Special Branch thugs assault éirígí election workers in Ballyfermot

éirígí press statement:

On Thursday evening (February 6) two éirígí election workers were assaulted by a member of the Garda Special Detective Unit – more commonly known as the ‘Special Branch’.  The assaults mark a significant escalation in the ongoing campaign of harassment of éirígí activists by the Dublin government’s political police.

The incident occurred at 20.50 on Claddagh Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin as three éirígí activists finished up delivering local election material to homes in the area.  As the trio, Scott Masterson, Daithí O’Riain and Dónall Ó Ceallaigh were walking along Claddagh Road a Red Ford Mondeo, registration number 04 D 1915, approached the footpath at speed before coming to a dramatic halt.

As the vehicle came to a halt the passenger shouted at the three activists through his open window.  As the passenger did not identify himself the three activists sensibly continued to walk onwards.The passenger then attempted to exit the Mondeo, again shouting as he did so. It was at this point that the individual first identified himself as a Garda. In his haste to exit the vehicle the as yet unidentified individual tripped and stumbled. 

Having recovered his footing the individual then proceeded to firmly grab Scott Masterson by his two biceps and forcibly attempted to push him backwards, an effort which Masterson peacefully resisted.

During this unprovoked assault the individual was continuously shouting and demanding Masterson’s name in a very aggressive manner.  When asked by Masterson to produce identification to confirm that he was a Garda, as all plain-clothes Gardai are required to do, the individual said that he would not.  Masterson then informed the individual that he would not reveal his name until

Public talk: Oliver Bond and the King-killers of Pill Lane, the dissenters of Church St, 1798

 

Fergus Whelan is the author of Dissent Into Treason, a book about “the hidden history of the Protestant Dissenters whose Dublin congregations were established by officers of Cromwell’s army and who went on to contribute their republican ideas to the revolutionary movement established in 1791, the United Irishmen.”

4.30pm, Saturday, February 15

Cobblestone Pub

Smithfield

Organised by Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project

Rocky road to Dublin

Here’s a glorious version by the wonderful Damien Dempsey, played at a tribute to Luke Kelly:

Mapping out the future – the éirígí perspective

Brendan Mac Cionnaith

On Wednesday (29 January) éirígí Rúnaí Ginearálta Breandán Mac Cionnaith was contacted by the Irish News to outline the party’s views on the challenges facing modern-day republicanism and on certain recent statements made by prominent former IRA prisoners.  A written response was provided to the Irish News that same afternoon.  While the Irish News has yet to publish the response supplied by Breandán to that paper, so éirígí have published it on their website.  The text of the response to the Irish News request for the party’s view is below:

éirígí is an open, independent, democratic political party.

éirígí is not aligned to, or supportive of, any armed organisation and by extension is not supportive of the armed actions of such organisations.  Since its foundation in 2006 éirígí has argued that the conditions simply do not exist for the prosecution of a successful armed struggle.

Over the course of the last eight years éirígí has been repeatedly asked to join the right-wing, reactionary chorus of condemnation of republican armed actions.  We have refused to do so because we understand that forty years of the politics of condemnation have achieved nothing.  We further understand that engagement and influence are far more useful than sound-bite condemnations.

Instead of pointless condemnation, we have chosen to put forward our critique of modern Ireland and the role that republicans can play in shaping positive change, in the belief that ever greater numbers of people will be won over to that position.  We have advanced our critique both in public and in private.

It is clear that there are those republicans who do not agree with éirígí’s analysis of the current objective conditions.  It is equally clear that there still are men and women from both sides of the border willing to engage in armed actions.  As has been the case in the past, those actions need to be seen in the context of partition and the imposition of a deeply unjust socio-economic order.  Armed political actions are a symptom of that disease and not the cause.

Without addressing the root cause of conflict in Ireland, it seems certain that there will be people willing to resist British political interference, partition and injustice through armed means.  Simple recognition of that fact does not equate to either condoning or condemning those individuals or their actions.

At the time of éirígí’s establishment, the party asserted that a Democratic Socialist Republic could only be achieved through the establishment of a