Sinister Crown Force propaganda event at Tyrone school

The British armed forces have been actively promoted by the PSNI police during a school visit in the predominately nationalist town of Omagh, County Tyrone.

Sinn Fein and republican have denounced the event at Loreto Grammar School, Omagh after it emerged in a tweet by the school.

Sinn Fein’s Barry McElduff said he had been “inundated” by phone calls from parents and past pupils who he said were concerned and angry at the news that the RAF cadets were being promoted by a local Chief Inspector of the PSNI.

“Our schools should be places of learning where young people and others can expand their horizons and opportunities,” he said.

“They should not be used to recruit young people for imperialist conflicts and to be trained in warfare. What is even more concerning is that it was a senior member of the local PSNI team who raised the RAF cadets with pupils.

“If the PSNI wish to inform pupils of personal safety and issues concerning crime prevention I could support the visit. However there is no place for the promotion of organisations such as the RAF cadets who teach children how to use lethal weapons.

“In Tyrone, and across the north, we know all too well the brutality of the British armed forces and the pain and misery their actions have caused to so many families.”

Republican Sinn Fein in Tyrone said the PSNI had been carrying out the footwork of the British army.

“British forces in this country have no right to be here,” they said. “They have a history of oppression and murder on behalf of England’s want to own Ireland. Any Irish people who collaborate with this rule dishonor the memory of every man, woman and child who ever suffered at the hands of British rule.”

Saoradh also denounced the use of the school by the Crown Forces as an attempt to recruit children for imperialist violence. They said it was no surprise to find the PSNI working with the RAF in a recruitment drive “as both organisations are part of the same Crown Force war machine”.

Saoradh spokesperson Packy Carty contrasted the situation with a controversy earlier in the week over the involvement of children in a republican commemoration for IRA Volunteer Patricia Black last weekend.

“We look forward to the condemnation by those organisations tasked with the care of our young,” he said. “Particularly the children’s commissioner who has been vocal recently in an attack on Irish Republicanism yet resoundingly silent on multiple acts of harassment and intimidation suffered by the children of Republican activists at the hands of the Crown Forces.”

Urgent Appeal