Republican News · Thursday 11 October 2001

Hunger strike poster wars

BY CRÕOST”IR ” R¡LAIGH

"They said that we could have pretty much unlimited resources. It's not my call, we're being put under severe political pressure from Fianna F·il and Labour. They're telling us they have to come down". These were the words of a member of Dublin Corporation's waste management service, last Wednesday, 3 October.

Just three days prior to the main hunger strike commemorative event of the year in the South, a panic attack apparently set in among the establishment parties. The official from Dublin Corporation visited Sinn FÈin head office to pass on what amounted to a blatant act of political censorship; that the posters advertising the event were to be torn down at the whim of Fianna F·il and Labour.

Informing a representative of the Dublin 1981 committee that severe pressure was being put on the Corporation to make sure the posters where dealt with, the official said that "unlimited resources" had been offered to assist in the job. The unfortunate soul chosen to deliver the message explained: "We have our orders, we're to clear the entire city of all posters." This is democracy, Labour/Fianna F·il style.

The city manager's office was immediately contacted, and despite the allegations being denied, legal advice was sought and a 'cease and desist' letter was immediately despatched to Dublin Corpo. It apparently worked, as the majority of posters stayed put.

Ironically, subsequent media coverage of the poster controversy served to further advertise the parade. The huge interest shown by young Irish people in the hunger strikes, so obvious the length and breadth of Ireland this year, has obviously proven deeply worrying for the establishment parties but this hamfisted attempt at censorship failed miserably.

Peter Graves, a spokesperson for the Dublin '81 committee, under whose auspices the posters were put up, drew parallels between the attitude of the Fianna F·il-led establishment of 1981 and of this year. "Fianna F·il tried to silence the issue of the hunger strikes. Through media censorship and manipulation a conspiracy of silence was created. Twenty years later, elements are still trying to silence the issue of the hunger strike. Well, they will not succeed."

Commenting after Saturday's hugely successful parade, which attracted over 10,000 people, Graves said: "Despite all the censorship both then and now, the ordinary people of Dublin responded today as they did in 1981."