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I have sent the letter to the following newspapers.
The Irish News, the Derry Journal, Belfast Media, the Strabane Chronicle, the Mid Ulster Mail and the Newry Reporter.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.
The Criminalising of INLA Hunger Striker Patsy O'Hara.
We, the undersigned Blanketmen and Women, are appalled that a young Republican, Christopher 'Crippy' Dillon from Derry has been charged for wearing a commemorative T-shirt bearing the name of INLA Volunteer Patsy O'Hara who died on hunger strike Forty-five years ago in 1981.
Christopher was then jailed for breaking his bail conditions because he had been stopped by the PSNI while on his way to support the residents of Garvaghy Road.
Patsy and his nine comrades, Bobby, Francis, Raymond, Joe, Martin, Kevin, Kieran, Thomas and Michael, paid the ultimate sacrifice when they died on hunger strike resisting the attempted criminalisation of the Republican Struggle by the British government - led for the most part by Margaret Thatcher.
Charging anyone for wearing a commemorative T-shirt bearing the image of any of these ten brave men has to be seen as an attempt at criminalising them again forty-five years after their deaths.
This must be resisted, as failure to do so is failing all ten hunger strikers. It will eventually lead to criminal charges being brought against anyone who wears a T-shirt bearing the image of any of these brave men.
Antoin O’Hara H5 - Thomas Dixie Elliott H3 - Gerard Hodgins H5
Seamus Meenan H5 - Gary McNally H3 - Phillie O'Neill H5
Sam Millar H5 - Hugh McCann H4 - John Nixon H5
Seán Fay H5 - Peter McGowan H5 - Gina McElroy A3 Armagh jail
Alex McCrory H4 - Sean Fitzsimons H4 - Johnny Gilmore H4
Frankie Doherty (RIP) H5 (added by his son Orann who said his late father would have wanted it included)
Patrick Stumpy McCourt H5 - Ned Kelly H3 - Niall Kerr H4
Gerry Donnelly H4 - John Hunter H5 - Antoin de Brún H4
Seán Boyle H4 - Nuke Toal H4 - Dan Daly H5
Tony Campbell H5 - Maurice McGibbon H4 - Anthony McIntyre H4
Tommy Crosgrove H5 - Geraldo McDade H3 - Sean Laverty H5
Tommy McKearney H3 - Thomas Starrs H4 – Séamus Kearney H4
Éamonn Mac Con Midhe H5 - Teddy Crane H5 - T Fitzsimmons H4
Damien Fields H4 - Tony Duncan H4 - Richard O'Rawe H3
Gary McCool H4 - Don Mulholland H3 - Ultan Mc Nulty H4
Gerald McDade (Geraldo) H3 – Willie ‘Deek’ Johnston (RIP) H3 (signed on his behalf by his brother Patsy) – Tommy Gorman H6 (added by his wife Anne as he is ill)
Pádraic Mac Coitir H5 – Albert Allen H4 – Colm Scullion H3
Colm O’Neill H3 – Joe Bonner H4
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| Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman. Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie |
Such actions carried out by the stae, both jurisdictions, must be resisted. It should tell all of us the dangerous direction liberal democracy is going and the forecast it "will eventually lead to criminal charges being brought against anyone who wears a T. Shirt bearing the image" of any hunger strikers even those of long gone days not just the 1981 brave lads is well founded. Such actions, unchecked, have a nasty history of becoming accepted as part of societies everyday social fabric. The twenty-six-county administration did little enough to condem Thatcher while Irish Political Prisoners were on the ultimate protest and now they'll in all liklihood do nothing to prevent the British authorities from persecuting, as that is where we are heading, supporters of the lads who sacrificed their lives in 1981. Oh, before I forget, does the Good Friday Agreement, sold to all of us as the finest attainable, give the wearers of T. shirts supporting the hunger strikers any protection? A pointless and equally stupid question I suppose!
ReplyDeleteOne could mistake the Legacy Act as only intended to 'forget and forgive' crimes, including murders, committed by members of the security forces.
ReplyDelete