Martin Corey Hung Out to Dry by Fickle Republican Politicians - Indymedia Ireland

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LONG KESH CONCENTRATION CAMP | Martin Corey Interned BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND

During the seventies, former bishop of Derry Edward Daly experienced Bloody Sunday close up, where the British shot dead 14 unarmed protesters on Bloody Sunday protesting internment, he gave them their last rites. He visited both loyalist and republican prisoners in the infamous Long Kesh Concentration Camp – later renamed by the disgraced British as the Maze.

In 1976, paramilitary prisoners had their ‘political’ status removed and were treated as criminals which sparked the blanket protests and political prisoners refused to wear jail uniforms, which  later escalated into hunger strikes. Below is an an extract from Bishop Daly's book, describing the foul conditions at Long Kesh Concentration Camp, where current political internee Martin Corey, has spent most of his adult life.  He is 63 now, having spent 22 years as a political prisoner of conscience in British hellholes, 19 years in Long Kesh, seperate from the  most recent, being 3 years in Maghaberry without trial. He is still interned more than 40 years later, in British Occupied Ireland despite a Peace Process without due process.

IN MARCH 1978, the prisoners ‘on the blanket’ escalated their protest by refusing to clean out their cells, wash or go to the toilet. They smeared the walls and ceilings of their cells with their own excrement and the floors streamed with urine. The lasting memory of visits to Long Kesh during that protest was the horrendous stench. The cells were industrially cleaned by the prison authorities with power hoses from time to time and prisoners were moved to other cells. I have no idea how people lived or worked in those conditions. During my visits there to the wings, I was violently ill on several occasions. The revolting and foul smell seemed to permeate everything I wore, even days after the visit. Items of outer clothing, even after dry cleaning, were virtually unusable subsequently.

In 1980, after four years of unsuccessful protests appealing for special status, a status that would recognise them as political prisoners, prisoners of war rather than criminals, rumours began to circulate that a hunger strike was imminent.

Individually and jointly, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich and I made several lengthy visits to the H-Blocks in Long Kesh Prison in the spring and summer months of 1980, meeting virtually all the protesting prisoners individually in their cells. These visits usually lasted from early morning until late in the evening. We also met with the prison authorities and visited some Loyalist prisoners, including some of their better-known leaders.

‘It was a parallel universe’

Those lengthy visits to Long Kesh are etched forever in my memory. Spending seven or eight hours at a time going around cells visiting young men in those conditions was unforgettable. It was a parallel universe. There were usually two men in each cell. Their hair was matted and they had long unkempt beards. They were thin and haggard and their eyes were sunken. They wore long blankets. There was no furniture in the cells. The stench was intense and allpervasive. I simply do not know how people retained their sanity after spending such a long time in that environment. Yet I always found the prisoners in high spirits and imbued with a steely determination. Only a few of them talked about a hunger strike.

However, Cardinal Ó Fiaich and I were both convinced that if they embarked upon that course, they would see it through. We also believed that if these men were to embark on their threatened hunger strike, it could have disastrous consequences for the community as a whole. We decided to approach the British Government jointly on behalf of the prisoners. We believed that they had a legitimate and arguable case and that both the Government and prisoners and society generally in the North would benefit from a less stringent and degrading prison regime. We reached this conclusion on the basis that were it not for the political circumstances that these young people found themselves in, most of them would never
have seen the inside of a prison. Most of them came from stable family backgrounds.

We also believed that these protests were undertaken on the prisoners’ own initiative, rather than on bidding or orders from any group outside the prison. Equally, we believed that the protest in the prison was perceived by the prisoners as their continuing contribution to the struggle going on outside the prison.

The issue was further complicated by the fact that a sustained paramilitary campaign was going on contemporaneously throughout the North. In the course of that campaign, many prison officers were murdered. Those who perpetrated these murders claimed that they were acting in support of the prisoners on protest. There was intense anger and hatred between the prisoners and prison staff. There were many allegations of assault. Intimate body searches were frequently carried out, often in a brutal and demeaning manner. There are few dignified methods where intimate strip searches are concerned. The searcher and the searched are dehumanised. Long Kesh was a loathsome, hateful place as well as a powder keg as the 1970s moved to the 1980s.

Edward Daly and Cardinal Ó Fiaich would later meet with the British government in an attempt to negotiate an end to the 1981 hunger strikes, in which ten prisoners died. He writes that the strikes worsened community divisions, and intensified violence, concluding: “I hope there will never again be a hunger strike in Ireland.”

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CONCENTRATION CAMP BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND SURVIVOR MARTIN COREY INTERNED 3 YEARS AGAIN

Martin Corey who served almost twenty years in Long Kesh Concentration Camp, British Occupied Ireland as a Political Prisoner, has been interned again without trial for the last three years. Martin was released in 199i but despite serving such a lengthy period as a Political Hostage, Martin remained dedicated to his beliefs as an Irish Republican and to his community.

More than three years ago the Lurgan Republican was wrongfully interned in Maghaberry Gaol again on the word of the British Secret Services, MI5. Martin Corey is not guilty of any crime. He simply believes in the re-unification of his country and has not been involved in any militant activity,since his release in 1992. It is not a crime to be Irish or peacefully demonstrate support for Eire Nua, unless you live in the scum state of British Occupied Ireland

The British are simply making an example of Martin, to strike fear in all those who would dare stand up for their human rights, particularly the thousands of ex-Political Prisoners after the peace process in Ireland who would support peaceful alternatives to provisional Sinn Fein. The British and their agents in the supposed free state are censoring peaceful working class alternatives to a united island of Ireland.


