The latest crisis in the long-running series in the Six Counties has put the spotlight on the Provisionals’ game of keeping the current process ‘going for-ward’ but never bringing it to a conclusion.

That conclusion, of course, means the end of their military wing and the Provisionals  need it to produce a crisis, such as that triggered by the Northern Bank raid, to keep them in the media spotlight.

Each crisis is then turned to the Provisionals’ advantage in vote-getting. What would distinguish them from any other smaller political party in Ireland, north or south, if they did not have their military wing and the ongoing process of surrender it is involved in?

Perhaps the latest staged crisis – always involving the red herring of the threat of a ‘split’ — will expose once and for all the “constructive ambiguity” of the Stormont Agreement.

After seven years the inherent contradictions of the Agreement, promising a united and free Ireland to nationalists and a strengthened British rule to loyalists, may be laid bare.

What conclusion can Republicans draw from all of this? Certainly we can demand that the Provisionals stop using the good name of the Republican Movement which they stole to advance themselves as a constitutional political party. Let them stand on their own merits like the Workers’ Party and Fianna Fáil before them. The simple fact is that they are bankrolled to the tune of €1 million per year by Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House.

In this centenary year for Sinn Féin, there are many other organisations claiming to be the inheritors of that proud title, the meaning of which they have all dropped long ago. Republican Sinn Féin says look at what they do, not what they say.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Provisionals, the SDLP are all following the constitutional line, the framework laid down by the British parliament’s Government of Ireland Act 1920. All of them are bolstering the status quo.

They frequently refer to the two referendums in the Six Counties and the 26 Counties on the 1998 Stormont Agreement. Remember firstly, that they were put to the people as the “only alternative to war”.

Secondly, successive British secretaries in the Six Counties said that the vote in the Six Counties would be decisive, ie that in effect the majority in the Six Counties would make the decision. That is a far cry from All-Ireland democracy, the corner-stone of the Sinn Féin programme. (Editorial, February SAOIRSE.)

In  a statement on February 12 Des Dalton, Vice-President, Republican Sinn Féin condemned police harassment of Republican Sinn Féin members.

He said: “For the second time in less than a year members of the Republican Sinn Fein Ard Chomhairle have been stopped and had papers illegally taken from them by the 26 County Special Branch.

“Following a meeting of our Ard Chomhairle in Dublin today (Saturday, February 12), the Special Branch stopped two of our members, one of the Branchmen, without permission, illegally took papers from the back seat of the car in which the two men were travelling and made off with them. The papers were not returned until almost an hour later.

“In recent weeks the Special Branch have been increasing this type of activity, targeting in particular young members, subjecting them to body searches and aggressive questioning as to their political affiliations and activities. When one considers this comes only weeks after the Special Branch illegally seized €11,000 of RSF funds, following our Ard-Fheis in November, it is clear all of this is part of a concerted campaign designed to intimidate our members, disrupt our organisation and criminalise us in the eyes of the public.

“However we will not be intimidated nor will we allow it to disrupt our organisation or our political activities on the ground such as contesting the Údarás Na Gaeltachta elections in April. This harassment merely galvanises our members and supporters, making them all the more determined to put forward the Irish Republican agenda of ending British rule in Ireland and building a New Ireland.”

THERE has been yet another change of tack by the 26-County Special Branch in relation to the Republican Sinn Féin funds grabbed by them after the organisation’s Ard-Fheis in November 2004.

These delaying tactics began with demands as to where the money came from, followed by requests to meet with the National Trustees of Republican Sinn Féin.

They then cancelled the meeting and demanded to know how the money was going to be spent. Finally, on January 14, two months subsequent to the seizure of Republican Sinn Féin’s funds amounting to €11,000, the solicitor acting for the National Trustees in a letter to the 26-County Special Branch demanded the return of the money.

On January 18 the Special Branch responded as follows: “It is the belief of An Garda Síochána that the money is the property of an unlawful organisation, namely the IRA and it is our intention to proceed with a Police Property Application under the Police (Property) Act, 1897.”

The Branch, invoking a 19th century British law, will apparently seek to have the funds confiscated in furtherance of their continuous attempt to cripple Republican Sinn Féin.

This attack on a century-old political organisation must be resisted. The voice that articulates the historic national demand for an end to British rule and the achievement of Irish national independence will not be silenced.

Republican Sinn Féin through its leadership and its members remains determined to “uphold the Republican Cause no matter what they do to us” (quoted from an Urgent Appeal to Members dated December 31 last).

Already members, supporters and sympathisers have rallied to defend the All-Ireland Republic which they serve.

Money has poured into Ard-Oifig, but still more is needed to maintain and build the organisation. Ní neart go cur le chéile!

ACCORDING to a report in the Village magazine’ (February 5 – 11) the 26-County state was close to bringing a prosecution against three people suspected of murdering Bríd Porter and Oliver Boyce in 1973, but it collapsed following a break-in to the laboratory in Belfast where the gun used in the murders, a major piece of evidence was stolen.

This information was not contained in the Barron Report and only emerged during the recent public hearings into the report on the 1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings.

Both Oliver Boyce and Bríd Porter were it is believed the victims of a British-backed loyalist death squad. They were found shot and stabbed in Co Donegal on New Year’s Day 1973. The brief of the ‘Barron inquiry’ into bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in 1972-73 and 1974 was extended to include cases such the murder of Oliver Boyce and Bríd Porter which occurred within the 26 Counties during the early 1970s.

