Oppose Loyalist March

Oppose Loyalist March
(from the February, 2006 edition of SAOIRSE)

SAOIRSE calls on all true Republicans to oppose
the loyalist march due to take place through the
centre of Dublin on Saturday, February 25.
This call is made for three reasons:

1) One body sponsoring the march, FAIR (Families
Acting for Innocent Relatives) claims for loyalists a
near monopoly on suffering in Ireland since the
mid-1960s. This is not in accordance with the facts.
In the struggle for the national liberation of Ireland
over the past several decades,
over 1,000 members of the British Occupation Forces
were killed. Further, more than 1,000 innocent and
uninvolved nationalists were deliberately done to
death by loyalist death squads working in collusion
with the British forces.
The Sunday Business Post of September 4, 2005 gave the
following statistics: “Of the 698 Protestants (sic)
killed during violence in the North, 340 died at the
hands of loyalists. Since the first ceasefires in
1994, the vast majority of Protestant (sic)
victims have been killed by loyalists in internecine
feuds.”
It would appear then that FAIR should be marching on
the UDA and UVF headquarters in Belfast rather
than through the centre of Dublin to Leinster House.
In their progress through O’Connell Street, they will
pass by Sackville Place (by the side of Clery’s
department store) where two CIE busmen were killed by
loyalist no-warning bombs in December 1972. Will FAIR
pause at that spot and pay respects?
To highlight the fact that there is no hierarchy in
suffering, Republican Sinn Féin’s President, Ruairí Ó
Brádaigh will, before the loyalist march moves off,
lay a wreath at the end of Talbot Street – opposite
Connolly station – at the memorial to the 33 innocent
victims, both Catholic and Protestant, killed by
loyalist bombs in Dublin and Monaghan on May 17, 1974.
This will be done with respect and dignity.
Listed on page three in this issue are the names of
another 13 victims killed by loyalists south of the
Border from Donegal to Cavan, Monaghan and Louth.
British forces colluded in these deaths also, and
refused 30 years later to cooperate in inquiries into
the tragedies.
In the 26 Counties, the Department of Justice “lost”
the files relating to these victims of imperialism and
Garda Headquarters “mislaid” their files also. It
seems the lives of citizens counted for very little.

2) The second reason for opposing the march is that
Republicans stand in solidarity with the beleaguered
nationalists of the Garvaghy Road, Ardoyne, Dunloy and
other such areas that have had triumphalist loyalist
marches imposed on them forcefully year after year.
They are made witnesses of their own humiliation.
The 26-County Administration, by collaborating with
this loyalist march, has effectively turned its back
on all those, north and south, who have suffered at
the hands of British-backed death squads down the
decades.
The question which has not been asked in this debate
is whether nationalist parades, of whatever kind, or
even Civil Rights marches would be allowed through the
centre of Portadown or down Belfast’s Royal Avenue?
The British forces would certainly block them.
When the British government finally leaves Ireland and
loyalist marches will no longer be a question of
supremacy of Unionists over Nationalists, then all
interests will be welcome and free to parade wherever
they choose.
Reference has been made to the Orange section of the
Irish National Tricolour. This applies to the Irish
Protestant population, in general, not all of whom are
coat-trailing Orangemen.
When he brought the Irish Tricolour from Paris and
presented it as a symbol of inclusivity to the Irish
people on April 15, 1848, Thomas Francis Meagher said:
“The White in the centre signifies a lasting truce
between the Orange and the Green, and I trust that
beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant
and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and
heroic brotherhood.
“If this flag is destined to fan the flames of war,
let England behold once more, upon that white centre,
the Red Hand that struck her down from the hills of
Ulster.”
Before the loyalist march on February 25, Republican
Sinn Féin will assemble at the Parnell monument at the
top of O’Connell Street beneath a banner which bears
the immortal words of Wolfe Tone, the Father of Irish
Republicanism:
“Unite Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter” … “To Break
the Connection with England.”
The pamphlet “An Address to the People of Ireland”...
which “makes special appeal to the people of the
Unionist persuasion” will be distributed.
The text includes an appeal “to everybody to consider
again our ÉIRE NUA programme for a four-province
federal Ireland, with optimum devolution of powers
down to community level”.
ÉIRE NUA concludes: “These proposals are not
definitive; they can and inevitably will be modified.
Sinn Féin Poblachtach would in fact welcome
constructive criticism of these proposals.”

3) The third reason to oppose this loyalist march is
clear. For some time now the 26-County State
Establishment has sought to bring the Queen of England
on an official state visit to Dublin.
Remember this crowned head claims to be “Queen of
Northern Ireland” as well as of “Great Britain”. Such
a personage making such a claim has not been seen in
Dublin for 95 years – since 1911.
The proposed loyalist march is very definitely part of
a softening-up process for an Official Visit to Dublin
by an English Queen claiming part of Ireland. The like
has not been seen since Partition in 1921.
And now, on the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising,
the siren voices tell Republicans to ignore this
loyalist march. If we do, they will return with even
greater insistence and tell us to ignore the state
Visit of the Queen of England.
In other words, to stay away, make no protest, and
accept finally that the Six Occupied Counties belong
to England. Is that what you want?
NEVER.