains supremo in the Six Counties, that delivers equality and justice for all is Patrick Mayhew, said on New Years Eve that impossible. The damage caused by a British Crown Forces raid on a home in Ballymurphy, Belfast the active resistance of Republicans in the The Leinster House political parties once on December 6 last. past year and over 25 years had achieved again showed in December that the only time nothing. The reality is that were it not for they act with cohesion and vigour is when the tremendous efforts and sacrifice over they want to vote themselves millions in extra that period the British would still have their (and backdated) expenses. Equally the colonial governor in Hillsborough Castle, evidence of corruption in the current 26- 1997 RESISTANCE and their puppet parliament in Stormont County administration has only intensified overseeing a squalid sectarian statelet. peoples disgust with Leinster House. That achievement, and the international The imminent British general election and CALENDAR attention which it has brought to bear on the minority position of the Tory government Irelands British problem, owes nothing to dependent on the UUP will entrench the NOW AVAILABLE the bankrupt political policies of the Dublin British imperialist position over the coming administration. They were exposed as never months. £2.50 plus p&p before during 1996 when Orange mob rule Republican Sinn Féin provides the only Calendar marks 27 years of prevailed during the Drumcree stand-off in alternative to a partitioned two-state Ireland resistance to British July and the citizens of the Garvaghy Road and its political, social and economic ills. occupation and the 16th were terrorised and attacked by the armed As Pádraic Pearse said of his own time there forces Patrick Mayhew unleashed on them. are but two parties in Ireland: those who anniversary of the 1981 The Drumcree stand-off also exposed the support the British presence and those who hunger strike. Special rates bankruptcy of the Provisionals who held their oppose it. for bulk orders. Contact 223 military organisation in check while a Those who continue to oppose it must Parnell Street, Dublin 1. revolutionary situation developed. increase their efforts to resist British rule in Not only that but they actively policed 1997. Athbhliain faoi mhaise dár léitheoirí go léir SAOIRSE Eanáir / January 1997 2 Ardoyne man injured in booby-trap car-bomb Gearrscéalta THE UDA/UFF pro-British is believed to have On October 26, 1993 The British army tried to been responsible for a car-bomb attack on a Copeland was shot twice by a claim at the time that the two Hunger strike movie Belfast Provisional on December 22. Eddie British soldier as he stood civilians were armed but this Copeland (25) was starting his car which was outside the home of Provisional was refuted by local people wins top award parked outside his parents home at Ladbrook Volunteer Thomas Begley who who witnessed the incident. In THE film, Some Mothers Son, which depicts the epic hunger Drive in the Ardoyne area of Belfast when it had been killed in a premature November 1973 the inquest into strike of Bobby Sands and his comrades in 1981 has scooped a explosion on the Shankill Road. his killing was told that he was prestigious industry award in Berlin, Germany. Director Terry exploded. He suffered leg injuries. Residents say The soldier who fired the shots, unarmed. the RUC arrived on the scene nearly an hour later. George beat off strong opposition to win the Young European Trooper Andrew Brian Clarke, Film of the year award which is for first time directors. George was jailed in February 1995 for No claim of responsibility received his prize in Berlin on Saturday, December 7. The New In a second UDA/UFF commercial explosive to make 10 years for attempted murder. was made for these attacks, as York premiere of Some Mothers Son took place on Monday, booby-trap car-bomb attack, a several under-car bombs. that would result in the political December 9 and the film went on general release on St Stephens Derry nationalist, Liam Duffy, Eddie Copeland (25, a Eddie Copelands own organisations associated with Day (December 26) in the US. discovered an explosive device Belfast Provisional, was father, John, was shot dead by the death squads, the PUP and with a magnet attached which starting his car which was the British army in Ardoyne in the UDP, being ejected from the had apparently fallen from parked outside his parents October 1971 at the age of 23. Stormont talks as the loyalist BA helicopter crossing of underneath nis car on December home at Ladbrook Drive in the He and another civilian, Michael ceasefire is clearly ended. 28. It was placed there at some Ardoyne area of Belfast when McLarnon (22) were shot near It remains to be seen how Border approved by Dublin stage in the preceding few days. a car-bomb exploded. He their homes on October 28, long Senator Mitchell and the TWO British helicopters crossed the Border and flew southwards According to a Belfast suffered leg injuries. Residents 1971. John Copeland died in Dublin and London for about 15 miles to Ardee in County Louth where they hovered newspaper the UDA/UFF has say the RUC arrived on the hospital two days later from his administrations will go along over some houses on December 2. The incursion by the British acquired sufficient Powergel scene nearly an hour later. injuries. with this pretence. army into the 26 Counties was approved by the Dublin administration, according to the Irish Times newspaper of December 3. No details of the reason for this approval were Death squad banner at given but the incident has caused distress to local people. Derry Orange parade Kerry Republicans fined THERE was considerable anger in Derry over Waterside to Bishop Street on in a row. for Lily collections the morning of the Apprentice There was intimidation of WHILE members of the Dublin administration think well of sport- the appearance of uniformed men carrying a UFF ing the poppy and others think well of the narcotic that emanates banner at an Orange parade in the city on Boys parade and during the local nationalists during the main parade it joined the final parade and early the following from the poppy, Republicans are continuously being harassed for Saturday, December 14. Such open identification march into St Columbs morning a full-scale riot took selling the Easter Lily symbol of resurgent Ireland. Eight mem- between a pro-British death squad and the Cathedral. place between different parade bers of Republican Sinn Féin were fined £50 each on charges of Orange Order in the Six Counties is not The parade, which marks factions in Derry city centre. carrying out a collection without permits in Cahersiveen District infrequent and there was no attempt by the the closing of Derrys gates, Two hundred Apprentice Boys Court on Thursday, November 28. The eight, James OShea, James British Crown Forces to hinder the UFF culminates every year in the battled in the Diamond area. Coffey, Christina OSullivan, Thomas OSullivan, John Walsh, contingent. burning of an effigy of Governer Again, no arrests were made by Eoin Ring, Michael OSullivan and Eugene ONeill, were all con- Lundy, regarded as the traitor the British Crown Forces. victed of collecting without a permit on different dates in April.