Republican News · Thursday 15 May 2003

The Gathering of the Clans

The extensive family of republicanism

BY ELLA O'DWYER

The seventh Gathering of the Clans was held in Navan last week, Friday 9 May, and well over 200 people attended the get-together. The Gathering of the Clans was traditionally held as an annual reunion for the families of republican prisoners serving time in jails in England. Since the transfer of prisoners back to Ireland in the '90s, the event was suspended. This year, it was decided to hold the reunion again, with a view to having the released prisoners and family members come together in a relaxed and informal setting. The event allowed the opportunity to reflect on the past; on the experience of families visiting English jails and to recall the many republicans who died in England.

This Gathering was hosted jointly by Coiste na nIarchimí and the Sinn Féin POW Department in Dublin. The event was hugely successful, with people attending from all over Ireland. The ex-prisoner attendance was representative of well over three decades of imprisonment and our extended families of relatives, supporters and friends represented decades more. The memory of those who died or who were incarcerated in England at different stages in Irish history, was carried through the evening.

Over the years this event, The Gathering of the Clans, has focused on the huge contribution of the families of prisoners throughout. The obstacles placed in the way of people visiting prisoners in England and further afield were particularly difficult, not just in terms of the financial demands, but also in terms of the likely risks of arrest, interrogation and strip-searching.

The various groups and individuals who worked for 'Repatriation' and subsequently for 'Transfer', better conditions for prisoners and an end to 'Strip Searching', were recalled with admiration and gratitude. These people are too countless to mention and some are no longer alive. Alive or dead, they will never be forgotten.

This was an important republican occasion and one which offered the opportunity to celebrate the loyalty, dedication and determination, not just of the Republican Family and their loved ones, but of the extended family of those revolutionary people who, in the Spirit of Sr Sarah Clarke, fought 'the system' through one means or another, and sometimes at great cost and risk to themselves.

The occasion was very special in many ways and will leave a lasting memory.