Oppose Britain’s State of Repression

06/08/09

In the early hours of August 9 1971, 400 Irish citizens were woken to the sound of armoured jeeps, smashing glass and hysterically abusive British soldiers invading the privacy of their homes.

Internment, the system of legalised injustice habitually used by Britain and its Irish allies to keep the status quo secure, was on.

What followed in Palace Barracks and other holding centres across the North was later lambasted by the European Court of Human Rights. Violence and the threat of violence was the order of the day for the majority of vulnerable internees, while a select few were selected for a more systematic form of torture involving being dropped from helicopters, white noise and sleep deprivation. On the streets, the British army went on the rampage, murdering and maiming civilians at will, most notoriously in the Ballymurphy Massacre in the Upper Springfield area of Belfast.

In March of this year, the British government began using its 28-day detention legislation in the Six Counties. Under the legislation, citizens can be held in interrogation centres for up to 28 days without charge or recourse to a trial. Among those subjected to this treatment so far in the North was a 17-year-old boy.

In Belfast yesterday [Wednesday], 200 people gathered on the Andersonstown Road for the annual vigil for the victims of plastic and rubber bullets. This year sees the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Downes, shot dead at point blank range with a plastic bullet by the RUC during a peaceful demonstration on the same road. In all, 17 people have been killed by plastic and rubber bullets since their introduction in the North in the 1970s.
It is worth recalling their names, and their innocence:

Francis Rowntree, aged 11, shot in the head by the British army

Tobias Molloy, aged 18, shot in the chest by the British army

Thomas Friel, aged 21, shot in the head by the British army

Stephen Geddis, aged 10, shot in the head by the British army

Brian Stewart, aged 13, shot in the head by the British army

Michael Donnelly, aged 21, shot in the head by the British army

Paul Whitters, aged 15, shot in the chest by the RUC

Julie Livingstone, aged 14, shot in the head by the British army

Carole Ann Kelly, aged 12, shot in the head by the British army

Henry Duffy, aged 45, shot in the head by the British army

Nora McCabe, aged 32, shot in the head by the RUC

Peter Doherty, aged 36, shot in the head by the British army

Peter McGuinness, aged 36, shot in the chest by the British army

Stephen McConomy, aged 11, shot in the head by the British army

John Downes, aged 22, shot in the chest by the RUC

Keith White, aged 20, shot in the head by the RUC

Séamus Duffy, 15, shot in the chest by the RUC

On July 13, the PSNI opened fire on the residents of Ardoyne in north Belfast with plastic bullets, injuring 10 people. The force currently has a stockpile of at least 50,000 rounds of this deadly weapon and, as was witnessed in Ardoyne, they are more than prepared to use them.

The British government remains wedded to repression in its Irish colony. Along with 28-day detention and plastic bullets, the PSNI has been equipped with assault rifles, CS gas and Tasers. MI5 has its largest base outside of London in north Down and is primarily tasked with intelligence gathering on Irish republicans. Non-jury Diplock courts remain in operation. The British army has 5,000 troops garrisoned in the Six Counties with unique powers, while the Special Reconnaissance Regiment is, no doubt, snooping around in a neighbourhood near you.

The Six Counties is not a democratic or fundamentally altered entity. It remains an occupied territory, to be held by any means necessary by the British government.

This weekend, éirígí will be holding demonstrations in Dublin and Enniskillen and a public meeting in Belfast to expose and oppose Britain’s role in Ireland.

On Saturday [August 8], there will be protests at the British Embassy in Dublin and at Enniskillen PSNI Barracks.

The following day, a public meeting on Belfast’s Falls Road will hear from former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ruhal Ahmed, Duffy family representative Caitriona Duffy, former Long Kesh internee and H-Block escaper Gerry McDonnell and human rights lawyer Pádraigín Drinan, who represented the hooded men.

The use of plastic bullets and 28-day detention are not signs of a normal or healthy society. The policies and tactics used to sustain the Six County are, in fact, deeply abnormal. All those with an interest in human rights should oppose them – get active at the weekend.

Palestine – Detention, Annexation and Ethnic Cleansing the Order of the Day
06/08/09

At 3am on Monday morning [August 3], 200 Israeli soldiers poured into the small Palestinian village of Bil’in in the West Bank.

