Press Release/Preas Ráiteas
A member of Republican Sinn Féin and Na Fianna Éireann was among eleven people arrested on O‘Connell Street, Dublin on Saturday, September 20 during a protest against increasing charges and cuts for essential services.
Dublin Says No organised the Lockout 2014 protest calling for a shutdown of O’Connell Street. The protest was attended by the many groups opposed to the hardship being forced on the Irish people, including those opposing the water charges, many of whom have blocked ‘Irish Water’ from installing water meters in their areas, groups representing the homeless, Republican Sinn Féin, the Greyhound workers who are on strike against a 35% cut in wages and other practices, the Anti-Austerity Alliance and many more.
Those arrested were part of a group of up to 60 people who sat on O’Connell Street after the protest ended and they refused to move. The eleven appeared in court and were remanded on bail, with one exception who was remanded to Clover Hill on an outstanding fine, to appear in court on October 10 on public order charges, including a member of Republican Sinn Féin.
Another member of Republican Sinn Féin will appear in court on September 24 in connection with the protest at Glasnevin Cemetery which was attended by members of the British Army, Edward Windsor, son of Queen Elizabeth of England, British Secretary of State in the Occupied Six Counties Theresa Villiers and the British Ambassador in Dublin, Dominic Chilcott. The protest was organised on the grounds that while British troops occupy any part of Ireland, or the British Government implement British rule in any part of Ireland, British Royals or representatives of the British government implementing such rule, are not welcome in any part of Ireland.
The connection between the British military occupation of the Occupied Six-Counties is whether people choose to acknowledge it or not intrinsically connected to the fight in the 26 Counties against the imposition of unjust taxes, the privatisation of public services and the attack on hard fought for workers rights. Republican Sinn Féin commends all who man the gap against the dictates of imperialism, whatever form it takes in defence of fundamental Human Rights.
It is blatantly clear that the people of Ireland are crying out for a real alternative to the corrupt and overly centralised political system operated from Leinster House and Stormont. We in Republican Sinn Féin as the trustees of one of the most powerful Irish political documents penned in the 20th Century, ÉIRE NUA, are bound by a sense of patriotic duty to lead on all fronts, as are all revolutionaries worth their salt.
We ask the Irish people to educate and learn about the principles enshrined in ÉIRE NUA and to turn your actions and activism into a sustained effort for revolutionary change in a truly new Ireland, where it can be stated proudly without doubt we live in a Republic that, “cherishes all of the children of the nation equally”.
CRÍOCH/ENDS
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