Those within the Nationalist and Republican community who have taken up seats in the British parliament of Stormont or on British paramilitary police boards, must ask themselves will they continue to be silent partners in these tactics of British repression. Last time internment was introduced, it started 40 years od war in Ireland and the Nationalist party of that time the SDLP walked out of the British parliament. Jim McIlmurray a totally non political friend wrote the following;"Martin Corey has spent three years in Maghaberry Prison without any charges ever being placed against him. During that time, police have never questioned or interviewed Martin regarding any incident, occurrence or event relating to his imprisonment.

So who is Martin Corey ?

Martin Corey is a 63 year old man who served more than 19 years of his life in Long Kesh Concentration Camp as a republican prisoner. He was released by the prison authorities in 1992 and began to rebuild his life. He is a popular figure from a well respected, hard-working family in the town.

It was a proud day for Martin when he was granted a loan to purchase his own mechanical digger. After a time, he gained the contract as the parish grave digger, covering several cemeteries in the greater Lurgan area. Many people, myself included, will recall his compassionate approach and professionalism during the time of families' bereavement.

In all the time I have known Martin, I have only known his interests to be his family, his friends and his love of coarse fishing.

On Friday, April 16th, 2010, the police arrived at his O’Neill’s Terrace home and told him they had a warrant for his arrest. Martin was brought to Lurgan PSNI station and later that day transferred to Maghaberry prison. It was stated he broke the terms of his Life Licence release. When his solicitor requested to know what Martin was alleged to have done, he was told it a matter of National Security and the subject of closed file information.

For the past three years, his solicitor and lawyers have challenged his unlawful detention on numerous occasions in the High Court. On Monday, the 9th of July, 2012, a High Court judge, Justice Seamus Tracy, who has a background in the European Human Rights Courts, ordered Martin’s immediate release, stating that his Human Rights had been breached under sections 4 and 5 of the European Human Rights act and that there were no charges for which he should answer. I waited for 4 hours outside Maghaberry with Martin’s family that day, only to be told at 4:15pm that the then current Secretary of State, Owen Patterson, had overruled the High Court judge and blocked Martin's release. I was 25 yards away from Martin when I received that call. I watched him step out of the prison van at the reception centre and watched him walk back to the van to be returned to his cell. As he got into the van, he paused and stared at me and that will always be one of the hardest and cruelest moments I have ever witnessed in my life.


Martin has a legal entitlement to an annual Parole Board review every twelve calendar months to reevaluate the reasons for his continued detention. I have been accepted to speak on Martin’s behalf; however, every date set for a hearing for Martin last year was followed by a cancellation by the Parole Board, citing numerous excuses. Martin hasn’t received a parole review in 18 months, an action deemed illegal by the Court of Human Rights in Strasburg. We are currently awaiting a date to take this case to the High Court for a judicial review.


Martin has been subjected to a number of incidents during his time in Maghaberry Prison. These incidents include waiting over three weeks for an emergency dental appointment; of note, a veterinarian would have a legal obligation to report a pet owner for cruelty if he found an animal to be suffering for that period. Also, Martin's request for compassionate leave to attend the funeral of his brother was denied by both the Prison Service and the Courts without any reasons given. He was only granted leave to attend 1 hour before the service started after a request was made to the Justice Minister on humanitarian grounds. I had to make three requests to the Prison Ombudsman to intervene in cases concerning material submitted by myself for Martin for use in his cell crafts. The prison staff either confiscated the printed image materials or refused to provide them to Martin. The Prison Ombudsman upheld all three decisions in Martin’s favour, ruling against the Northern Ireland Prison Service and determining that the material must be provided to Martin.

Martin’s case has been in the High Court in Belfast several times over the past three years, without any finding of criminal offence with which to charge him. Had Martin been charged with possession of an illegal firearm during his arrest three years previously, he would have been released six months ago. There is no other name for his illegal detention other than internment without trail.

As a close friend of Martin's, I am in a better position than most to know if he was ever involved in any activity that could be deemed illegal or “a threat to National Security”, a phrase often utilized by faceless, nameless individuals in the courts. I can say without fear of contradiction that Martin is an innocent man. Everyone should make their voice be heard and call upon the Secretary of State to either bring charges against him or release him immediately.

I speak to Martin by telephone on a daily basis and visit him regularly in Maghaberry Prison, and can assure everyone that his spirits remain high despite his total lack of confidence in the judicial system in the North of Ireland. He thanks everyone for their continued messages of support .

We are currently awaiting a date to attend the Court of Appeal in London to challenge his illegal detention. If unsuccessful there, we will take his case to the European Courts of Justice. We will continue our presence at the Belfast High Court to request the Parole Board to give an explanation as to why Martin has been denied his legal right to an annual Parole Review."

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Political Prisoner of Conscience 

British Occupied Ireland.

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IRISH DIALECTIC AT CUBAN SOCIALISM Release Martin Corey

"An Irish Form of Socialism" Ruairi O'Bradaigh, Traditional Irish Republican of the  "People of No Property" Wolfe Tone

Martin Corey in the above photo with Ruairi O' Bradaigh, is a retired 63 year old freedom fighter, now interned without trial for 3 years, after previously serving almost 20 years in Long Kesh Concentration Camp in British Occupied Ireland. 

