13/04/2025
Everyone Has the Right to Remember Their Dead As They See Fit - IRSP
As Easter nears, Irish Republicans from all parts of the country gather to honour our patriot dead—those who gave their lives for the liberation of Ireland. It’s a time of reflection, pride, and remembrance.
But as has sadly become tradition, we’re once again seeing an increase in PSNI harassment against activists involved in Easter preparations—whether it’s putting up flags, posters, tending graves, or simply being stopped and questioned about their plans for the weekend.
Just this week, a former Republican prisoner was convicted under so-called “terrorism legislation” for nothing more than wearing a Republican badge on his coat.
IRSP activists have faced similar political policing over the years. One member was recently convicted simply for holding a flag during a commemoration in Milltown. Others still face pending charges for acts as basic as wearing a commemorative t-shirt or badge while paying tribute to our dead. These prosecutions aren’t about law and order—they’re about silencing Republican voices and criminalising remembrance itself.
These draconian laws, born in Westminster but rubber-stamped by Stormont—including by Sinn Féin—are now being used to target the very communities they claim to represent. Sinn Féin, despite its talk of reform and PSNI accountability, has failed to defend the rights of Republicans to remember their dead. Now, their silence is costing even their own activists.
The IRSP stands firm in the belief that people have the right to remember their dead in their own way. Easter is a time for looking back with pride and forward with purpose. Yet the PSNI, driven by an ingrained hostility to Irish Republicanism and steered by MI5, continues to drag us backwards.
We will not be deterred.
