ISSN Bulk Rate Return Address US Postage SAOIRSE PAID Box 1053 0791 - 0002 Hummel South Orange, Dist. Corp. N.J. 07079 LA CUIMHNEAGHAIN NAISIUNTA IRISH FREEDOM UIMH. 23 MARTA-MARCH 1989 25D (USA $1.50 per issue, $18 per year) Th. Easter Lily i» u>e NATIONAL EMBLEM. The Easter Lily represent. Ibe NORTH and SOUTH united ID aa ezpreaaloo of appreciation of lh« principles, for 'V^. which Ihe meo of Easier W«tl taw up lh«ir H«a, The Easter Lily •• an emblem of Hop* tod Confidence la the ultimate realisation of everr lrUhman'. dream. -Ireland free from the cenlre lo Ihe Sea." We appeal W Ihe NATION, and la particular lo the 7»UBt lo WEAR Ml EASTER LILY IRELAND 1989: A tottering colonialism blocks the march of the Irish people. DURING THE coming weeks the The hidden agenda to Hillsborough in- Dublin and London administrations cluded the promise by Garret Fitzgerald will be presenting the results of that wholesale extradition of Irish polit- their 'review' of the workings of the ical prisoners would be granted. For this prize of unprecedented national betrayal, 'Intergovernmental Conference' set which Mr. Haughey's administration in up as part of the Hillsborough turn has not been slow to carry out, Mrs. Security Pact signed on November Thatcher could and did ignore the opposi- 15,1985. tion of the Unionists. This 'review procedure' since Novem- STORMONT OR DUBLIN ber last has failed miserably to generate For the British are quite prepared to BRITISH the hoped-for impression that it allows rule in Ireland through the agency of for any real change in British colonial rule Dublin, rather than Stormont, as long as in Ireland. It is not even a review of the they are ruling, as long as they are pulling Hillsborough Deal as a whole but simply the strings. The Unionists can and will be an opportunity for some further media dropped if the securing and stabilisation hype and the phoney and plastic politics of British imperial interests in Ireland of Brian Lenihan and Charlie Haughey, demand it. Those Irish people who have who have become Mrs Thatcher's main applauded the Hillsborough Deal because agents in Ireland, along with Tom King. it has angered the Unionists would do RULE: Any serious discussion of the Hills- well to heed this point. borough Deal must begin with Article 1 The willingness of Mr. Haughey to act (a) which "affirms that any change in the as Britain's agent is illustrated by his status of Northern Ireland would only shifting of ground at the recent Fianna come about with the consent of a major- Fail ard-fheis in Dublin. His original ity of the people of Northern Ireland". climbdown from verbal Republicanism of the Fianna Fail variety can be traced to STARK RECOGNITION the Joint Communique with Mrs. In stark terms Dublin thereby form- Thatcher of May 21, 1980 when he ally agreed to recognise and accept the agreed to no change in the constitutional A SHAM British military and political presence in status of the Six Counties without the Ireland. They accepted the illegal par- consent of the 'majority' there. tition of our territory and people against Mr. Haughey is now saying that devolu- the will of the majority in all of Ireland, tion to a new Stormont is acceptable, as something which is a total negation of is the Hillsborough Deal, "until some- democracy. They also recognised the thing better comes along". It was note- the Unionist claim to 'veto' created by worthy that he has ceased referring to the virtue of their artificial 'majority' within Six Counties as "a failed political entity. six northeastern counties of Ireland. He also extended the 'carrot' to Free 1982 in Armagh, can (on March 1 ) hurry The Hillsborough Deal thus amounts to State Sinn Fe*in of 'a place in a broad REVIEon the streets anWd roads and even at fun- over to London to confer with him about a modernised internal settlement within national consensus' if armed resistance to erals while shoot-to-kill remains an integ- extradition. What has changed in the the context of British rule and cannot British rule was to cease. ral part of Britain's war in Ireland. meantime? bring peace to Ireland anymore than the To those who are currently saying that Treaty of Surrender in 1921, the Bound- O'BRIEN'S PRAISE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES with the 'Single European Market' of ary Agreement of 1925 or the Sunning- This earned praise from Conor Cruise Meanwhile the Nationalist nightmare dale Pact of 1973. O'Brien, writing in the Indo, who said goes on in the Six Counties with the 1992 the Border will be removed we that he (Mr. Haughey) is "no more a security cost alone to the 26 Counties of reply that the British garrison in the It has brought quite the opposite during Republican than I am". How true! an estimated £20 