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We, the family of hunger strike martyr Patsy O Hara, wish to congratulate the Derry City Hunger Striker Memorial Fund for all the work they carried out during the past four years to raise funds for a fitting tribute to the H-Block martyrs from Derry who died in 1981.
We also wish to thank the Ard Comhairle and members of the IRSP who helped ensure that a fitting tribute will stand for years to come to memory of Patsy and his other Comrades! Special thanks to all those who took part in recording the cassette, 'Memories of a Hunger Strike'. We view with dismay the furore this week to once again attempt to Criminalise Patsy and his Comrades. These men died during a War, a war of Liberation, and as Combatants in that War are entitled to such a monument. And as Republican Socialists they died for a dream of a better life for all the people in this City, the Working class. So this tribute should be seen in the context of their sacrifice and ideals. To the ones that would want to have this removed, we say let us remove all the War Memorials at the same time! Including the World war memorials like the one that stands in our city's diamond, that Commemorates a terrible sacrifice for the world! Finally, we would like to offer special thanks to the people of Derry City, who kindly contributed to the various fund raising events that were undertaken to fund the building of the monument. Without your support the monument may never have been built. Now that the monument is standing, we would like to publicly question Sinn Fein's behaviour in regard to the fund-raising activity. It is not that they were not supportive of this memorial, but that prominent members of their movement actually discouraged other people from supporting the effort to have the monument built. Sinn Fein's active attempts to discourage others from supporting this effort is a slur to the hunger strikers and an insult to the people of Derry. |