330 ex-POWs enter fray
MORE THAN 300 former republican prisoners - including some of the North's most high profile republican figures - have backed Peggy O'Hara's Assembly election bid in Derry.
In a letter to the editor of this newspaper today, a total of 330 names are attached to a petition calling on all republicans in the Foyle constituency to vote for the 76 year-old abstentionist candidate when they go to the polls tomorrow.
Responding to the letter on behalf of Sinn Fein, ex-prisoner, hunger striker and Assembly election candidate for Foyle, Raymond McCartney, said the signatories represented only a small fraction of republicans imprisoned during the Troubles.
"Over 15,000 republicans went through the prisons in the course of the recent armed campaign. This list represents a very tiny percentage of that. However people are entitled to their view and I welcome the fact that republicans with a different position from Sinn Fin are contesting this election and seeking support for their position."#
Among those backing the mother of Patsy O'Hara - the Derry INLA man who died on hunger strike in Long Kesh in 1981- are former hunger strikers Brendan 'The Dark' Hughes and ex-Sinn Fein Mid-Ulster MLA and founder member of the Provisional IRA, John Kelly.
The man convicted of the 1997 assassination of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in Long Kesh, Christopher 'Crip' McWilliams, has signed the letter along with Old Bailey bomber and 32 County Sovereignty Movement spokesperson Marion Price and independent republican election candidate for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Gerry McGeough, who was interned for IRA gunrunning.
Journalist and well-known Sinn Fein critic Anthony McIntyre is also listed, along with former IRA explosives expert Tommy Gorman.
Prominent Derry signatories include local 32CSM spokesman Gary 'Donzo' Donnelly, well-known Creggan republican Martin 'Ducksie' Doherty, Patsy O'Hara's brothers, Sean 'Scatter' O'Hara and Tony O'Hara, and the founder of the Concerned Republicans Against RUC/PSNI and MI5, Danny McBrearty, whose brother George was gunned down by the SAS in 1981.
The list even includes the last-known survivor of the Irish War of Independence, Kerry man, Dan Keating who is 105 years-old, and a New York-based Catholic priest, Father Pat Maloney.
In the letter, the Concerned Republicans Against RUC/PSNI and MI5 group states that the 330 ex-prisoners view any backing for the PSNI "as a betrayal of everything republicans fought for" during the conflict with Britain, and that the PSNI continues to recruit informers to spy on republicans.
Sinn Fein candidate Raymond McCartney said: "In the course of recent weeks and months Sinn Fn brought the policing debate to communities throughout this island. I am confident that our message has been well received on the doorsteps and we are looking forward to the election on Wednesday."
He added that Sinn Fin will "respect the outcome" of the election and urged everyone else to do likewise.
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Weather for Derry
Friday 10 February 2012
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