Saoradh remembers Strabane republican shot dead at height of Dublin feud

Micky Barr, aged 34, was shot three times in the Sunset House in Summerhill on April 25, 2016, at the height on an ongoing feud between criminal gangs in the capital.

On Saturday, April 29, members of Saoradh and the IRPWA marked his first anniversary in Strabane.

Tyrone republican and Saoradh spokesman, Packy Carty, delivered the main oration after a colour party marched to his grave and wreaths were laid.

He said: “The blame for Micky’s death lies squarely with the southern state and its proxies. Republicanism has had no part nor does it want any part of the criminal feuding that is tearing apart working class Dublin.

“Also to blame, are those former republicans who have besmirched the cause of Irish Freedom by siding with criminality and in doing so are blurring the lines between republicans and gangsters in the public’s view; providing the state with invaluable propaganda to damage the republican struggle.

“Let us understand, that the only ones who have benefited from the death of Micky Barr is the failed 26 county statelet that Republicans want to see overturned.”

Mr. Carty claimed the assassination of Mr. Barr was part of attempts to undermine republicans.

“The state has tried through this heinous deed to draw republicanism, at a time when it is strong and resurgent, into a counter-revolutionary trap that would set us back in our current task of rebuilding. In rising above this obvious entrapment, the discipline of the Republican Movement has been exemplary,” he said.

He went on to explain how the late Mr. Barr had been raising money for republican prisoners when he was killed.

Mr. Carty told supporters Mr. Barr would have been supportive of the establsihment of Ireland’s newest political party, Saoradh, which was founded a few months after his death.

“Volunteer Micky Barr was an activist. When he was killed, he was raising funds for political prisoners as an active member of the IRPWA.

“Had he lived he would have been a Saoradh activist and was well aware that the formative talks process was under way at that time,” he said.