The soldiers raided a number of houses and arrested seven Palestinians, four of them teenagers, as well as an international activist from the United States.

The Israeli forces then threw sound bombs at residents who came to protest against the regular night raids, and maintained a presence in the area for several hours – ensuring that locals would once again be deprived of any rest or reprieve from the zionist occupation.

In similar acts of repression, 14 other Palestinians were arrested in different parts of the West Bank at the same time. Ten of them were seized from their homes in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Qalqiliya, despite the Israeli government previously stating that those areas had been handed over to total Palestinian Authority control.

Two days earlier, Israeli occupation forces arrested 154 Palestinian workers for “illegally residing in Israel”. Several of these ‘illegal’ workers were detained, while the rest were ‘deported’ into areas nominally administered by the PA.

On Sunday morning [August 2], Israel evicted over 50 Palestinians from Jerusalem [Al Quds]. Israeli police and border guards stormed into the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the east of the city and drove two families from their homes at gunpoint, not letting them bring any of their belongings with them. The Israeli forces then destroyed a number of tents near the two homes and arrested 20 solidarity activists who were present in the area.

In the Silwan area of east Jerusalem, around 90 homes that lie near the Old City are due to be demolished. They are to be destroyed ostensibly because they were built without permits from Israeli authorities, although a number of them were built before Israeli forces occupied the region.

It is almost impossible for a Palestinian to get a building permit from Israel’s municipal authorities. While this situation has dragged on for years, in recent months the current Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu has consistently expressed its desire that Jerusalem be the united capital of a jewish, zionist state.

In this context, the ongoing home demolitions and evictions can be seen for what they are. According to Hatem Abdel Qader, a senior Fatah official in Jerusalem: “We discovered recently that there is a plan that is submitted to the local Israeli committee for construction by the Elad settlement group to establish a settlement outpost on six dunums [1.5 acres] of lands of Al-Yemen neighbourhood in Silwan with 60 homes. What is really astonishing is that the plan does not fulfil the legal conditions required by the municipality, particularly proof of ownership of the land… this proves that there is clear collusion with the settler organisations to confiscate homes and lands especially in Silwan and eventually Judaizing all of the holy city.”

The evictions, demolitions and settlement building are all illegal under international law, but, aside from a few words of disapproval, the international community has done nothing to intervene in the matter.

With Fatah’s national conference being held in Bethlehem from Tuesday to today [Thursday], the actions of the zionist state might well force the party to reconsider the realities of the peace process and the divisions within Palestinian society. A united Palestinian people is the biggest threat the zionist project could ever face.

US Speaks Out of Both Sides of its Mouth on Honduras
05/08/09

“We certainly think that if we were choosing a model government and a model leader for countries of the region to follow, that the current leadership in Venezuela would not be a particular model. If that is the lesson that President Zelaya has learned from this episode, that would be a good lesson.”

With these words, US assistant secretary of state Philip Crowley betrayed his administration’s real position vis-à-vis the recent coup d’état in Honduras against the democratically-elected government of Manuel Zelaya.

While feeling obliged on the one hand to appeal to notions of ‘democracy’ and publicly state that they “don't recognise Roberto Micheletti as the president of Honduras… we recognise Manuel Zelaya” [Ian Kelly, US state department spokesperson], from the US administration’s perspective, the real subtext to the whole Honduran crisis is as follows: the political tide continues to turn in Latin America – this is a bad thing for US interests and prospects – it therefore must be arrested and stopped.

In the context of US economic, military and political influence being at an all-time low globally, what these mixed-messages reflect is simply a US administration that needs to project a less overtly imperialist and anti-democratic policy. Where, in times gone by, the US would have loudly proclaimed a coup, any coup, in Latin America as having been necessary to re-establish ‘democracy’ or resist the influence of ‘communist despotism’, given the times, the US is now somewhat constrained in what it can say and do. Given the extent of support that the deposed president Zelaya commands, the US has had no option but to publicly adopt a position that is supportive of his re-instatement.