Martin Corey is not guilty of any crime. He simply believes in the re-unification of his country and has not been involved in any militant activity, since his release in 1992. It is not a crime officially, to be Irish or peacefully demonstrate support for Eire Nua, unless you live in the scum state of British Occupied Ireland. 

The British are simply making an example of Martin, to strike fear in all those who would dare stand up for their human rights, particularly the thousands of ex-Political Prisoners after the peace process in Ireland who would support a peaceful alternative to provisional Sinn Fein.

The British and their agents in the supposed free state are censoring peaceful working class alternatives or a long overdue dialectic, formerly Republican congress, within the broad Irish republican movement to a peaceful, abundant, United island of Ireland for everyone. 

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Dialectic See Wikipedia Link the free encyclopedia

"Is amhlaidh atá Gaeil na haimsire seo agus a bhformhór ceannaithe ag Gallaibh. Ní heol dóibh gurab amhlaidh atá, ach is ea. Táid tar éis a díolta féin ar ór agus ar airgead nó ar luach óir agus airgid. Tá an fear saibhir tar éis é féin do dhíol ar mhórán, agus tá an fear daibhir tar éis é féin do dhíol ar bheagán".
Sin mar a scriobh an Piarsach sa bhliain 1912. Ach ní raibh sé gan dóchas, mar san alt céanna dúirt sé:
"Tá drong bheag de Ghaelaibh nach bhfuil ceannaithe agus is chucu sin atáimid".
Ní bhfuair Gaeil a saoirse i 1922 ná ó shin. Táid fós faoi cheannas Gall agus tá comharthaí agus torthaí an éigirt sin go follasach in Éirinn an lae inniu.

Le foilsiú an pholasaí seo ÉIRE NUA tá an Barr Bua á sheinm arís agus tá an meirge á ardú. Tá idir anailís agus treoir sa cháipéis seo. Déanaimis staidéar uirthi agus gríosaímis clanna Gael chun misnigh agus chun saohair 

A New Beginning

Ireland in its national experience is unique in western Europe. The country's history as a colony of England has left its mark on Irish political, social, economic and cultural life.

Though the Ireland we have inherited has all kinds of resources and great potential for national achievement, it is far from realising that potential. Ireland is marked by underdevelopment, unemployment, emigration, poverty on a large scale, and a huge national debt. These problems, serious enough in themselves, are magnified by the continuing conflict in the Six Counties, which also has its origins in Ireland's colonial history.

A realistic assessment of Ireland's condition in 2000 shows that we have enormous problems, two failed states, and a political system that perpetuates our plight. One great obstacle to changing all that is our lack of hope. Another major obstacle is the slave mentality engendered in many of our people by centuries of conquest.

Yet the ideal of an independent Irish republic -- the ideal proclaimed by the leaders of the 1916 Rising 80 years ago -- still inspires those who continue the struggle for national unity and freedom. From the wellsprings of that ideal we can draw hope, inspiration and determination to forge a New Ireland -- making a new beginning, based on sound principles and a realistic plan, through the Éire Nua programme.

This programme can be our instrument to build a sound future for our nation. The programme embraces all the people of Ireland; it provides for a system in which all creeds and traditions can be represented and all citizens can exercise real power, without any group infringing on the rights of others. The alternative to the forging of a New Ireland is to endure the present affliction -- perhaps in the blind hope that our politicians and their EU friends will somehow magically find ways to transform our present debilitated, impoverished and undemocratic society into a nation that is strong, prosperous and democratic. But what makes that a wholly unrealistic expectation is that these politicians, the system they sponsor, and the policies they sustain and operate, are themselves at the core of the problem that confronts us. We know from bitter experience that Ireland has no real future under the direction of such politicians.

The system of partition government in Ireland has been maintained since 1922, and since 1973 under the growing influence of the EU. It is an inescapable fact, on the supreme test of results, that this system has failed. It is time to think of radical change.

The Éire Nua programme provides for a strong provincial and local government in a federation of the four provinces, designed to ensure that every citizen can participate in genuinely democratic self-government, and to guarantee that no group can dominate or exploit another. Under this programme all traditions in Ireland can make a valuable contribution to the nation. The programme and its structures will make it possible to bring together all the positive forces in the country. Éire Nua will provide the basis for implementing progressive social, economic and cultural policies.

Like other peoples, the Irish have their virtues as well as their faults. Irish men and women have made their mark throughout the world in many fields of endeavour. They have contributed in great measure to the development of America, Canada, Australia, and other countries. The Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence inspired whole nations, particularly in Africa and Asia, to throw off the yoke of colonial oppression. In the light of these achievements, and of the spectacular recent advances of national rights and democracy in eastern Europe, it is tragic that the shackles still binding Ireland to its colonial past have prevented us from developing our nationhood.

So we must work to liberate the Irish people and establish a democratic system, based on justice and equal rights -- to build Éire Nua: a New Ireland . In that Ireland, Irish people will begin to experience real power in their own communities, with those communities serving as the foundation for a modern, pluralist Irish republic.

The programme is available for wide distribution, study and debate throughout the country and among our exiled children.

Éire Nua -- A new Ireland

Introduction

Irish people have demonstrated a native talent for formulating unusually effective policies for government and social administration. We have seen this, for example, in the Brehon Laws, which were in force in Ireland from the eighth to the sixteenth century, and in the dramatic influence exercised by the emigrant Irish on the constitutions and politics of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma, and various African states.

