Republican Sinn Féin figure accuses rivals of 'selling out' at Easter commemoration

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A senior figure in Republican Sinn Féin has claimed that elements within the Republican movement have “cynically sold out for personal political gain”.

Sean Scott was speaking at the Easter Sunday commemoration by Republican Sinn Féin in Stranorlar.

Mr Scott’s father, Sean Scott senior, was active in the Pearse Column and took part in the Brookeborough raid in 1957 in Co Fermanagh which claimed the lives of volunteers Sean South and Fergal O’Hanlon.

A practicing solicitor in Clonmel and a Vice President of Sinn Féin Poblachtach, Mr Scott, who delivered the main oration on Sunday, was sharply critical of those in Sinn Féin - “reformist elements”, he called them - who have “cynically sold out”.

He said: “They have their party to the so-called Good Friday Agreement, or what should be called the Surrender Agreement, because that agreement, that failed arrangement, what it does is it copper fastens the partition of Ireland and it institutionalises sectarianism in the illegal six-county state. 

“These people have the absolute brass neck and audacity to turn up at Republican graves at Easter and other times for political purposes. The hunger strikers and Republicans who get their lives returned in their graves are what these people are doing. They are administering crown rule in the six-county state. They're sitting on policing boards...They attend royal weddings and funerals as loyal subjects of the crown.

“They attend the coronation of the King of England, Charles of Baton, Mountbatten-Windsor, the Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army that shot 14 innocent people up the road in Derry in January 1972.”

Mr Scott said that the Irish government and the Executive in Stormont “have failed the Irish people”.

He said that Éire Nua and Saol Nua policies “have stood the test of time and will form the basis of the New Ireland solution.”

Mr Scott said that the “cold-blooded” manner of the executions of the Drumboe Martyrs in 1923 was how the Free State was born.

“With the wholesale execution of Irish Republicans right across the country.,” he said. “The executions continued and built up in pace.”

Pat Barry read the Proclamation while Ester McElhinney read the Roll of Honour and wreaths were laid by Gerry McConigley, Katie Kelly and Sophie DeBarra.

The parade was led by a colour party and accompanied by the John Brady Memorial Flute Band.

Martin Duffy, a former Republican prisoner and a Vice President of Sinn Féin Poblachtach, from Lurgan in County Armagh, acted as the MC. He extended good wishes to Mary Ward from Burtonport, who recently underwent an operation and who usually performs the MC role at this event.

A statement issued on behalf of ‘the leadership of the Republic Movement’ said that recruitment to their organisation is “ongoing”.

The statement said: “We are a place apart with our language. If we lose it, we lose our earth. The nature of resistance is changing, and this movement forges new ways to deal with the imperial English proficiency of our country and the continued occupation. 

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“Their counter-revolutionary tactics and strategies are evolving, and we must evolve our tactics and strategies to thwart their efforts to capture our country. The movement is dedicated to the cause of Irish freedom. Towards this outcome, the Republican movement shall continue to stand to and strike at any time against the occupiers and their hirelings in Ireland.’