Tom Smith remembered
Hundreds gathered in Dublin last Saturday, 17 March for the annual commemoration of the death of Óglaigh na hÉireann Volunteer Tom Smith, who was gunned down by Free State soldiers on St Patrick's Day 26 years ago.
Smith was assassinated in an attempt to escape from Portlaoise jail, where he was held for his activity as a volunteer. Even in death, Smith was not afforded any respite from the hatred of Free State forces. The Gardaí attacked his funeral, surrounded his grave and harrassed mourners, even when the presiding priest asked them to withdraw.
In his address to the commemoration, Dublin Central Sinn Féin councillor Nicky Kehoe said that the establishment feared men like Smith because ``he would not submit.
``Tom was an ordinary young man who did not have to become a republican,'' Kehoe said. ``He was a man who saw that there were things that were wrong in our country and he tried to do something about it. We must all be inspired by that.''
Kehoe said that now the legacy of the likes of Tom Smith and the Hunger Strikers is coming to the fore. ``For the first time in a generation, due to the end of Section 31 censorship, people are able to hear a republican view of events on this island. They are now seeing the purity and self sacrifice of Tom and the Hunger Strikers' ideals and comparing them with the corruption and `mé féin' attitudes of the Liam Lawlors and Michael Lowrys of Leinster House.
``They are seeing that republicans aren't monsters, they are seeing that our analysis of the situation on this island makes sense, and they are seeing that the republican message works, that electing and supporting republicans works, that republicans are on the side of the ordinary man and woman, the men of no property, as Wolfe Tone said.''
Speaking of his own prospects and those of other Sinn Féin representatives for election to Leinster House in the next 26-County general election, the Dublin councillor said that what is most important is that republicans retain their sense of vision. ``In building this strength we must ensure that we maintain our vision of what we hope to achieve. We must remember that we have not started a different struggle, but are simply continuing the same struggle as Tom Smith and Bobby Sands and thousands of other young men and women fought for.''
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)