Ógra Shinn Féin Organise events Nationwide to Commemorate Che Guevara's 40th Anniversary!

national | miscellaneous | event notice Wednesday October 03, 2007 16:54 by Be Like Che! osfnational at yahoo dot ie

Ógra Shinn Féin will be commemorating the death of Che Guevara Lynch on Tuesday 9th October and throughout that week, paying tribute to this international revolutionary by organising events across Ireland.

The events will be held to develop our understanding of Che and his relevance to the Irish struggle and progressive struggles throughout the world, some of the events organised will also have a ‘Hands of Cuba’ theme.

As well as vigils and public talks happening throughout the country, Dublin Sinn Féin are organising a Cuban Night on Thursday 11th October in Floridita Cuban Bar, Abbey Street which will include cuban food, music and dance.

There will also be a 'Che Guevara Weekend' organised in Derry from the 12th - 14th October which will include amongst other thingss a DVD showing on Che, an address from Cuban ambassador Noel Carrillo and a night of revolutionary music.

Tuesday 9th October this year marks the 40th Anniversary of the execution of Che Guevara.

Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power from the regime of the dictator General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959.

After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in Congo-Kinshasa, and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a military operation supported by the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.

After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a key figure of modern pop culture worldwide. An Alberto Korda photo of him has received wide distribution and modification, appearing on t-shirts, protest banners, and in many other formats.

The Maryland Institute College of Art called this picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."

Another lesser known fact on 'Gue' Guevara is his Irish heritage, most people seem to accept that Che's grandmother, Anna Isabel Lynch, was born in the west of Co. Galway and eventually she moved to South America. Once there she met a man called Guevara, and they had a child they named Ernesto who was Che's father.

Che was also to have reportedly set foot on Irish Soil as a plane that was transporting him re-fuelled at Shannon Airport.

However Che’s significance to Ireland goes far beyond that, his life and legacy of unrelenting socialist revolution and activism are a constant source of inspiration to young republican activists.

Be Like Che!

To find out about any events happening in your local area please contact osfnational@yahoo.ie