Windsor for the éirígí Guillotine

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Friday April 08, 2011 01:13 by éirígí PRO - éirígí

Details of latest anti-royal visit protest announced

As the controversial itinerary for the upcoming state visit by Elizabeth Windsor is revealed éirígí have announced the details of their latest protest against that same visit. The protest, which is set to take place at 1pm on Saturday April 16th at the GPO in Dublin, will feature a piece of street theatre which will see ‘Elizabeth Windsor’ beheaded in a French revolution- style guillotine.

March 12 Protest at British Embassy

Speaking in advance of the protest cathaoirleach éirígí, Brian Leeson, said,

‘Our protest on April 16th will take place just one month before Windsor is scheduled to visit Dublin. It is the latest in a series of similar protests that éirígí have held over the last five years in opposition to all visits to all parts of Ireland by the British royal family. On this occasion our protest will include a piece of street theatre which will see an effigy of Elizabeth Windsor symbolically beheaded in a mock guillotine.

‘We have deliberately chosen the guillotine to make a very serious political point. It is closely associated with the French revolution, when the people of that country threw off the chains of monarchy in favour of freedom and republicanism based on equality, liberty and fraternity. And that was over two hundred years ago.

‘Yet here we are two centuries later and our people are still expected to bend the knee to a woman who was born into her role as head of the British state and commander-in-chief of the British military – a state and a military which continue to occupy the Six Counties.
‘The mock guillotining of Elizabeth Windsor symbolises that which needs to happen to all of those political and economic systems which are based upon inherited privilege, imperialism and class. The time of monarchy, imperialism and exploitation is well and truly past. Nothing makes that point quite as clearly as the guillotine.

‘We are inviting people from Dublin and beyond to join our protest at the GPO. It is clear that many, many people across Ireland are opposed to this visit. Now is the time for those people to come onto the streets and make it clear that if this visit goes ahead it will be met by widespread protest and defiance.