BY JIM ALTENBERG
SAN FRANCISCO - Supporters of the fight for a united Ireland
filled the Russian Center here November 14 to hear Gerry Adams,
president of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. Adams was
in San Francisco as part of a fund-raising tour, which was
sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based Friends of Sinn Fein.
Adams began by explaining that he had just come from Mexico City, where he had been part of the unveiling of an exhibition about Bloody Sunday, the 1972 massacre of Irish working people by British troops in Derry, Northern Ireland. The exhibit, called "Hidden Truths," drew a big turnout. Adams said he had always been "intrigued by the Irish in America, which extends south" of the U.S. border. Irish immigrants, he stated, driven from Ireland to the United States during the famine of the 1840s found themselves in the U.S. army at the time of the U.S.- Mexican War. Some quit and joined the Mexican forces, forming the San Patricio Brigade. With Mexico's defeat in the war, 50 Irish were executed by the U.S. army. Thus "it was appropriate," Adams said, "to launch the exhibit on Bloody Sunday in Mexico City."
The "Good Friday Agreement," between nationalists, London, and Unionists, aimed at settling the conflict in Northern Ireland, "advances the struggle for unity and independence," Adams said. Unionists are those who support continued British rule over the northern six counties of Ireland.
The accord was approved in May 1998 by a large majority of voters in both the Republic of Ireland and in the northern counties. Adams said, however, that the settlement remains on paper only. Unionist parties continue to delay its implementation. There are still political prisoners. The police force is still in the hands of the Unionists. A shadow government, which is to include a cross-border council with the Republic of Ireland, was to have been in place by October 31, but does not yet exist.
"Irish in America," Adams said, "won't stand for reneging on the Good Friday agreement." He urged Irish supporters in the United States to reach out, campaign for the agreement in their trade unions, churches, community organizations, and among politicians. "Why did the British campaign to keep me from getting a visa to go to the U.S.?" Adams asked. "They were afraid of you. You people here have to have some sense of your own strength. You were able to change U.S. policy." The worst thing that could happen, Adams added, is that supporters in the United States of the fight for Irish freedom think that the struggle ended with the May referendum.
Participants in the meeting celebrated an important victory in the struggle. Irish freedom fighters Terry Kirby, Kevin Barry Artt, and Pól Brennan, known as the H-Block 3, received a standing ovation when they stood on stage in front of the crowd. The three were released on bail October 16 after spending 14 months in federal prison awaiting extradition to Northern Ireland. They were among 38 republican fighters who escaped from the notorious Long Kesh prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1983.
A fourth, Jimmy Smyth, was deported back to Northern Ireland and jailed in 1996. Smyth was recently released from Long Kesh. Joe Doherty, another Irish freedom fighter who waged a long battle against extradition and for staying in New York, was also recently paroled as a direct result of the "Good Friday" accord.
Many at the meeting have been part of a long campaign to win the prisoners' release and stop their deportation.