The creative political genius of the Irish has flourished abroad; sadly the same cannot be said for Ireland itself, especially during the years since 1922.

There is an Irish nation which is based on an organised society and distinctive culture, with roots stretching back more than 1,500 years. This Irish nation has long endured invasion and colonisation by a more powerful neighbour. For more than 800 years the Irish people have heroically resisted this aggression and each generation handed on the torch of liberty to the next. Over the centuries the descendants of many of those who came as conquerors were assimilated and were accepted as Irish. Some of the Anglo-Norman families, for instance, became "more Irish than the Irish themselves" and have made an enormous contribution to Irish life, including the struggle for freedom.

Irish Republicanism has its roots in the desire for separation from England and the right of the Irish people to the ownership and control of their own country. Since the 1790s it has developed and evolved on the basis, not merely of separatism, but also of democracy and inclusivity based on the Rights of Man.

In the great Rising of 1798 large numbers of Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters fought side by side as United Irishmen to break the connection with England and establish an Irish Republic. That effort to achieve freedom and equality was brutally suppressed and the Act of Union creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was enacted in 1800. Throughout the nineteenth century it was a deliberate policy of English governments to cultivate loyalty to the Crown as well as bigotry and Orangeism among the mass of the Protestant people. They found allies also among some of the emerging Catholic professional and merchant classes. The unionists of Ulster (nine Counties) were allowed to exercise a veto over the demand of the majority of the Irish people for Home Rule and later for an Irish Republic.

From 1798 on the Republican non-sectarian position was resolutely maintained by men and women of vision and courage. The Irish Republic proclaimed in arms in 1916 was endorsed by a solid majority vote of the Irish people in 1918 and the first Dáil Éireann, embracing all 32 Counties, was established in 1919. England's response was to declare the Irish parliament illegal and to unleash forces of terror on the Irish people and their institutions.

The Republic guaranteed "religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens . . . cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past" (1916 Proclamation).

From 1916 to 1921 the Irish Republic was stoutly defended against English forces and a civil administration was organised. Under threat of "immediate and terrible war" and with the compliance of a section of the Republican Movement, Ireland was partitioned and Ulster was divided in 1921-22.

The legal instrument used to achieve this was the Westminster Government of Ireland Act 1920. The two States which exist in Ireland today date from that time. The Six-County State was created by arbitrarily dividing the historic province of Ulster, based on a sectarian head-count, designed to produce a permanent unionist majority within the 'United Kingdom' -- now "of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Thus was the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 and democratically endorsed in 1918 overthrown and two Partition States established to supplant it.

As we enter the twenty-first century, Ireland is a divided country. Six counties, containing nearly one-third of the total population of Ireland, are under an English administration whose power in Ireland is maintained by heavily armed forces of occupation. These two Partition States have been marked by emigration, poverty and economic imbalance over the decades since 1922. Normal democracy has been impossible in the artificial Six-County State. Political instability and repressive laws, a paramilitary police force, gerrymandering of electoral boundaries and discrimination in employment and housing have all been used to ensure that this part of Ireland remains within the 'United Kingdom'.

During the many centuries of English rule Ireland was administered as an integral political unit. In 1918, in the last all-Ireland election, the Irish people voted overwhelmingly for the political unity and sovereignty of Ireland. The rejection of unionism by the vast majority of Irish people is again clearly shown in the map, based on the results of the 1997 Six-County local elections.

A new electoral map of the Six Counties

This map gives a visual impression of the very extensive nationalist rejection of union with Britain. Even within unionist majority areas there is a considerable and often strong anti-union vote -- in the region of 39 per cent in Belfast and Craigavon and as high as 45 per cent in Armagh.

When this map is placed where it belongs -- within a map of the thirty-two counties of Ireland -- the unionist enclave is revealed for what it is: a small area in north-eastern Ireland.

Yet from its north-eastern redoubt the unionist minority has exercised for nearly eighty years a sweeping veto over the political will of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people. This anti-democratic faction is underpinned in its power in the north-east by the guarantees of the Westminster government. In the Hillsborough Agreement of 1985 and again in the Belfast Agreement of 1998 this minority veto was guaranteed by the Dublin administration as well, in further violation of Ireland's 32-County sovereignty.

A failed arrangement

The failure of the Partition arrangement is evident from nearly eighty years of "the nationalist nightmare" in the north-east -- occupation, repression, thought control, economic stagnation and emigration and from the British government's abolition of the Six-County Stormont parliament in 1972. Subsequent solutions, such as the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement and the 1985 Hillsborough Agreement, have underlined the failure of Partition.

The current policy, based on the Belfast Agreement signed at Stormont on April 10, 1998, seeks to make the artificial Six-County State work within the 'UK' by an elaborate and convoluted system that has been labelled "power-sharing". Since this agreement did not address the basic problem of English rule in Ireland it was flawed from the start. It was sold to the electorate as a basis for a permanent peace, which it could not deliver. It was dishonest, in that it was sold to unionists as a deal to consolidate the union with England and simultaneously urged on nationalists as something which would weaken the union and lead to a united Ireland. And the unionist veto was endorsed, allowing 18% of the population of Ireland to dictate the political progress of the other 82% and therefore of the nation as a whole. As in the case of the Treaty of Surrender in 1921 this Agreement was put to the people as a question of war or peace. Accordingly it was not a free vote; also, a majority in the Six Counties was stated to be decisive for all Ireland.

