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Truth and Justice rally denounces Queen's visit printable version

24 Jun 2012: posted by the editor - Ireland

The Truth & Justice—Not Jubilation march and rally, which made its way from Dunville Park on Belfast´s Falls Road to City Hall on Saturday, attracted well over 1,000 people. The event was called to highlight the plight of the victims of British state violence in advance of the visit of Elizabeth Windsor, the commander-in-chief of Britain´s armed forces, to the Six Counties.

The daughter of assassinated Sinn Féin vice-president Máire Drumm, also named Máire Drumm chaired the event and gave the opening address to those in attendance.

"My mother, who was also called Máire Drumm, was murdered by agents of the British state as she lay in a hospital bed in October 1976.

"Many of the older ones among you will remember my mother.

"She was a senior member of the republican leadership and she travelled the length and breadth of this island organising opposition to the British presence in our country. She lived and toiled ceaselessly to highlight the injustice and suffering which the British state was causing in our communities.

"For many people, my mother's voice was the voice of resistance and the voice of justice. And it was for that reason she was murdered.

"Had my mother been still alive, she most likely would have been addressing you today. But my mother is not. The forces of the British state ensured that.

"As her daughter, I am both proud and humbled to have been asked to chair this meeting.

"On Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, the British queen will visit the Six Counties.

"That visit has presented us with a very unique opportunity to highlight the fact that hundreds of people, of all ages, met their deaths at the hands of British Crown forces and their agents in Ireland during the course of the present British monarch's reign.

"Many more were injured or endured physical and psychological abuse by those same forces. Prisoners have been tortured and abused.

"Marian Price is one such victim. She is suffering from trauma created by her incarceration. The state has now tried to override this before the United Nations visit on Monday. Transferring Marian to a psychiatric hospital without her informed consent is yet another violation of her rights. She should be immediately released.

"Countless families across Ireland still live with the painful reality of the tragedies, distress and anguish brought to their homes by those forces of which the British monarch is commander-in chief.

"The unchanged nature of Britain's attitude to the families of those it murdered was highlighted last Monday. New proof in the form of official British government documents revealed how, in July 1972, the state officially sanctioned the use of deadly force by its troops against Irish citizens and ensured that those crown forces would not be prosecuted.

"Evidence that the 1972 policy still remains a central part of current British policy was demonstrated by the revelation on Wednesday that the British government had rejected a demand by the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy and Springhill Massacre for a public inquiry into those state murders. Those families are all here today and are very welcome.

"The media, the politicians, the great and the good would prefer us to keep silent about Britain's crimes in Ireland.

"We refuse to be silenced. Our voices will be heard.

"There are a number of speakers who will address you today.

"All have one thing in common.

"They all have had members of their families murdered by British state forces or by its agents, or else they themselves have been victims of state violence.

"Many hundreds of people, men, women and children were murdered by the official and the unofficial forces of the British state. The experiences you heard today are mirrored by the experiences of many in this crowd, and are mirrored again in every part of the Six Counties. We should never forget that British state violence also extended into the Twenty Six Counties and left behind a similar trail of death and heart-ache.

"I want to thank everyone who played their part in ensuring that the murderous reality of the British presence in Ireland, conducted in the name of the British queen, has been well and very fittingly highlighted today.

"The relatives who spoke all deserve our appreciation. It was not an easy thing for them to do.”

Damian Donaghy, who, at the age of 15, was the first person shot on Bloody Sunday said: "I stand here as a man who was wounded on Bloody Sunday by the British armed forces. I stand here disgusted that so-called Irish republicans will meet and greet a queen, who, 40 years ago, decorated the Parachute Regiment with medals of honour for their part in the murder and attempted murder of innocent people on the streets of Derry.

"Furthermore, two years on from the Saville Inquiry, Dave Cleary, Soldier F, who murdered four and wounded four on Bloody Sunday and who was also involved in the Ballymurphy massacre, retains his medal of honour from Lizzie Windsor.

"The Queen´s Jubilee and future engagements in Ireland should be treated with distain. How can Irish republicans justify and rationalize their engagement with a supporter of murder in Ireland?"

The gathering was also addressed by Fra McCaughey, the sister of Sam Marshall, who was murdered by a pro-British death squad in Lurgan in March 1990 and by Linda Nash, whose brother William was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

Fra McCaughey said: "My brother, Sam Marshall, was murdered on Wednesday, 7th March 1990. Twenty two years on from that tragic event, my family are still awaiting the full truth to be told.

"We know that the British state lied about Sam's murder. We know that a cover-up of state involvement began immediately after the shooting. We know that Sam and his two friends were the subject of an intense British military operation on the night of the murder. Nine undercover British soldiers were involved, using six unmarked cars. The operation was initiated by Special Branch.

"We are convinced that members of British state forces, including British military intelligence and the Special Branch, were directly involved in the planning and commission of his murder.

"Responsibility for Sam's murder rests with those who armed, directed and controlled the killers - the blame rests with the policy makers in the NIO, the politicians in Whitehall and Downing Street, the Special Branch, MI5 and British Military Intelligence.

"We should not have to remind ourselves time and time again - the British state and its forces organised and directed death squads.

"We have already been fighting for truth for the past twenty two years. We are prepared to fight for another twenty two years if necessary.

"We are also conscious that there are many other families in the same position as our own - families here today who are still suffering from the pain and grief of their loss - and who still have not known truth or justice during the long years since the unexplained deaths of their relatives.

"Truth and justice is all that the many other families in the same position as our family are asking for. The full truth of why many other families lost their loved ones is the very least that relatives and survivors are entitled to.

"Unless the British queen is going to announce next week that she will instruct her government and her forces to open up their secret files and set the truth free, then I and my family see nothing to celebrate."

Linda Nash said: "I am the sister of William Nash, who was murdered by the Queen´s forces on Bloody Sunday.

"My father was also injured, shot twice, as he tried to help his dying son.

"I am here today to give reasons why I believe Martin McGuinness should not meet or greet the Queen of England and why her Jubilee celebrations in Ireland should be shunned.

"Does Martin forget that the Queen decorated the Parachute Regiment and that they remain decorated? Does he forget the role of the Queen´s forces in Derry and the murder of innocent civilians and children such as Manus Deery, Annette McGuigan and many more?

"Can you sleep at night having given orders to young Irish men and women to attack the Queen´s forces when many of these man, women and teenagers were then murdered? I hope you are happy with your new found friends Martin. For they are the employers of the men who murdered our loved ones.

"Your actions, in my opinion, are traitorous."

Tags: Royal Jubilee, Máire Drumm

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