Peggy running to 'smash Stormont'
THE MOTHER of 1981 Derry hunger striker, Patsy O'Hara called on republicans to 'Smash Stormont' when she launched her election campaign as an abstentionist independent republican candidate yesterday.
Peggy O'Hara (76) is seeking a "peaceful solution" to the North's problems and takes on the mainstream political parties in Foyle in assembly elections on March 7.
At yesterday's launch at Teach Na Failte in Lenamore Business Park, Mrs O'Hara said that she was running in memory of her son, who died after 61 days on hunger strike in May 1981.
"I decided to stand in this election because of when I think about my son Patsy and how he was burned and brutalised by the RUC. I don't want republicans to accept this force. They weren't acceptable in years gone by and they aren't acceptable now.
"The PSNI is the old RUC and nothing has changed," she added.
Mrs O'Hara added that she wants to see a united Ireland after centuries of "British misrule".
"One thing I have learned over the years is republicans should never trust the British to deliver on their promises. I should know, afterall my son Patsy would be alive today if the British had kept to their side of the deal that brought an end to the 1980 hunger strike."
She added that she believes the policing debate is "a red herring, a side show and a distraction".
"The main issue is the illegal British involvement in our country. There's no such thing as British justice. They don't know the meaning of the word. I am all for peace but this peace process is one sided and embarrassing," she said.
Mrs O'Hara accused Sinn Fein of accepting a "partitionist settlement" in backing the PSNI.
"My son Patsy and other brave republicans went to their deaths in the belief that they were fighting to get the British establishment out of Ireland once and for all. If they had known then that the struggle would end in support for the RUC then they would not have felt it worthwhile putting their lives on the line."
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Weather for Derry
Sunday 27 May 2012
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Temperature: 14 C to 24 C
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