English rule in Ireland is an injustice, an infringement of Irish national sovereignty, which can be ended only by an administration in Westminster which decides to disengage and withdraw from Ireland. Anything less than such a disengagement will only prolong the political instability and lead inevitably to further armed resistance.

The 26-County State has cooperated in the deception of the Belfast Agreement and has thus sought to legitimise foreign rule in Ireland. Some 26-County politicians hanker after a return to membership of the British Commonwealth. In all of this they are aided and abetted by individuals of wealth and influence, and by some people in the media. These same politicians operate a "clientelist" system; public office is achieved and maintained by buying people's allegiance, trading favours for votes. Corruption in finance, politics and physical planning is rife and the resultant public cynicism has led to a decline in the exercise of the franchise by citizens who feel increasingly powerless.

This culture of corruption is a consequence, not merely of personal dishonesty on the part of certain individuals, but also of the highly centralised nature of the 26-County State, whereby decisions affecting the everyday life of communities are placed in the hands of an elite cadre of politicians and bureaucrats.

Enormous sums of money have been borrowed to perpetuate this system and this has created one of the highest per capita debts in the world. There has also been a deterioration in the Irish public services -- health, education and social welfare. Disillusion and frustration with the prevailing conditions have led in some sectors to a near-breakdown of social order, particularly among young people in urban areas. The Irish people deserve better government than this. They deserve leaders who are imbued with sound moral values and who are interested in genuine public service, rather than self-aggrandisement and power for the sake of power. Our long struggle for freedom provides us with endless examples of selfless men and women who dedicated their lives to the welfare of our people.

Cultural and economic consequences

These problems have been compounded by policies of cultural deprivation, with Irish identity and the Irish language deliberately downgraded. The only culture many young Irish people know is a commercialised Anglo-American pop culture, and they are denied access to any real knowledge of Ireland's long history of struggle for freedom. For years now the people of the 26 Counties have been paying more per capita for the maintenance of the Six-County Border than have the people of Britain. Yet the continued British presence in the North, and British influence in the South, have brought only tragedy and a scandalous waste of resources.

The Partition of Ireland led to a dissipation of scarce resources north and south. There has been no unified long-term capital investment in areas like energy, education, health and industry; there has been great duplication of expenditure. The impact of Partition on areas of Ireland along the British-imposed Border has been particularly injurious.

British systems of government and economic management, inappropriate for a country of our size and economic condition, have been slavishly perpetuated, north and south, since Partition. Other small countries in Europe, some with fewer natural resources than Ireland's, have made great economic strides in modern times, particularly since WWII, and have achieved high standards of living for their people. The unemployment, poverty and emigration the Irish have experienced would be completely unacceptable in Sweden, Switzerland or Finland; they should also be unacceptable here.

EU membership

Our problems were magnified when both states were led into full membership of the so-called "European Community". Such membership was unsuited to a country at our early stage of economic development -- the result of Ireland's being a British colony for centuries. No modern nation has managed to bring itself from underdevelopment to full development in circumstances of unrestricted free trade -- a situation that in Ireland's case is compounded by continued foreign occupation.

Under the Act of Union of 1800 Ireland lost half its population and suffered dire poverty and stunted growth. In the early twentieth century Ireland attempted to break entirely with Britain; but under the Partition arrangement the malign influence of British power has persisted for nearly eighty years. This influence persists within the neo-colonial framework of the EU.

Since 1972, when we were promised "markets in Europe and jobs at home", native manufacturing industries, never designed to withstand competition from heavily bankrolled multinational European industries, have been shut down. EU agricultural policy has resulted in elimination of family farms, with detrimental social consequences for rural communities.

Agricultural policy is almost totally dictated by Brussels. It has favoured the wealthier farmers and has even ordered Irish citizens to take some of their land out of production. So many have now left the land that schools and post offices are being closed down and some rural parishes even have difficulty in fielding a sporting team. This has all undermined people's idea of self-sufficiency, and the resultant movement to urban areas has increased the culture of dependency, creating new problems in the towns and cities.

Sinn Féin Poblachtach regards the European Union, as it has developed and continues to develop, as a modern form of imperialism.

It serves the interests, above all, of big business and the super-rich. Corruption is rampant there also as we saw in 1999 when the whole EU Commission had to resign. It is undemocratic in its institutions and it is overcentralising; in this it runs counter to the Republican aims of increasing the democratic power of citizens and decentralising decision-making to manageable units where all citizens can participate in a meaningful way.

It is sometimes remarked that the EU has promoted progressive policies in Ireland, like equal pay for equal work and protection of the environment. These are steps which any Irish administration could have taken at any time. Our standards should be even higher than those imposed by Brussels.

The Celtic Tiger economy has served to provide more jobs, but those who benefit most from it are those who are already rich. In recent years the gap between rich and poor has widened. There is more social exclusion and rates of real poverty and illiteracy are actually getting worse. A crisis in housing our people is with us.

Whatever economic improvements we have witnessed have been brought about by the transfer of structural and other funds by the EU and by the driving force in economic development which is based on encouraging multinational companies to locate in Ireland. This is not the solid foundation on which to build a national economy.

