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éirígí to Oppose British Army in Belfast

31/08/08

Belfast City Council will meet tomorrow (Monday) to discuss the prospect of allowing the British army’s Royal Irish Regiment to parade through the streets of the city.

Although previously discussed at sub-committee level and voted against by nationalist councillors, the motion now looks set to be passed by the Council in full session.

The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) has a long and inglorious record in the Six Counties.

They have been closely associated with organisations like the Orange Order and were notorious for terrorising the nationalist communities they were sent out to patrol.

One look at the lineage of the RIR explains its association with the worst kinds of sectarianism.

Formed out of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) in 1992, the RIR adopted both its personnel and modus operandi.

The UDR itself emerged from the bigoted B Specials, the Stormont-paid thugs who took part in the pogroms against nationalist areas of Belfast and the Battle of the Bogside in 1969.

In the early 1970s, a secret British government report noted that many UDR men were also members of the UDA and UVF death squads and that weaponry was regularly going missing from UDR barracks and finding its way into the hands of these organisations.

In 2008, however, Belfast City Council wants to honour the RIR for its role in a foreign war.

The British government has posted hundreds of RIR personnel to its war in Afghanistan, where countless civilians are being killed in NATO air strikes and military offensives.

éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson warned the Council that a public display of British militarism in Belfast would not go unchallenged.

He said: “This attempt to glorify the role of the RIR in the occupation of Afghanistan is part of a well-choreographed effort to normalise Britain’s other occupation in Ireland.

“In the last few weeks this has taken the form of a massive advertising campaign for the Territorial Army and, now, moves to parade troops through the streets of the Six Counties.

“All the parades in the world can't hide the fact that the British Army in Ireland is a force of occupation – the fact that the RIR are locally recruited mercenaries in no way lessens their role in that occupation.

“Whether it's in Ireland, Afghanistan or anywhere else, the RIR has played a shameful part in Britain's wars.”

Brian continued: “While the politicians advocating this parade are currently pontificating about peace in Ireland, the soldiers they want to honour are waging a brutal campaign against the people of Afghanistan. Just this week, the United Nations revealed that the so-called coalition forces had massacred 90 civilians in a single attack – among them 60 children. Against this backdrop, these politicians can only be described as hypocrites of the highest order.

“Before they pass this motion, Belfast City Council should be aware that éirígí intends to organise opposition to any British militarist stunt in the city and will be calling on all republicans, socialists and democrats to do likewise.”

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