The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.19           May 13, 1996 
 
 
Irish Marchers Challenge British Rule  

BY JOYCE FAIRCHILD AND PAUL GALLOWAY

DUBLIN, Ireland - Several thousand people rallied here April 27 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

"At its heart... the Easter Rising was about asserting the right of Irish people to determine the destiny of this Ireland and to end British rule," said Gerry Adams, president of the nationalist party Sinn Fein. He addressed the crowd in front of the General Post Office, the site of the 1916 rebellion against colonial rule.

Sinn Fein banners from across Ireland, particularly from British-occupied Northern Ireland, were carried along the route. The "Free Pat Kelly" contingent led the march. Patrick Kelly is a republican prisoner in Maghaberry jail, near Belfast. After long denying him adequate medical care, London still refuses to release him despite the fact Kelly is dying of cancer.

In his speech, Adams said that 75 years of the partition of Ireland "has inhibited the social, economic, and political development of Ireland. Has the southern state fulfilled the vision of 1916? Look around. The answer lies in the massive unemployment, the poverty in rural areas, the families forced off the land, a health service unable to care for all of the people. Look at the inequality, the discrimination against women, against young people, against the poor and the homeless....

"The northern statelet has, since its creation, depended for its survival upon a permanent state of emergency. Normal democratic rights have never existed in that part of Ireland."

The Sinn Fein president explained his party's decision to participate in upcoming elections declared by London in preparation for June 10 peace talks.

"On May 30, Sinn Fein's peace agenda will be the alternative to the Unionist agenda of domination and partition," he said. "On June 10 we will demand our place at the negotiating table. We intend on asserting the rights of our electorate and we will defy the British government's arrogant assumption that it can dictate to the Irish people who they should or should not elect."

Joyce Fairchild and Paul Galloway are members of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Workers Union in Manchester, England.

 
 
 
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