Too many people have been left on the margins of society and a sub-culture of poverty has been generated. Economic development based on inward investment by multinational companies means that there is no indigenous input and there are no roots in the communities. The factors which sustain such an economy are totally beyond the control of the Irish people.

(The Sinn Féin Poblachtach perspective on social and economic questions is presented in our policy document SAOL NUA.)

Sinn Féin Poblachtach recognises the enormous influence of modern technology, especially mass communications which have made the world smaller. We also recognise the interdependence of peoples and our duty to play a positive role in international affairs. But an over-emphasis on economic development, based on a rapacious exploitation of the world's finite resources and measured by growth in GNP, is inadequate. Recent United Nations Human Development Reports on Ireland have shown just how deficient such an approach is, resulting in social exclusion, poverty and illiteracy, which in turn denies many thousands of people the rights of full citizenship and leads to escalating crime.

Both states in Ireland boast of increasing the number of police and building new prisons. The suicide rate has been growing at an alarming rate. These are hardly the signs of a healthy community.

Ireland, with its historic experience of English colonisation and exploitation, has much in common with former European colonies in the Third World. We can best serve the interests of our own people and of humankind by maintaining a principled non-aligned stance in international affairs, avoiding military alliances and promoting the cancellation of Third World debt. Our democratic and egalitarian principles and our own long struggle for national independence should lead us to promote human rights and the liberation of people everywhere.

A new beginning

The following proposals indicate ways to remedy Ireland's weakened and wasted conditions and gradually bring the nation to its full health. These proposals aim to abolish the failed, undemocratic system of Partition rule, and to replace this with a democratic system based on the unity and sovereignty of the Irish people, as well as on their right as free citizens to equal treatment and equal opportunity. After decades of armed conflict and political turmoil -- and given the clear failure of the British-model systems now in operation to provide adequate and improving standards of living -- there is an obligation on all Irish people to work together to find a new, constructive way forward. Our nation is made up of diverse traditions, each of which can make a valuable and positive contribution to the community as a whole.

The structures which we propose are designed to embrace and include all the people of Ireland, on the basis of "cherishing all the children of the nation equally". Dáil Uladh and the regional and local structures in Ulster will ensure that both unionists and nationalists can have access to power -- real power.

A federal structure involves a sharing of sovereignty, and Dáil Uladh would have more power than the old Stormont ever had. Similarly in the other three provinces, all communities and citizens would have access to real power.

What we seek to establish is a pluralist participative democracy with appropriate structures at every level in society. When the malign influence of Westminster rule is removed at last a New Ireland can be fashioned by the Irish people themselves, of all persuasions. A federal system, with strong regional and local government, will make it possible for unionists and nationalists to co-operate in the common interest, pooling the talents of all and working together to build a new and prosperous Ireland.

As we enter the twenty-first century it is finally time for the Irish people to apply their undoubted creative genius, and the talent for government that they have so often demonstrated abroad, to the needs of the Irish nation at home.

Proposed Governmental Structures

The object of Sinn Féin Poblachtach is to establish a new society in Ireland: Éire Nua. To achieve that, the structures of undemocratic partition rule must be abolished; they must be replaced with entirely new structures based on the unity of the Irish people as a whole. The new system would embody two main features:

1. a new constitution;
2. a new government structure.

A new constitution

The new constitution would provide for;

1. a Charter of Rights, to secure for citizens effective control of their conditions of living, subject to the common good;
2. a structure of government designed to provide the maximum distribution of authority at provincial and subsidiary level;
3. the right of Ireland to join international organisations -- eg the United Nations, the World Health Organisation -- so long as such organisations do not subvert Irish sovereignty or neutrality.

Draft Charter of Rights

A Charter of Rights would be formulated, along these lines:

We the people of Ireland are resolved to establish political sovereignty, to secure human justice and social progress in this island, to achieve a better life for all, and henceforth to live in peace with one another. And so we declare our adherence to the following principles: Article 1. Every citizen is born free and equal and shares the same inherent human dignity. Everyone is entitled to the rights of citizenship without distinction as to race, sex religion, philosophical conviction, language or political outlook. Article 2. Every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest of detention. Article 3. Every citizen has the right to freedom of conscience, to free choice and practice of religion, and to the free and open teaching of ethical and political beliefs. This includes the rights to freedom of assembly, the right to peaceable association, the right to petition, and the right to freedom of expression and communication. Article 4. Every citizen has the right to participate in the government of the country, and to equal access to its public service. Article 5. The basis of government is the will of the people. This is expressed in direct participatory democracy and free elections by secret ballot. The right of every citizen to follow his or her conscience, and to express his or her personal opinion, stands against any demographically contrived attempt at repression. Article 6. Every citizen has the right to education according to personal ability, the right to work, and the right to a standard of living worthy of a free human being. This right extends to food, housing and medical care, and to security against unemployment, illness, and disability. Article 7. Every citizen has the right to marry and found a family. Mothers, children, the aged and infirm deserve the nation's particular care and attention. Article 8. Every citizen has the right to equal pay for equal work, and the right to join a trade union for the protection of workers' collective interests, and these rights must be acknowledged by all employers. Article 9. In the exercise of their rights, citizens shall be subject only to such constraints as may be necessary to ensure recognition and respect for the rights of others and the welfare of the larger community.

It is intended that the European Convention on Human Rights, promulgated on November 4, 1950 in twenty-one countries, be made part of the internal domestic law of the New Ireland.

