Republicans
and Socialists from all over Ireland assembled in Dungiven for the annual
commemoration to mark the 19th anniversary of the death on hungerstrike of
INLA volunteer Kevin Lynch.
Speakers
from the IRSP and Sinn Fein shared the platform yet again this year in what is
one of the only occasions throughout Ireland that this happens.
Eddie
Hogan from Cork, a recently released INLA prisoner and now member of the IRSP,
spoke of the IRSP's view in relation to the Good Friday Agreement and the
prospects of it's success. It is the view of the IRSP that the present
agreement will fail because of its internal and fundamental
contradictions.
He
paid tribute to and asked the gathered crowd to remember other activists who
were murdered as direct a result of their participation in the H-Block
struggle. Miriam Daly, Ronnie Bunting, Noel Little (all IRSP, assassinated by
SAS) and John Turnly (Irish Independence Party, killed by UDA).
He
also spoke of the Political prisoners still incarcerated as a result of the
political situation in Ireland. He said that all republican prisoners had the
right to be recognised as POWs, not just selected members of the INLA and
Provisional IRA. He called for political status to be given as a right to the
remaing INLA, Continuity IRA and Real IRA prisoners. He also called for the
immediate release of the remaining INLA POWs.
A
Belfast city councillor spoke on behalf of Sinn Fein. He claimed that the
agreement was not an end in itself but a transitional arrangement with the
outcome being a united Ireland. He also paid tribute to Kevin Lynch and his
nine comrades who died in Long Kesh in 1981.
Wreaths
were laid on behalf of the IRSP, INLA, Sinn Fein, Republican Sinn Fein, Kevin
Lynch hurling club, Kevin Lynch Flute Band and the Lynch family amongst
others.
