Another one from the archives. But well worth a repeat
In 2006 a New Jersey branch of Noraid - the terrorist support organisation that raised funds for the IRA and Sinn Fein since 1969 – came up with a novel way to commemorate the H Block hunger strikes of 1981.
For the low, low price of $25 (plus $7 shipping) they are offered a commemorative plate featuring all 10 hunger strikers….
A PLATE?
Needless to say the families and colleagues of those who killed themselves on that protest were less than pleased by the choice of memorabilia.
Tony O'Hara, who was Bobby Sands's cellmate in the Maze in 1978, was a prisoner in the H-blocks when his younger brother Patsy became the first Irish National Liberation Army inmate to die on hunger strike. Three out of the 10 prisoners belonged to the INLA.
After seeing the plate online with his brother's image on it, O'Hara said: 'The image of Patsy and the other two INLA prisoners who died were hijacked a long time ago by the republican movement. What is unacceptable is that a group like Noraid, which has many right-wing supporters in America, never liked the INLA because they were republican socialists. Yet now they are using Patsy and the other boys' pictures.'
Richard O'Rawe, the IRA's press officer inside the Maze during the 1981 hunger strike, said: 'You eat food off a plate and yet they have brought out a plate to commemorate the men who died refusing food. It's tacky and just about making money.'
Frank Connell, of the Noraid Luke Dillon Unit and originally from Co. Cavan, said: 'Of course it's appropriate. No food after all will ever be eaten off those plates. They are purely commemorative.'
Noraid were a bunch of shitheads and for all I know they still are. This made them look like a bunch of idiots!
The original story was in the Guardian back i 2006
In 2006 a New Jersey branch of Noraid - the terrorist support organisation that raised funds for the IRA and Sinn Fein since 1969 – came up with a novel way to commemorate the H Block hunger strikes of 1981.
For the low, low price of $25 (plus $7 shipping) they are offered a commemorative plate featuring all 10 hunger strikers….
A PLATE?
Needless to say the families and colleagues of those who killed themselves on that protest were less than pleased by the choice of memorabilia.
Tony O'Hara, who was Bobby Sands's cellmate in the Maze in 1978, was a prisoner in the H-blocks when his younger brother Patsy became the first Irish National Liberation Army inmate to die on hunger strike. Three out of the 10 prisoners belonged to the INLA.
After seeing the plate online with his brother's image on it, O'Hara said: 'The image of Patsy and the other two INLA prisoners who died were hijacked a long time ago by the republican movement. What is unacceptable is that a group like Noraid, which has many right-wing supporters in America, never liked the INLA because they were republican socialists. Yet now they are using Patsy and the other boys' pictures.'
Richard O'Rawe, the IRA's press officer inside the Maze during the 1981 hunger strike, said: 'You eat food off a plate and yet they have brought out a plate to commemorate the men who died refusing food. It's tacky and just about making money.'
Frank Connell, of the Noraid Luke Dillon Unit and originally from Co. Cavan, said: 'Of course it's appropriate. No food after all will ever be eaten off those plates. They are purely commemorative.'
Noraid were a bunch of shitheads and for all I know they still are. This made them look like a bunch of idiots!
The original story was in the Guardian back i 2006
2 comments:
The whole commemorative plate thing has been dumb since it began but this is just sad.
You reminded me of another one I saw on Regretsy last year (a site devoted to questionable stuff purveyed mostly, but not all, by Etsy).
Utterly stupid eh? As for that plate on Regretsy... what can one say!
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