Governmental structures

The system outlined here envisions a federation of the four provinces of Ireland under the co-ordination of a national parliament, with powers devolved through regional administrative councils to local bodies, so that at all levels citizens may have an effective voice in their own governance. 

Dáil Éireann

The New Ireland will have a national parliament, to which all citizens of the thirty-two counties will give common allegiance, and which will embody the unity and sovereignty of the nation as a whole. This parliament -- a true Dáil Éireann -- will have the responsibility of protecting the nation's interests at home and abroad. All its actions will be governed by a constitution freely adopted by the majority of the people of the country. 

Provincial government

Decentralised local government will be fundamental to the new system.

The four traditional provinces -- Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connacht -- have emerged as definite regions within the island of Ireland, with distinctive characteristics. Irish people in any region will be found to have a natural affinity -- in culture, sport and economic interest -- with those of their own province and county.

Uniting the historic province of Ulster will help eliminate the sectarian divisions of the past and realise the full potential for development of separated counties -- especially Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Monaghan. The people of the long-neglected province of Connacht will find power to escape from their isolation. The people of the provinces of Leinster and Munster will be able to pursue policies that will secure them a more equitable and balanced form of development. 

Regional boards

Regional boards will plan and oversee the economic, social and cultural development of areas within their jurisdiction. They will be served by secretariats employing modern means of administration while ensuring attention to and care for the problems of all the people of the region. 

District councils

District councils will give people a direct voice in their own local governance, ensuring that their public representatives are more closely accountable to the electorate. 

Community councils

Community councils will give people the opportunity to improve conditions at parish level.

It is proposed that -- to signify the beginning of a new era and the unity of the country around its geographic centre -- Athlone be made the capital city of the New Ireland.

National or federal parliament

The national parliament, Dáil Éireann -- which will also be a federal parliament in that it will be drawn from the federation of Ireland's four constituent provinces -- will consist of a single chamber of about a hundred deputies, elected 50 per cent by direct universal suffrage according to the proportional representation system and 50 per cent in equal numbers from each provincial parliament. Each deputy (TD) would represent about 25,000 voters. The precise figure would be based on the ratio between the density of population of an electoral district and its geographical area.

Dáil Éireann will be representative of the whole of Ireland and elected by the suffrage of all its citizens. It will be the supreme national authority, acting in trust for the people. Its primary duty would be to uphold the Constitution and Charter of Rights adopted by the Irish people.

The national parliament, Dáil Éireann, will have the following special responsibilities:

1. defending the nation, physically and politically;
2. upholding the interests of the Irish people, and representing their concern for other people, in any international forum;
3. formulating Irish foreign policy, maintaining Irish neutrality and independence from all power blocs, including the EU, and seeking to secure a nuclear-free world; and
4. protecting and promoting Irish culture, language and literature.

Functions of the national parliament:

1. the national parliament will control all powers and functions essential to the good of the nation;
2. the national parliament will elect a President, who will serve as both Prime Minister and head of state;
3. the national parliament will elect a Government, consisting of a limited number of ministers nominated by the President;
4. the national parliament will secure the independence of the Supreme Court and of the judicial system as guardian of the Constitution;
5. the national parliament will initiate national legislation, through any of the following agencies:
   • its own deputies,
   • the central Government,
   • a provincial parliament, or
   • an initiative;
6. The national parliament will adopt national legislation, either
   • directly, through its own deputies, or
   • by initiative in specified cases;
7. the national parliament will oversee collection of the federal revenue.

Provincial parliaments or assemblies

Assemblies or parliaments will be established for each of the four provinces. The representatives will be elected by the people of each province according to a system of proportional representation.

The functions of the provincial parliament will be:

• to co-ordinate activity and development in the various regions in the province, with particular care for the unique character of the Gaeltacht areas;
• to initiate and promote legislation for the social, economic and cultural development of the people within the region, with the right to initiative; and
• to co-ordinate the development and expansion of third-level education;
• to collect provincial revenue.

Regional boards

Regional boards will be established to promote and co-ordinate the economic, social and cultural affairs of clearly defined regions. The regional development board would be a single chamber consisting of:

1. representatives of district councils within the region concerned, elected according to a system of proportional representation, and
2. expert representatives appointed by the provincial parliament.

The regional board would have the following responsibilities:

1. to assess and co-ordinate the work of district councils in their regions;
2. to provide for hospitalisation and care of the young, aged and infirm;
3. to supervise regional planning;
4. to plan for economic growth;
5. to provide for cultural development.

The following regions are suggested:

• Connacht -- two regions: North Connacht, consisting of Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo and the Boyle and Ballaghaderreen county electoral areas of Roscommon; and South Connacht, consisting of Galway, the remainder of Roscommon and the Claremorris/Ballinrobe area of Mayo plus the Gaeltacht are of Tuar Mhic Eide in South Mayo.
• Munster -- four regions: Cork city and environs, South Munster, consisting of Kerry and North and West Cork; East Munster, consisting, consisting of South Tipperary, Waterford and East Cork; and North Munster, consisting of North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.
• Leinster -- four regions: Midlands, consisting of Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly; East Leinster, consisting of South Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow; Greater Dublin; and South Leinster, consisting of Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny.
• Ulster -- four regions: East Ulster, consisting of Antrim, East Derry, East Tyrone, North Armagh, and North and East Down; South Ulster, consisting of Cavan, Monaghan, part of Fermanagh, South Down, South Armagh and North Louth; Greater Belfast; and West Ulster, consisting of Donegal, Derry City and the Faughan and Limavady districts of County Derry, the Strabane and Omagh districts of County Tyrone, and most of County Fermanagh.
• All Gaeltacht districts would constitute a Gaeltacht Region.

