IRISH REPUBLIC: SINN FEIN RALLY MARKS 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1916 EASTER UPRISING AGAINST BRITISH RULE IN IRELAND

Record ID: 215326

  • Title: IRISH REPUBLIC: SINN FEIN RALLY MARKS 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1916 EASTER UPRISING AGAINST BRITISH RULE IN IRELAND
  • Date: 27th April 1996
  • Summary: DUBLIN, IRISH REPUBLIC (APRIL 27, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: STATUE OF DECEASED REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN CHARLES STUART PARNELL, PAN TO MARCHERS 0.06 2. SV: MARCHERS WITH BANNERS (2 SHOTS) 0.18 3. GV: MARCHING BAND 0.27 4. GV: CHILDREN IN BAND/ MARCHERS/ CU DRUM (3 SHOTS) 0.45 5. MV: BANNERS/ MARCHERS (3 SHOTS) 0.5
  • Embargoed: 12th May 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DUBLIN, IRISH REPUBLIC
  • City:
  • Country: Ireland
  • Reuters ID: LVA38ACBOGMOZH0HN6ZAJZA7MVSU
  • Story Text: INTRO: Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) tells a republican rally that planned Northern Ireland peace talks are doomed if his party is refused a place at the talks.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- During a nationalist rally in Dublin on Saturday (April 27) to commemorate the 1916 Easter Uprising, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams warned the British Government that the peace talks are doomed unless his party is allowed to take part.

    But Britain is maintaining that the IRA (Irish Republican Army) must end its campaign of violence before its political wing Sinn Fein is admitted to the June 10, 1996, talks.

    Backed by supporters in Dublin, Adams vowed to challenge the bar.

    One marcher ridiculed the British government by wearing a mask of British Prime Minister John Major.Others carried banners calling for the freeing of jailed IRA activist Pat Kelly, who's dying of cancer.

    Adams's comments were seen as the opening shots in what promises to be a tense election campaign in Northern Ireland leading to a May 30 poll, after which parties will select negotiators for the June talks.

    Speaking at the rally Adams said Sinn Fein would be demanding its place at the negotiation table on June 10.

    He said Sinn Fein would be fighting the elections to give Irish nationalists the opportunity to assert their position.

    Adams insists that Sinn Fein is a separate entity from the IRA and argues that it is entitled to a seat in talks based on the votes that it has won in previous elections from Catholics.

    Britain views Sinn Fein and the IRA as Siamese twins and has been prepared to have direct talks with the political arm only when the IRA declared a truce which triggered hopes of political progress to permanent peace.

    The May poll, which will be contested by the province's majority pro-British Protestants and minority pro-Irish Catholics, is overshadowed by London bombs marking the collapse of a 17-month IRA truce and sectarian tension surrounding rival street parades.

    IRA guerrillas tried to destroy London's Hammersmith Bridge this week with a powerful bomb which failed to detonate properly.

    It was the sixth attack in a renewed campaign which so far this year has claimed three lives, including that of an IRA bomb-carrier.


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