billion in the last North will remain — it is theii removal the last three years. Britain has increased Free State minister for justice Gerry twenty years. This amount is similar to from Ireland and the recognition of the her repression of Irish citizens in the Collins, who this time last year described the total indebtedness of the same 26 right of self-determination of the Irish Six Counties safe in the knowledge that British Attorney-General Patrick Mayhew Counties at present. The UDR and Brit- people acting as a unit that will bring Dublin now shared responsibility for her as "unfit to hold office" after his refusal ish Army patrol unhindered and RUC peace. The present sham 'review' of Brit- actions and insulated her from internat- to prosecute those against whom there primacy has been reversed in Border ish rule does nothing to hasten that ional criticism. was evidence in the shoot-to-kill cases of areas. Torture and harassment continues certain day. SAOIRSE - Mdrta/March 1989 ed the Catholic Hierarchy's inactivity on Thatcher uses the Six Counties as a the case of the Birmingham Six. He "breeding ground" for repressive meas- BIRMINGHAM SIX finished his address by referring to the ures before introducing these measures British policy of "holding hostages" be- into her own country. cause of the war situation in the Six INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT Counties. Eadaoin Heussaff, a member of the "WE ARE NOT impressed by the platitudes of the Hillsborough 'GREENS BEHIND THE SCENES' Birmingham Six Committee, informed Agreement — it is by the people on the streets and in the halls of Dublin Michael Mansfield, barrister for the the meeting of a picket which Paddy and Belfast that the case will be won. We must be wary of placing faith in Birmingham Six appeal in 1987/8, Mcllkenny (brother of Richard Mc- Ilkenny, one of the Birmingham Six) and the politicians; they obviously find it very hard to admit to a mistake, to highlighted the effects of the Thatcher junta on human rights - "What we are herself placed on the British embassy in a callous, cold, calculated crime against justice. They will not plead guilty Moscow, near the end of last year. 10,000 to their own crimes - let us not apologise for them. The Birmingham Six witnessing in Britain is the demolition, not simply the erosion, but the actual leaflets were distributed in two after- are without any doubt whatsoever totally innocent: hell is what British demolition of some very basic human noons during the picket, and a very justice' has created for these six people and others" - lawyer Richard rights, with the situation in the North of favourable response was received from Harvey, addressing a crowd of approximately 400 people in the Mansion Ireland given as the excuse for this. members of the public. House, Dublin, on Friday February 17, at a meeting organised by the Douglas Hurd is not so worried now The Committee is hoping that Mr Birmingham Six Committee. continued imprisonment of the Birming- about 'Reds under the Bed' - it's now Gorbachev will raise the case with Mrs Thatcher during his visit to London next Richard Harvey, who was involved in ham Six. The confidence of people in 'Greens behind the Scenes'; we (British) are but a short step away from writers month. Two representatives from the the defence team for the Guildford Four, state justice has been badly damaged — and musicians being imprisoned for their Soviet embassy were present at the Man- was in Ireland as a representative of the the Birmingham Six have been jailed for sion House meeting and the Committee something they did not do". political beliefs. How close to the Brehon Law Society and the US National emergency powers in South Africa are we hopes to generate substantially more Conference of Black Lawyers "to pay the Fr Murray received sustained applause international support for the case in the when he referred to the hypocrisy of the now? respects of tens of thousands of lawyers United Nations and throughout the 26-county administration complaining Michael Mansfield continued on to in the US to Pat Finucane", shot dead in world in the coming months. his home by UDA gunmen on Sunday about the Birmingham Six to Mrs query the need for censorship laws at all night, February 12. Thatcher while they hold their own pol- "as the media are quite apt at censoring Offers of support/assistance etc. can Fr Raymond Murray spoke of "a lack itical prisoners in Portlaoise Jail and themselves". He then listed various be forwarded to Siobhan Mcllkenny, of nationalist confidence in the Hills- refuse men release dates who have spent television programmes which were with- 90, Farndon Road, Alum Rock, Birming- borough Agreement due to the jailing and over 15 years in prison.