During the recent public hearings before a Leinster House sub-committee a trail of British government non-cooperation is evident, equally worrying is the 26 County Department of Justice files relating to the bombings which it emerged during the inquiry have gone missing .

Two letters from the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, written on the same day but with two very different messages were read into the record of the public hearings. In one, to the family of a victim he pledged the British government’s determination to finding out what happened during this period. Yet in a letter to the head of the Dublin government, Bertie Ahern he said that the British government would only cooperate in a way that was “consistent with its responsibilities for protecting national security and individuals.”

A week after these letters were sent by Tony Blair, the British Six County Secretary, Paul Murphy in a letter to the chairman of the sub – committee in which he said he would not be able to provide the files requested because of the “considerable time consuming task of gathering information”.

A barrister for the Justice For The Forgotten group said these letters from the British government sent out a message of non-cooperation. He claimed the PSNI/RUC had files relating to fingerprints, photo-fits and suspect inquiries which were central to the investigation of the bombings and none of this information had been released.

He called on Leinster House to pass legislation removing the immunity of foreign states being compelled to participate in inquiries. “Nobody is above the law. The bombings of 1972, 1973 and 1974 were effectively murder and the government has to decide on the gravity of this issue. Murder was being committed and a key player in the process, the British government has refused to cooperate and provide information. This is in breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the British government has signed up to. The government is breaking its own law in this regard and are hiding behind the veil of sovereign immunity,” he said.

The Justice For The Forgotten group is already taking a case against the British government to the European Court of Human Rights on two grounds. Firstly, on the basis of their non-cooperation with the inquests and the inquiry and secondly on the grounds that there was evidence pointing to British collusion in the bombings. It will be a number of years before the case is heard.

Equally worrying is the files relating to the bombings which have gone missing within the 26-County state. This caused considerable confusion at the sub-committee hearings, as it did during the hearings last year into the bombings of 1974.

At that time it was discovered that the intelligence file relating to the Dublin bombings in 1974 was missing from the 26-County Department of Justice. The sub-committee noted in its report: “One of the most extraordinary revelations contained in the Barron report is that there is an amount of official documentation which has disappeared. Given that this was the largest atrocity in the state, it is astonishing better care was not kept of these documents.”

Similar problems have arisen relating to the report into the 1972/73 bombings. Both Judge Barron and 26-County Justice Minister Michael McDowell testified during the hearings that all information was made available. However there is confusion about what files were requested or seen. It has now emerged that the inquiry did not see the investigation file into the Clones bombing as this has gone missing.

Access to files relating to the bombings held in the 26-County archives has been denied to the Justice For The Forgotten group. After submitting a Freedom of Information request to find out how many files were being held in the archives relating to the bombings, a single page was made available which stated that the file had been withheld. The group has referred the case the Information Commissioner who has said she will take it up.

“Justice For The Forgotten is hugely concerned at the delay in setting up the Commission of Investigation that will examine among other things, the issue of the missing files. It is almost a year since it was announced and still no terms of reference exist,” Greg O’Neill, solicitor for the group said.

During the hearings before the Leinster House sub-committee disappointment was continually expressed at the non-cooperation of the British government both in failing to attend the hearings or opening their files for inspection. It also raised concerns about the missing files, the effective abandonment of the victim’s families by the 26-County State and the lacklustre nature and premature ending of the investigations.

On January 24, Israeli police arrested 41-year-old Irish American ISM activist, Patrick O'Connor, on suspicion that he was carrying a fake passport. 

O'Connor was on his way to Jerusalem after planting olive tree seedlings with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists in the path of the Wall in the 

occupied village of Biddu. For the past year, Israeli and international activists have supported the villagers of Biddu through nonviolent protest and legal 

appeals in their struggle against the destruction of their farmland for the building of the Wall. Patrick O'Connor resides in New York City and holds both 

Irish and US citizenship. He legally entered the country on his Irish passport in December, 2004 and has been working as a volunteer with the International 

Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement that advocates the use of non-violence in seeking an end to the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank

 and Gaza. He has received Masters' degrees from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and from Yale University. He has worked for

 the past fourteen years as a tireless advocate for human rights and the health and welfare of children with American and international nongovernmental 

organizations and has managed humanitarian aid programs in Morocco, Egypt, Mali, and the Gaza Strip. In 2003, travelling on his American passport, Patrick

 O'Connor was denied entry into Israel based on “secret evidence” that not even his Israeli attorney was allowed to see. It is likely that he was prevented from

 entering Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories because of his prior work in the West Bank with the ISM which included monitoring human rights 

abuses and supporting Palestinians in non-violent protests against the Wall. Israel routinely targets individuals and organizations through the use of 

“secret evidence” for deportation or by character assassination, innuendo and phoney allegations. As witnesses to the occupation, peace and human rights 

activists pose a “security threat” to the state of Israel, as do journalists and anyone else who can provide first hand testimony about the Occupation.

 Patrick O'Connor's tourist visa has been cancelled by the Ministry of Interior. He is being held in Masiyahu prison and is facing deportation from Israel.

For more information: Attorney Gaby Lasky: +972 054 441 8988; Patrick O'Connor: +972 054 553 9078.