"I like tens of thousands more struggle daily with an unfathomable depth of pain, loss and sorrow, as the legacy of this war. I will carry to my grave the burden of that sorrow and the marks of their pain, our children’s children. We will, as we get on with life because life leaves no choice but to be got on with, in every quiet moment on every lonely hill, in every crowded, chattering hall, at the going down of every sun, hear the sound of our hearts breaking"

-- Bernadette McAliskey

I was curious to get my hands on a copy of Fourthwrite having read an Irish News headline;

"SF leadership leave republican hearts behind" which highlighted an extract from an interview by Brendan Hughes (one of the first hunger-strikers). The poignant headline caught my attention and the launch of the magazine by republicans to debate the peace process is the most positive development and long overdue.

A very active republican since the 70’s, I started campaigning for justice and freedom as a teenager in the Relatives Action Committee, moving to the H Block/Armagh committees, the hunger-strike campaign and elections on both sides of the border, anti- extradition campaigns and the recent Saoirse campaign. I did not endure imprisonment but like many other women, the length of time I spent in prison queues, prison waiting rooms, prison minibuses and public transport to get there and back amounts to a lot of time.

The price of being an active republican has been high in terms of constant persecution and harassment, house-raids, detentions and the constant threat of loyalist death squads. I think of those people who didn’t survive and coming from Tyrone, where we walked behind more coffins in one week than most people would walk behind in their whole lives, it leaves me extremely disappointed with the route the Sinn Fein leadership took. My belief is that the endless sacrifice of the republican community was too high for a power-sharing executive. Something which was on offer many years ago. Brendan Hughes is correct in his plea to republicans to:

"examine your consciences, take a good look at what is going on, if they agree - ok, if not then speak out"

Debate within the republican movement was and still is completely stifled. Many have great reservations about the peace process but do not speak out because they are afraid. Many have experienced the process of character assassination. Some may accuse me of advocating war because I’m opposed to the current process. Nothing could be further from the truth. I wouldn’t like to see anyone risk his or her life. One would need to be sure who their leaders were talking to and what they were talking about before going out to battle.

The article by Sean Hayes in Forthwrite No.2, "The Nomenenclature of Groups" highlighted for me this thinking where the author focused more on attacking the writers rather than debating the issues. If he is so sure of the direction Sinn Fein is taking, why be so defensive? He describes the writers as darlings of the media, taking up airtime and column inches while claiming that Sinn Fein still have such major problems being heard. Any one who follows political developments will know that Sinn Fein gets more airtime now than ever. It’s a pity they don’t use it more effectively.

I don’t for example, hear Sinn Fein calling for RUC disbandment anymore. They tell us that they don’t accept the Patten Report but they want it implemented in full anyway. Otherwise "history will judge Tony Blair and Peter Mandleson very very badly indeed". I’m not joking - that’s what Martin McGuinness said. Surely this must be one of the weakest responses anybody could make to British deceit. Nor is this the only area where Sinn Fein has diluted its programme. Notice how silent Sinn Fein is in relation to the issue that ex-prisoners be given freedom of passage when travelling abroad, especially to the USA. Numerous republican ex-prisoners have been deported from the United States. Why is the US Government allowed to continue treating republicans as criminals without a word of protest if the White House is supposed to support the Good Friday Agreement? Incidentally, why isn’t there a word of protest about continuing harassment and detention of republicans travelling through Heathrow Airport (three members of my own family have been subject to this, more recently my sister and her husband).

Of course Sinn Fein is now a growing parliamentary force. Didn’t the SDLP push the Nationalist party out of the way and guess who is pushing the boring old SDLP out of the way …..right! But as Sinn Fein’s Tony Catney points out,

"riding the two horses of working class resistance and Catholic new money - carries with it an inherent contradiction ………….."

That is a good quote. Its not just new money because everything is new now, New Labour, New Britain, New Future, New Sinn Fein, New Ireland, new Anti-terror Laws and now, a New RUC. Sinn Fein has moved to the position of electoralism and in so doing will advance in their electoral ambition because after compromising their republican principles that is the only thing they have left. They have subverted their ideals for political power. There are new people in Sinn Fein who were nowhere to be seen when it was necessary to picket a RUC barracks.