Sinn Féin objects to Stormont Venue for Gibralter Ceremony

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Friday March 07, 2008 13:54 by Cael - Sinn Féin

Mairéid Farrell Commemoration

A plan by Westminster MP and Stormont Assembly member Gerry Adams to hold a commemoration for an IRA woman in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings could be viewed as an insult to her memory, a spokesman for Sinn Féin Poblachtach said today.

RSF OBJECT TO STORMONT VENUE FOR GIBRALTER CEREMONY

A plan by Westminster MP and StormontAssembly member Gerry Adams to hold a commemoration for an IRA woman in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings could be viewed as an insult to her memory, a spokesman for Republican Sinn Féin said today.

Des Long from Corbally in Limerick, the Chairman of the Munster RSF Executive said that while Mairead Farrell was undoubtedly a brave Irishwoman and no one could object to her being remembered on International Women’s Day on 8th March, the venue for the event must be questioned.

The fact is she was engaged in a military operation for the IRA when she was killed in Gibraltar twenty years ago, he said. She stood up against British rule in Ireland and was prepared to tackle the British presence.

For Gerry Adams to advocate that her memory be honoured in Stormont – the very building she fought against – must surely be viewed as opportunistic on his part and a perversion of what Mairead Farrell stood for during her lifetime. Let her legacy be the way she died – and let her be remembered by the people of Belfast on the streets of Belfast – not in a building built and paid for by the British Crown!