A Donegal man has blasted the Irish Government for their failure to give proper recognition to the deaths of those who gave their lives for Irish freedom in 1981.
James Woods, attended a 35th anniversary march in Belfast for the ten republican prisoners who died on hunger strike in 1981.
He was struck by how communities in West Belfast have constructed beautiful plaques and commemorative murals of the men and women who died during the Troubles.
However, he feels that is a stark contrast to way the Irish Government treats republicans who lost their lives during the Troubles.
In a letter to Donegal Daily, Mr Woods wrote, “I attended the 35th anniversary march in Belfast on Sunday 14th August to honour the ten young men who committed the ultimate sacrifice by starving themselves to death for a cause that they and many others in similar circumstances of unequalled bravery had perished for.
“The 1981 hunger-strikes were ultimately a turning point in historical terms because the British realised that this was a war that they could never win outright by (especially when it was brought into the very heart of London’s financial district with devastating effect) Trying to extinguish the republican flames of self determination for an Irish people, who were prepared to resist colonisation to the bitter end.
“What struck me about the Falls Road as I walked alongside the thousands of people from the length and breath of the country was the continuity of commemorative plaques and murals of resistance adorning the gables of houses, and garden walls of men women and children who had died as a direct consequence of a ‘trigger happy’ occupying army and its myriad of secretive shoot to kill operatives.
“I cannot but feel ashamed by the antics of an Irish government who feel that they cannot give proper and just recognition to these men who died in the most horrific conditions in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh concentration camp.
“I suppose we will have to wait a hundred years before we have Fine Gael and Fianna Fail leaders (if they haven’t become extinct by then) tripping over themselves in their haste to mount podiums to give lectures about the poets, actors, authors, playrights, academics, and every day working people who took on the might of the British establishment in all decades leading up and through the 70s 80s and 90s?
“They will tell of how a distant relative of theirs spent years on remand in Long Kesh, or eventual interment in the dreaded H-Blocks, or claim that a grandmother took part the dirt protest and hungerstrike in Armagh’s women’s prison. Sound familiar?
It is no exaggeration to state’ that this jumping on the bandwagon is exactly what has been happening since the beginning of 2016, commemorating the one hundredth year since the 1916 rising. The Michael Martins and Enda Kennys of today are the same spineless type of characters who spat and jeered at the leaders of the 1916 rising as they were marched off to Kilmainham jail and imminent death by firing squad.
“To prevent this comparison being made in a hundred years time by someone like me writing to the papers, they should take the bull by the horns and put the weight of Dail Eireann behind these martyrs who have their places carved out in world history for ever more.
“Who knows, by that time they may realise that it was a grave and stupid mistake to give parity of esteem to the oppressor and the oppressed side by side on a wall of remembrance in Glasnevin cemetery.
“I look forward to an tUchtarain Michael D Ó Higgins as president of ALL the people on this Island paying a respectful visit the Falls road garden of remembrance.
Mise Le Meas James Woods.
