Republican News · Thursday 28 November 2002

Adams urges support for Short Strand

On the eve of the resumption of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, Gerry Adams addressed a packed meeting in the Royal Dublin Hotel on Tuesday night to deliver an appeal to the people of the city to do more, or to do something, to support the people at the interfaces, the people under siege in Short Strand.

"As I stood in the Short Strand a few days ago, surrounded by the people of the area, experienced people who have lived through these months of daily, nightly attacks, there was a feeling of helplessness," said Adams. "'When is this all going to end' they asked.

"They have been under continuous attack, which the media, in the name of 'news balance' continues to portray as tit-for-tat, and Blair, in illegally bringing down the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement, is permitting, encouraging, this siege to carry on."

Adams went on to say, "I have seen, like many of you have done, the film the people of that community have made. I have seen the film showing young people in one corner, cheek by jowl with the PSNI, preparing their missiles, and running through the very police lines, to attack the nationalist enclave, without let or hindrance.

"Our question is, can the British government, which, make no mistake about it, is a unionist government, be forced, cajoled, persuaded or pushed to honour its obligations under the Goood Friday Agreement. This is the big thing we have to face up to.

"We need Friends of the Short Strand, here in Dublin, We need you to invite 20 children from the besieged area down to your community centres over Christmas. We need you to visit the beleaguered areas; they have invited you to come, to stay with them, to give solidarity."

He referred to the young woman, Caoimhe Butterly, last week shot by Israelis as she stood between their army and the people in Palestine. "We have reason to be proud of her. I am asking you to do something far less dangerous than what this brave young woman has done so far away. I am asking you to mobilise, to do something to help the besieged people in Short Strand and in outlying areas who are under persistent attack in their homes.

"This is the very hotel where brown envelopes were slipped into hands. But just round the corner is where Pearse handed over the surrender in 1916, and a stone's throw from here is where Connolly founded the Citizen Army. The Good Friday Agreement, which both governments signed up to, is about the Reconquest of Ireland, about levelling the playing field, but why isn't there the Civic Forum established here yet? What about the Bill of Rights?

"We need you, in your workplaces, in your communities to be mobilising support for what the governments have jointly committed themselves to, which they seek to minimise. The government here only looked to defend Irish national interests, but they tried to avoid any discussion of equality, of housing of health of fair and good employment. Equality wasn't in their script. The growing strength of Sinn Féin wasn't in their script."

"I have no doubt, the completion of the equality agenda will bring about a united Ireland."