To some, US ‘support’ for Zelaya is reflective of a change in policy towards Latin America that came with the ascent of Barack Obama to the office of president. This perception sees the US of today as a more benign force on the world stage. This is, however, to fundamentally misinterpret both the politics of Obama and the US system, and the wider predicament the US finds itself in.

éirígí made its position on Obama clear at the time of his election when the party said that, “there is nothing to suggest that Obama will address the inadequacies and crimes of the global system of ‘business for private profit through private control of banking, land and industry’ that the US stands at the head of. The poverty and politics of the US are essential by-products of the capitalist socio-economic model that reigns supreme in that country.”

In the realm of international relations, “Obama’s stance on foreign affairs clearly shows the way he envisages the US will interact on the world stage: his policies on Afghanistan and Iraq are essentially the same as those of the Republican ‘opposition’… his statements on Cuba during the election campaign clearly locate him in the realm of those annexationists who would wish to return Cuba to its former colonial state… His appointment of [the right-wing zionist] Rahm Israel Emanuel to the centrally important position of chief-of-staff is further indication of the approach that Obama will take in the realm of international relations.”

And why should it be otherwise? In the same article, it was stated how “it is a certainty that the US will continue for the foreseeable future on the course it has maintained for all of its modern history – that of being a capitalist and imperialist power. Barack Obama has never indicated that he intends to substantially change that direction. And this lack of substantive change will continue, to the detriment of the people of the US, of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of Cuba and beyond.” [http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest151108.htmltest151108.html] To the “beyond” can now be added the name of Honduras.

If there was any real substance to the USA’s alleged support for Manuel Zelaya then, as the political commentator James Suggett notes, the Whitehouse would take substantive action where it really matters: “The US has cut off $18 million in economic aid to Honduras, but refuses to define the coup as a ‘coup’, which would obligate the US to cut off another $180 million. And, while the US claims to have cut off military aid, it continues to train Honduran military officers in the School of the Americas in Georgia, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).”

If there were any substance to the claim that the US didn’t support the coup it would heed Fidel Castro’s point that “the only correct thing to do at this point is to demand that the government of the United States ends its intervention, stops lending military support to the coup perpetrators and withdraws its Task Force from Honduras”.

Not only does the US refuse to ‘call a coup a coup’ and continue to train members of the same Honduran army, its activities in Colombia of late are also indicative of a deliberate heightening of tensions in the region.

In a recent article in Green Left Weekly, reporter Federico Fuentes wrote that “Colombia, which in March 2008 bombed Ecuadorian territory, has just opened the door to five new US military bases on its territory. This occurred just days after the US began to move out of its base in Ecuador, from which the government of President Rafael Correa expelled it.”

The escalation of tension also comes at a time when Colombia, having originally denounced the coup against Manuel Zelaya, has actively begun to fete the Honduran junta; according to an article published in the Cuban daily newspaper Granma, foreign minister for the dictatorship in Honduras Carlos López and an eight-member Honduran delegation met with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe in Bogotá in the last number of weeks.

In a separate but doubtlessly related incident, Venezuela has withdrawn its ambassador to Colombia and sent more troops and armoured vehicles to the border both countries share in a dispute ostensibly over claims that Venezuela is arming the FARC guerillas. However, as Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez attests, the real issue is that the US “wants to convert Colombia into the Israel of Latin America”.

According to Chávez, “the extreme right sectors continue to conspire… they were there in the White House and the OAS [Organization of American States] practically asking for Venezuela to be intervened in, that's what they want.” These developments coincide with a recent Israeli claim that there are members of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah active in Venezuela with the knowledge of the Chávez government.

Be under no illusions. The situation in Latin America is precariously poised. There is no doubt that the hand of US imperialism lurks behind recent developments there. The possibility that the tensions that have been heightened and exacerbated by the coup in Honduras might erupt into open conflict and spill over into more widespread regional conflict is very real.

While military repression of trade unionists and members of the Honduran anti-coup National Front intensifies, opposition to the dictatorship is growing daily. Last week, the three principal trade unions in the country staged a hugely successful two-day general strike that brought the country to a standstill. President Zelaya is determined to return to the country and has set up base on the Nicaraguan side of the border. Zelaya has called for the establishment of a “popular, pacific army” to facilitate his return to power, stating that “we will begin with a training period. The best way is for five trainers to train 20.”

