Tarnishing Memories

As the 34th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands approaches Thomas Dixie Elliot ridicules the Sinn Fein pretence to be carrying on in the tradition of the men who died on hunger strike in 1981.  Thomas Dixie Elliot is a writer and artist. As a former republican prisoner he took part in the prolonged blanket protest in the H-Blocks.


How the other 9 Hunger Strikers have been forgotten as Adamsite Sinn Fein continues to cling tightly to the courage and sacrifice of Brave Bobby Sands.

Somehow fooling themselves that men died on Hunger Strike so that one day Martin McGuinness might dine with the British Queen and say she inspired him.

That one day Mitchel McLaughlin might sit on a Commonwealth Committee.

That one day Gerry Kelly would state that he had no problem with informers.

That one day Sinn Fein might push through Tory Cuts instead of having the guts to bring down Stormont.

That one day Sinn Fein would rely on British funding to buy the loyalty of party members.

No one died for this. It is not the legacy of Bobby Sands nor of his comrades. Modern Sinn Fein is certainly not the party envisioned by Bobby Sands just as the modern Irish Labour Party is not the party of James Connolly's ideals.

If we as Republicans truly aspire to the ideals of our dead, then we must begin by taking them back from those who have tarnished their memories. We must be unified in remembering them instead of taking turns at doing so. Without Unity we can never achieve the ultimate Unity, that of our people and our country.

And I for one won't hesitate to question the motives of those who shy away from unity, especially in remembering our dead.

5 comments:

  1. Well said Dixie

    Bobby Sands did not visualize Sinn Fein's journey to celebrating the diamond jubilee of a foreign monarch when he stood for election in 1981, had he done so he would still be alive today.

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  2. Dixie I can't begin to imagine how it might feel for those of you that did the hard time on the blanket and participated in the most prolonged of prison protests or to be able to make any great sense of it all looking back.
    To see these cock of the walk pretenders strutting their stuff must seem totally unbelievable and hard to stomach.

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  3. Thank you, Mr. Elliot. It is so rare to get such honest observations about Ireland's recent past. The cover ups and impunities continue for Britain's massacres in Ireland; Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy, MI5/FBI's Omagh, Dublin/Monaghan, McGurk's Pub, Loughinisland, MIami Show Band, all, all privileged crimes.
    Sad, that for the first time in history Britain has managed to buy off much of Irish-America; especially its news media.
    But their suppression of the truth is ending. If only the following would unite; RSF, IRB, 1916 Societies, 32CSM, the so-called dissidents, also Ireland's Independent pols like Padraig McShane, Mick Wallace, and Claire Daly; also Bernadette McAliskey, Tommy McKearney, and their new cohorts such as John Crawley and Dixie Elliot. Irish-America must cleanse itself of the sell-out Friends of Sinn Fein and the Adamsite branches of Cng and INA. There is work to do both here and in Ireland.

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  4. This article moved me to tears,so correct,may God forgive them

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