Each region will be served by a fully staffed secretariat.

District councils

A district council will consist of a single chamber elected by the people of a clearly defined area covering a population of 10,000 to 40,000 people.

District councils will have the following areas of responsibility:

• the welfare and security of the community and the application of the law in a humane and just manner;
• primary and secondary education;
• job creation, regulations governing employment and standards of work, trading practices, etc;
• local planning and environmental development;
• agriculture, fishing, and small industry;
• health centres, youth and recreational development;
• housing and control of rented accommodation;
• social welfare and social services.

Each district council will have a secretariat, where all services would be provided under the same roof.

Community councils

Community councils will be voluntary bodies, representing close-knit communities based on parishes or other suitable centres, such as a district electoral area. To ensure the welfare of their people and the good of their communities, community councils will have the right of audience at all district council meetings.

Please note: The above proposals are not definitive; they can and inevitably will be modified. Sinn Féin Poblachtach would in fact welcome constructive criticism of these proposals.

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Martin Corey 

Interned Irish Political Prisoner of Conscience in 

British Occupied Ireland

THE GREAT BRITISH BANK ROBBERY OF IRELAND

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael who pushed the Irish Bailout sold Ireland down the IMF river, to bail out City of London Rothchild bondholders and giant Rothchild European banks. Both Irish governments have told and still tell the Irish people, that the bailout is all for our own good. Ireland and its people are now another nation of IMF debt slaves for  the international banking cartels. Goldman Sachs and Rothschild & Compagnie are the main beneficiaries, with both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael Governments elected by the Irish people, to protect the people's interests, being sold down the river, with political economic treachery, taking care of their own interests and banker election backers instead.

Anglo-Irish Bank never wast a systemic risk to the Irish economy, because it wasn’t a high street bank like AIB and the Bank of Ireland. If it was allowed to go bankrupt like Lehmans, only the shareholders and bondholders would lose. The Irish Governments of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour supported and nationalised a bank of crooked lenders to property speculators of the housing bubble.

Ireland’s political establishment are protecting foreign investors, Anglo-Irish bondholders at the expense of the Irish people and its future generations? These are the only people Ireland’s politicians care about: The plain people of Ireland are paying and protecting the wealth and power of  people with more than a 100 times more wealth than the whole nation of Ireland!

Aside from the City of London who benefit most from the 'bail out' of Ireland, are the elite bondholders, like other parts of the the Rothschild family, scattered all over Europe were, Jean-Claude Trichet (Rothschild Zionist) at the European Central Bank and Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Rothschild Zionist) of the IMF. So the banks that caused the crash in Ireland, to which the Rothschild Zionists in power are 'responding' for their own benefit, were also invariably controlled, ultimately, by another branch of the Rothschild Zionists in Europe.

Bottom line Goldman Sachs were fundamentally responsible for the crash of 2008, with its former Chairperson and CEO, Henry 'Hank' Paulson, just installed as US Treasury Secretary who started the bank bailout policy, with massive benefit to Goldman Sachs at the end of the Bush era. Goldman Sachs were also directly involved in the collapse, that started the 'euro panic' that engulfed Ireland. Rothschild Zionist secret society network  have everything stitched up with the Rothschild Zionist secret network having agents in governments, the banking system, the IMF, and control through ownership of the world's mainstream media.

The Rothschilds control banking, stock markets, commodity markets, currency valuation, the price of gold, the lot. The City of London is controlled by 'investor confidence' by those who control the media, government and central bank financial statements and move trillions around the world's financial markets every day. This is the Rothschilds and their banking, political, media, policing, lackeys.

Rothschild Zionism is at the elite secret, rotten core, who are NOT agents of the Jewish people but agents of  a secret society, that has manipulated the Jewish people for centuries just like they have manipulated the Irish people, who also suffered a holocaust, where millions of its population were wiped off the face of the earth.

Currently the British version of AIPAC, is the Friends of Israel network, in every major political party. Over 80-per-cent of Members of Parliament in the now ruling Tory Party, are members of the Friends of Israel, which has the stated aim of supporting anything that is good ffor the Rothschilds, who own Israel. Current British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is a Rothschild Zionist, in a country with a Jewish population of 280,000 in a total population of 62 million. These are the people who are destroying the Irish Peace Process by re-introducing internment without trial simply because there is more money in war and armaments than in peace and extends there secret network even further, within the expanding British SS based on the terror narrative they create.

The key manipulating force in the previous UK governments of Tony Blair was Peter Mandelson  another Rothschild Zionist. The Rothschilds controlled Blair in the same way they controlled Bill Clinton and George W. Bush going into wars urged on by Israeli the Rothschilds..It was the secret worldwide, Rothschild network, that orchestrated the very profitable invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the War of Terror and its justification, September 11th. In analysing  all of this it is critically important to distinguish between ordinary, decent, good Jewish people and these Zionists, the article link below explains this. This is of critical importance, so that we do not repeat the racist crimes of the past and engage in anti-semitism.

brionOcleirigh


The History Of The House Of Rothschild