The New York Times reported at the weekend that Zelaya has thrown down an ultimatum to the effect that either the putschists “reverse the coup, or there will be generalized violence”.

In the same article, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega is quoted as saying: “There is a danger that, to try to distract attention from the internal conflict they themselves created, they might organize a group of people with military training to attack a Honduran army position, for that to serve as a pretext for a retaliation against Nicaragua… we are not talking about an army that doesn't have a history of aggression against Nicaragua… But they shouldn't think they would have a cakewalk in Nicaragua.”Ortega concluded that Nicaragua “is preparing for war because we want peace”.

Further recognition of the escalating nature of the Honduran situation can be gleaned from Bolivian president Evo Morales’ linking of the coup to the furtherance of US interests with his unambiguous assertion that “this coup is a threat against the continued growth of ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas]”. Morales continued that a crisis in Honduras serves US interests because ALBA, of which Honduras is a member, “has defeated the proposal of the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposed by United States. The (ALBA) Trade Treaty for the Peoples will do the same with the United States’ Free Trade Treaty.”

There is a high likelihood that open conflict between the forces of progress and reaction will occur in Latin America. This will, in all probability, occur as a part of or as a precursor to new cycles of revolution, counter-revolution, and wider conflict globally. The growing pace of the division of nations and societies into political groupings representing different sectional and class interests is reflective of a wider and ever-deepening global economic crisis and polarisation between the forces of capitalism/imperialism and labour/internationalism.

As éirígí stated in a previous piece on the crisis: “The struggle on the streets of Honduras is, in its essence, a struggle between the past and the future, between the forces of reaction and progress, between the forces of capital and the rights and needs of people. The dignity of Latin America has been reclaimed by the hard work and struggle of the masses during the past decade. The maintenance of its dignity depends upon the overthrow of the putschists and the continuation of the project to build a Latin America based upon the principles of solidarity and co-operation.”

What you see in Honduras is another front in the battle for the heart and soul, and wealth of Latin America. It is a battle between the historical colonial rulers of that continent and its peoples, who have suffered under Spanish, US and indigenous collaborators’ jackboots for the last 600 years.

As recent events and developments demonstrate, it is a battle that the people of Honduras and Latin America are willing to fight. It is a battle that all democrats and socialists must be willing to fight also.

Remembering Fianna Éireann

03/08/09

éirígí will be hosting a weekend of commemorative events on August 15-16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the republican youth movement Fianna Éireann.

Fianna Éireann was founded on August 16 1909 at a meeting in Dublin city centre. The committee that called the meeting did so in order to channel the energies of young men into progressive nationalist politics.

The organisation played an important role in the lead up to the 1916 Rising, promoting the republican message, actively partaking in the cultural revival, and assisting in the acquisition of arms for the Rising itself. During Easter Week, Fianna members served in several of the republican garrisons around Dublin.

In the years that followed, Fianna Éireann continued to play an active role in the increasingly intense national liberation struggle. After the signing of the Treaty in 1921, the Fianna joined the IRA in opposing the British-enforced settlement.
The Fianna’s role in republicanism continued right up to the 1980s, and it was in the organisation that many of those who were to become prominent in the independence struggle first became active.

On Saturday, August 15, éirígí will host a public meeting in Dublin city centre, focusing on the history of the Fianna. Speakers will include éirígí general secretary Breandán Mac Cionnaith and Damien Lawlor, the author of Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution.

Later that evening, a ballad session will be held in the Clifton Court Hotel, Eden Quay.

On Sunday, August 16, a walking tour at St Enda’s school in Rathfarnham and a wreath laying commemoration will be held. St Enda’s was established by Pádraig Pearse in 1908 as an Irish language counter-weight to the existing schooling system and many of its students were members of Fianna Éireann.

Fianna 100th Anniversary Weekend

Saturday, August 15

Public Meeting: 7pm, Wynns Hotel, Abbey St, Dublin 1.

