“We’re marching through the heart of the British establishment. What can Britain do in Ireland? The short answer is—leave,” said Peter Leary. Leary, from Enniskillen, is a member of the British-based network, Student Friends of Ireland.

An Irish student who did not wish to be named said he was marching because “there is still a British military presence in south Armagh where I come from. The army still patrols our streets. They still set up impromptu roadblocks. The police harass prominent people in the nationalist community. The army still flies helicopters over our areas.

“It’s all part of the ongoing degradation of the nationalist community. The day you get used to it is the day that you accept it. That is why we will carry on protesting,” he said, referring to the brutality of British rule over Northern Ireland and the discrimination against the Catholic population.

Many of the marchers carried placards that read, “Build a united Ireland—Support Sinn Fein,” and “Reinstate elections in the North of Ireland now—Defend the right to vote.” The latter referred to the British government’s recent decision to postpone elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly that are due in May.

“Sinn Fein has been a victim of its own success,” explained Dara O’Hagan, the Sinn Fein Assembly member for Upper Bann, to the crowd attending a rally that followed the march. “[British prime minister Anthony] Blair has collapsed the institutions and then blamed this on republicans.

“The real reason is that Sinn Fein is emerging as the largest nationalist party—a reflection of the fact that the demand for Irish unity and independence is gaining ground. Blair is acting like a 19th century colonial overlord in both Ireland and Iraq.”

The rally was also addressed by John McDonell, a Labour member of Parliament (MP) in Westminster, who demanded the government immediately reinstate the elections to the Assembly.

Other speakers described the ongoing harassment of Irish people living in Britain. Pat Reynolds reported on the fight being waged by the Justice for Christy McGrath campaign. McGrath is a 24-year-old from Tipperary, Ireland, who is imprisoned in Britain on frame-up charges of murdering a man in County Durham, northern England. Throughout the investigation into the murder, the cops referred to McGrath as “the Irish lad.” Isolated in custody, McGrath was advised by his lawyer to plead guilty to avoid a harsher sentence.

McGrath has the support of Billy Power. Power is one of the Birmingham Six, who were framed by the British government for bombings in Birmingham in the 1970s and eventually freed. He is also backed by dozens of MPs from the British parliament and TDs. TD stands for Teachta Dála, or deputy of the Dáil—a member of the Irish parliament.

Speaking for the Irish Human Rights and Justice Campaign, Terry Stewart described the number of “suicides” of Irish people in jail in Britain. In Brixton prison, all but one of the seven prisoners whose deaths were reported as “suicides” between 1999 and 2002 were Irish. Stewart had joined the march with other campaigners with a banner that demanded “No More Deaths in Custody.”

Also on the march were a group of Basque youth resident in London, who carried Basque flags and drew attention to the ongoing struggle of the Basque people against their national oppression by the Spanish state.

Among the speakers were also Diane Langford from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Ghada El Najjar of the Palestinian Progressive Youth Union in the Gaza Strip. “Irish and Palestinian people all over the world are struggling against imperialism,” El Najjar told demonstrators. “Our struggles are not religious ones. They are conflicts over human rights and against discrimination,” she said.

Peter Middleton of the Wolfe Tone Society in London, which had organized the rally and march, urged participants to take part in a May 29 picket at Downing Street and in the James Connolly memorial demonstration on June 7 in Edinburgh. Connolly was a leader of the 1916 Easter Rebellion by Irish pro-independence forces against British colonial rule in Ireland.  
 
 
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