 righthand says: “As a mother who knows the preciousness of children, not just mine - but all children - I want the court to understand that before we walked into the recruiting station a million people had already died in Iraq from U.S. imposed sanctions, half of them children,” her sister Clare said earlier that day at her sentencing in Binghamton federal court. I wanted to show my support for the actions of the St. Patrick’s Four (SP4). But nearing the end of a short but concentrated tour of presentations in New York’s capital area, I’d nearly decided not to venture to Binghamton for the sentencing of the group. After arriving there I quickly realized it would have been a big mistake not to have come. “War is bloody. The blood we brought to the recruiting station was a sign of the blood inherent in the business of the recruiting station,” read the statement the group issued the day of their action, “The young men and women who join the military, via that recruiting station, are people whose li Double pop! THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by galla... We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called. I'm reading these powerful words again without a drink on me and I'm blubbering like a fool! Only once before in history has St.Patrick's Day and Easter fallen so close together. How appropriate that you should print these words on this day when the world now seems to celebrate our Irishness day. I thank you. By the sacrifice of those brave men who knew that death by execution was a possibility from the imperialist forces, the hard work by those at home here and the aid of our many friends abroad, we are in a position of giving back to the world those attributes that has given us favourite country status through peace and harmony. There is no substitute for the Irish personality and wit bu... |
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