Speakers: Breandán Mac Cionnaith [éirígí general secretary], Damien Lawlor [author of Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution], Samantha Ní Mhurchú.
Commemorative Function: 9pm, Clifton Court Hotel, Eden Quay, Dublin 1. Ballad session.

Sunday, August 16
Tour of St Enda’s.

For further details, contact 086 236 7298.

An Bord Snip – Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam!
02/08/09

(English version follows.)

Le moladh an Bhoird Snip Nua ag bagairt dífhostaíochta agus aimléise tá fíorbhaol ann go mbeidh ciorruithe fíochmhara ann don Ghaeilge freisin.

Pé dul chun cinn atá déanta ag an teanga le blianta beaga anuas sna meáin chumarsáide, sna gaelscoileanna agus ó thaobh séirbhísí Gaeilge de tá féidearthacht ann go scriosfaí an obair mhaith seo. Buille tubaisteach don teanga a bheadh i gceist dá gcuirfí moltaí Cholm Mhic Chárthaigh i bhfeidhm.

Mhol an Bord Snip Nua ciorrú a dhéanamh ar an maoiniú stáit a fhaigheann TG4 agus laghdú €10 milliún (£8.5 milliún) a dhéanamh thar 2-3 bliana ar an €37 milliún (£31 milliún) a fhaigheann siad in aghaidh na bliana. Seo laghdú beagnach 1/3 ar an méad a fhaigheann an t-aon stáisiún teilifíse Gaeilge atá ann.

De bharr na gciorruithe seo beidh cláracha cosúil le Paisean Faisean, Hector, Aifric agus cartúin i nGaeilge go léir i mbaol.

Mhol an Bord Snip Nua ciorrú €1 milliún (£845,000) ar Chiste na Gaeilge a thugann maoiniú do Raidió Rí Rá, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann agus do Thaibhdhearc na Gaillimhe.

Bheadh deireadh le Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta a chuireann acmhainní teagaisc agus tacaíocht ar fáil do scoileanna atá ag feidhmiú trí mheán na Gaeilge agus atá lonnaithe sa Ghaeltacht. Gan an t-eagras seo beidh deacrachtaí móra ann do scoileanna Gaeilge a bhaineann úsáid as ábháir Ghaeilge.

Cuirfear deireadh le Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge. Is é seo an t-ioncam beag a spreagann muintir na Gaeltachta le fanacht ina gcónaí sna Gaeltachtaí agus stop a chur le meath a bpobal.

Moladh deireadh a chur le Scéim na bhFoghlaimeoirí Gaeilge freisin. Seo an fóirdheontas a fhaigheann na Mná Tí sna Gaeltachtaí. Clúdaíonn sé seo costais na gcúrsaí samhraidh agus gan an fóirdheontas seo bheadh na cúrsaí samhraidh sna Gaeltachtaí go mór mór i mbaol.

Beidh An Roinn Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta imithe agus aistreofar obair na roinne go dtí an Roinn Oideachas agus Eolaíochta.

Leis an easpa tacaíochta a fhaigheann An Ghaeilge cheana féin is ionsaí mór iad na moltaí seo ar an dteanga náisiúnta. Agus na Gaeltachtaí ag meath de shíor de bharr easpa seirbhísí agus postanna beidh siad níos mó i mbaol ná mar a bhí siad riamh gan tacaíocht agus maoiniú an stáit 26-Contae.

Gan acmhainní agus tacaíocht á chur ar fáil ag an Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta beidh sé fíordheacair do na gaelscoileanna sa Ghalltacht agus sa Ghaeltacht feidhmiú mar is gnáth.

Cé go bhfuil ag éirí le TG4 ní bheidh an caighdeán céanna le feiceáil gan na cláracha iontacha a thaispeánann siad do dhaoine fásta agus do pháistí agus an chabhair a thugann siad do lucht foghlamtha na Gaeilge.

Gan na seirbhísí bunúsacha seo is féidir súil le meath na teanga agus scrios ar an dea-obair atá déanta ag gníomhaithe teanga le blianta fada anuas.

Tá sé riachtanach go gcuirtear brú ar ar an rialtas eite-dheis gan bhotún tromchúiseach a dhéanamh tríd tairne eile a chur i gcónra na Gaeilge.

