Irish Republican News · July 16, 2004

RSF anger at US listing

Republican Sinn Féin has denied a US determination that the party is simply a front for the breakaway Continuity IRA.

Earlier this week the US State Department announced it was adding Republican Sinn Féin, which split from Sinn Féin in 1986, to its list of aliases for the Continuity IRA. The CIRA has long been included on its schedule of ‘terrorist’ organisations.

This makes RSF fundraising in the U.S. illegal, and it also allows the U.S. to deny visas to representatives and members of the party.

RSF president Ruairi O Bradaigh last night criticised the decision to outlaw his party, arguing it was a separate political organisation.

Mr O Bradaigh said his party, which he said was the oldest in Ireland, had no military wing and was not the political wing of any organisation.

“The US State Department, which has been notoriously pro-British over the decades, in its current report says that Republican Sinn Féin is an alias for the Continuity IRA,” he said.

Links between the groups have been repeatedly made in the media and by political opponents.

Mr O Bradaigh said US moves to link RSF and the Continuity IRA were “blatant misrepresentation”.

He said the decision to ban his party would not deter himself or his party, despite the fact he has been banned from entering the US for 30 years.

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