McGuinness pays tribute to hunger strikers

Published Monday, 25 May 2009

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has addressed an event in Park, Co Londonderry, commemorating the 1981 republican hunger strike in the Maze prison.

He told the supporters who were marking the anniversary of the death of hunger striker Kevin Lynch, that the prison protest had fuelled republican growth and changed the political landscape.

He also told his audience that the political institutions now in place at Stormont should not feel remote from the lives of grassroots republicans.

He listed senior republicans who form part of the Sinn Fein team of elected representatives and political staffers, including former hunger strikers, former IRA prisoners and senior figures who survived being shot by security forces or loyalists, including party president Gerry Adams.

"Every Monday morning, without fail, I look around that room and I see former hunger-strikers and freedom fighters staring back at me," he said.

"People like Leo Green or Raymond McCartney or Jackie McMullan who were - like Kevin Lynch - literally prepared to give up their lives on hunger strike for justice in the jails.

"People like Sean Lynch or Alex Maskey or Gerry Adams who carried the burden of the freedom struggle and who still bear the scars of the battle.

"People like Martina Anderson or Sinead Walsh, people like Caral Ni Chuilin or Jennifer McCann or Mary McArdle, all of whom endured the brutality of state-approved strip-searching in prison and yet who maintained their republican dignity - and their good humour.

"People like Gerry Kelly or Bobby Storey, people like Conor Murphy or Padraic Wilson or Sean Murray, who helped lead the Long Kesh prisoners and who took the entire System apart - block by block - from the inside out.

"People like Francie Brolly, a civil rights veteran and former internee, or Francie Molloy, a veteran of Caledon and the civil rights struggle."

Mr McGuinness added: "So when you see the Assembly on TV, or look at Gerry Adams or Bairbre de Brun or myself in the media, always remember this: standing at our shoulders are the women and the men who stood at the front of the struggle when there was no alternative option but war, and who - when the time was right - had the courage and commitment and skills to create the new phase of peaceful and democratic change into which we have successfully led this society."

He added: "In the time ahead the best option for unionists is, I believe, to join - as equal, and influential, participants - in the onward march towards all-Ireland unity and national reconciliation."

Elections

His comments come against the backdrop of the European elections.

The Traditional Unionist Voice has hit out at the IRA background of some senior Sinn Fein figures and called for the party to be removed from government.

But DUP candidate Diane Dodds said her party was frustrating republican ambitions at Stormont.

"At the time of the last Assembly election Sinn Fein made various promises to their electorate," she said.

"Whilst their manifesto was long on promises, they have been proven short on delivery inside the Assembly.

"That is because of the hard work of the DUP.

"By staying on the field of battle in Stormont and by not running away from Sinn Fein, as some advocate, we have ensured their agenda cannot be advanced.

"Using devolution we have brought the Sinn Fein agenda to a grinding halt."

Comments

4 Comments

maggie in north west wrote (1,086 days ago):

Martin McGuinness may well stand in awe and wonder at the things accomplished by SinnFein. Thanks to them messing about with education my child has to sit a test in a strange school. the stress is on me too if I don't pay for this test I doubt his ability and could effect his life forever. When we see how single mothers and fathers too were treated in the South is it no wonder the unionists didn't want to be in a state controled by the church. Did Martin has a minute's silence for the victims of the south who never saw justice in their lifetime and their only "crime" being they were born poor.Victims of the church and the free state

lorna in limavady wrote (1,086 days ago):

When is SF going to realise that hunger striker marches only add to the hurt in both sides. Those who were the victims of IRA who see this going on every year and can't move on because its in their face.The other side we have the families of the hunger strikers who died for United Ireland being told thats their cause.Now we have Martin perfectly happy since he is in power continue to rake up the past. what the victims of the terrorist are told to forget.We continue to see innocent victims like the man in Coleraine and the boy in Ballymena killed by loyalists.

ross in tyrone wrote (1,087 days ago):

They are, if the DUP would stop blocking the changes to education.

Steven - Edinburgh in Edi wrote (1,087 days ago):

If SF really think that "the best option for unionists is, I believe, to join - as equal, and influential, participants - in the onward march towards all-Ireland unity" - then they should start showing it, by having their local councillors and MLAs make some decisions that directly benefit the unionist population specifically and exclusively. How can unionists feel that you are leaders if you're not seen to specifically help unionists? Instead, all we hear is petty arguments, jibes and party politics from SF. Yes, others are guilty too, but how about leading by example.