Tír gan teanga, Tír gan anam!

An Bord Snip – Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam!

With An Bord Snip Nua’s right-wing proposals threatening unemployment and misery, there is a very real danger that the Irish language will also suffer savage cutbacks.

Whatever progress the language has made in the media, in Irish-speaking schools and in terms of Irish language services in recent years, there is a possibility that all of this good work could be destroyed. If Colm McCarthy’s proposals are implemented, it will be a disastrous blow to the Irish language.

An Bord Snip Nua has proposed cutting state funding to TG4 and a reduction of €10 million (£8.5 million) over 2-3 years to the €37 million (£31 million) they receive each year. This is a reduction of almost 1/3 of the amount the only Irish language television station receives.

Because of these cutbacks, programmes such as Paisean Faisean, Hector, Aifric and cartoons in Irish will all be at risk.

An Bord Snip Nua have proposed a cutback of €1 million (£845,000) to Ciste na Gaeilge [The Irish language Fund], who fund Raidió Rí Rá, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe.

There will be an end to Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta [The Council of Gaeltacht Education and Irish medium Education], who provide teaching resources and support for schools that function through Irish and for schools based in the Gaeltacht. Without this organisation, there will be major difficulties for schools that use material through Irish.

There will be an end put to Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge [The Irish-speaking Scheme]. This is the small income that the Gaeltacht population receives to encourage them to stay living in the Gaeltachtaí and to stop the decline of their communities.

An end to Scéim na bhFoghlaimeoirí Gaeilge [The Irish language Learners Scheme] has also been proposed. This is the subsidy that the Mná Tí in the Gaeltachtaí receive. This covers the costs of the summer courses and, without this subsidy, the summer courses in the Gaeltachtaí would be highly at risk.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs will be gone and the Department’s work will be transferred to the Department of Education and Science.

With the lack of support the Irish language already receives, these proposals are a huge attack on the national language. As the Gaeltachtaí forever go into decline because of a lack of services and jobs, they will be now be more at risk than they ever were without the support and funding of the Twenty-Six County state.

Without the resources and support made available by An Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta it will be extremely difficult for Irish medium schools in English-speaking areas and in the Gaeltacht to function as normal.

Although TG4 is growing, the same standard will not be seen without the excellent programmes they show for adults and children and the assistance they provide for those learning Irish.

Without these basic services a decline, in the language can be expected and the destruction of excellent work that has been done by language activists for many years.

It is imperative that pressure is put on the right-wing government not to make the serious mistake of putting another nail in the coffin of the Irish language.

A country without a language, A country without a soul.

Release Maura Harrington & Niall Harnett

30/07/09

éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson has called for the immediate release of Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett and urged people to attend a demonstration at Mountjoy jail, Dublin tonight.

The two Shell to Sea activists were each sentenced to four months in prison today [Thursday] for their roles in the ongoing peaceful opposition to Shell Oil's project in the Erris area of Mayo.

In response, the Shell to Sea campaign has called a protest at the gates of Mountjoy jail for 6pm this evening, the time Harrington is expected to arrive to commence her incarceration.

Leeson said: "The sentences that Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett today received are part of an ongoing attempt by the Twenty-Six County state to intimidate the Shell the Sea campaign and the residents of north-west Mayo. These attempts will ultimately prove futile."

"Maura and Niall are not guilty of any crime. What they are guilty of is standing up for the safety of the Erris community and demanding that the natural resources of Ireland be used for the benefit of the Irish people. Unfortunately, in today's Ireland this has become a punishable offence."

"Earlier this month, the Dublin government released a report which recommended sweeping cuts in public services and social care. Today, the same government jailed two people for daring to make the reasonable point that the natural gas off the west coast could be exploited to fund the public purse. Clearly, Fianna Fáil cares more about Shell Oil than it does about Irish citizens."

Brian continued: "The jailing of Shell to Sea activists and the persecution of the campaign and the Erris community by the state and Shell is wrong and should stop immediately."

“éirígí is encouraging as many people as possible to gather outside Mountjoy jail at 6pm today to demand the immediate release of Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett. As long as they remain incarcerated, they will be a symbol of the Twenty-Six County government’s warped priorities.”