Republican News · Thursday 20 December 2001

The year that was, 2001

By Ned Cohen

We will not take an oath to the British Queen and we will not be taking seats in Westminster - our abstentionist policy was overwhelmingly endorsed in the election. But we will take the fight for our constituents and our rights to everywhere and anywhere

2001 marked the 20th anniversary of the deaths of 10 republicans in the 1981 Hunger Strikes. It was a time of turmoil and political change. For many it was the genesis of where we are today. It was a difficult time and many people where challenged on a personal level, both politically and emotionally.

The humanity and courage of those ten who died and the thousands of republicans who went through Armagh, Maghaberry, Portlaoise, the H Blocks and the jails in England, fundamentally challenged the British establishment and the perceptions of, not just people in Ireland and England, but throughout the world.

Events and celebration of that commitment throughout Ireland - and the tens of thousands of people who walked through the pouring rain, to hear the songs of Christie Moore cut through the darkness for the national commemoration, in Belfast, are a lasting testament.

The successes of Sinn Féin in Six Counties in the local and Westminster elections are another enduring legacy. We now have four MPs - Gerry Adams in West Belfast, with the largest personal mandate of any MP in the north; Martin McGuinness, with a massively increased majority in Mid Ulster; Pat Doherty, storming past the SDLP's great hope, Brid Rodgers, in West Tyrone; and Michelle Gildernew, in Fermanagh South Tyrone, retaking the seat 20 years after Bobby Sands took it, to become the first Sinn Féin female MP since Countess Markievicz.

For the first time, we stood candidates in every Westminster constituency and, in every single one, increased our popular vote. And following sustained pressure, the British government has backed down over its refusal to allow Sinn Féin to use its Westminster facilities - a right that was undermined after they changed the rules in 1997.

We will not take an oath to the British Queen and we will not be taking seats in Westminster - our abstentionist policy was overwhelmingly endorsed in the election. But we will take the fight for our constituents and our rights to everywhere and anywhere.

But the project of greening the West of the River Bann was an even greater success at local government level. We now have six council chairs West of the Bann - Robin Martin in Fermanagh, Oliver Hughes, brother of hunger striker Francie Hughes, in Maghrafelt, Pearse McAleer in Cookstown, Barry McElduff in Omagh, Ivan Barr in Strabane and Francie Molloy is Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone District council.

The mandate for the republican analysis is now stronger than at any time in the last 20 or 30 years. We speak for the majority of northern nationalists.

Against the background of this mandate there has also been continued political instability created by the British government's refusal to challenge unionist intransigence.

More than once, the political institutions have been threatened. David Trimble's illegal ban on nominating Sinn Féin's two ministers, Bairbre de Brún and Martin McGuinness, frustrated progress on realising the integral all-Ireland foundation of the Good Friday Agreement and his resignation threats undermined the entire Peace Process.

Not for the first time, republicans took the lead. The courage and foresight of the IRA was globally recognised as saving the Peace Process from destruction. The leap taken by the IRA leadership again challenged many people, on a personal level, both politically and emotionally, in a way that many had not experienced since the ceasefires and the hunger strikes.

The political vacuum that was created by the refusal of unionists and the British establishment to accept the pace and degree of change needed in the Six Counties has been filled by the spiralling Loyalist pogrom. The failure to address the sectarian murders and hundreds of pipe and gun attacks by loyalists on nationalists, throughout the North, by either the British establishment or unionists, is a demonstration of how far they need to travel to understand and accept fully their part in creating - and resolving - the conflict in Ireland.

The sectarian foundation of the Six Counties and the sectarian underbelly of unionism was laid bare for all to see as schoolchildren from the Holy Cross Primary School, in North Belfast, as young as four years-of-age, were subjected to sectarian violence and child abuse.

The response of unionists to the loyalist blockade did not reassure anyone that Unionism has realised that everyone is entitled to basic human rights. The protest was wrong, yet unionism remained silent, in much the same way it has throughout the current loyalist pogrom or any of the previous sectarian loyalist campaigns. Unionists and the British government can only keep their heads in the sand for so long, before they admit their role in fostering sectarianism.

Evidence throughout the year has been making its way into the media of the levels of collusion between the British military establishment and Loyalism.

The murder of Willie Stobbie and the row over the Special Branch misusing information are just the tip of the iceberg. We have known for decades just how the British and their operatives work. The question is whether the British military establishment has the stomach for the truth.

The bombing of September 11th has also had a profound effect, throughout the world, not least here in Ireland, where many of our family, friends and comrades have suffered as a consequence. The promotion of human rights anywhere in the world requires new relationships, between the first and third world, between nationalists and unionists and between all people who are suffering as a result of conflict. Genuine dialogue, be it in Palestine or the Garvaghy Road, is the foundation needed to build and create.

The Turkish Hunger Strikes, the millions who die globally as a result of poverty and hunger, the deaths in Palestine and Israel are evidence of a world that is being enjoyed by the few, at the expense of the many.

Internationally the 1981 Hunger Strike was commemorated as far afield as Australia, South Africa and Cuba. Gerry Adams unveiled monuments in both South Africa and Cuba. The international links between Sinn Féin and those who struggle against injustice remain as strong as ever. With Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, we have cemented the legacy of the hunger strikers. There was success and progress in every area of the republican struggle but, as with every year coming to an end, there is always the realisation of how much more there is to be done.