Speaking at a memorial for Lt. Col Thileepan, who died in 1987 during an 11-day hunger strike to demand that India fulfil its promises to the Tamil people, former President of the Irish Republican party Sinn Fein, Des Dalton, maintained support for the Tamil community and their struggle for “national sovereignty, independence and autonomy”.
During his speech, Dalton drew on his memory of Bobby Sand’s 1981 hunger strike during which, Sands, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, alongside a number of other Irish republicans fasted till death against Britain’s removal of Special Status for political prisoners.
The hunger strike, Dalton notes, was a pivotal moment as it was a rejection of Britain’s claim that “this was not a political struggle and it was not a war of national liberation but rather one of criminal enterprise”.
Dalton further stated that hunger strikes in Ireland go further back to 1917 where Irish Republicans were fighting for the same political status and those who undertook the hunger strike “they knew very well that this was something that could likely lead to their deaths and sadly it did for 10 of them”.
Sands was elected as a public representative and a parliamentary representative with over 30,000 votes in an April 1981 by-election, becoming a voice for many Irish Republicans.
Commenting on his death, Dalton states:
That “these men were allowed to die in the hunger strike and this is one of the greatest crimes and one of the many crimes committed by the British government in our country in which they would allow even public representatives to die in hunger strikes”.
He further notes that despite the British attempt to strip republican prisoners of their special status, the Republicans were ultimately successful as “the British government was forced to accept that these men were in fact political prisoners and political status was restored to the H blocks”.
He concluded his speech expressing solidarity with the Tamil people, maintaining that their struggle “was closely followed by the Irish Republicans over the years and over the decades” and continues to be to this day.
“Till date, we will certainly support the Tamil people and the right to national sovereignty and to independence and autonomy”.
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