Statement by the Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin Des dalton
Republican Sinn Fein answer to the chairman of the ‘Irish Tourist Industry Confederation’ Dick Bourke iquoted in the Sunday Tribune of December 28 as calling on the Mayor of Killarney to issue an invitation to the British ‘Prince of Wales’ Charles Windsor to visit Killarney in 2011. Such a visit would mark the 150th anniversary of the visit by the then Queeen of England Victoria – the ‘Famine Queen’ - to Killarney in 1861.
Once more Republican Sinn Féin places on the public record our intention and commitment to oppose a visit by any member of the British Royal family to Kerry or any part of Ireland as long as our nation remains partitioned and occupied by the British state.
Mr Bourke’s intervention is but a manifestation of the ongoing attempts to normalise British rule in Ireland. The British occupation of the north eastern part of Ireland is neither normal or acceptable and Irish Republicans will not cease to use every opportunity to highlight that fact.