Ógra Shinn Féin Laighean Demand Basque Hungerstriker Release

On Saturday the 18th of November Ógra Shinn Féin - Cúige Laighean held there second meeting ever. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a plan of work for the coming year. The meeting was attended by Ógra actives from all over the Cúgie, areas like Dundalk , Kilkenny and Meath were all represented.

The meeting was very productive with topic ranging from campaigning on the Hill Tara issue to fundraising and organising Ógra weekends within the Cúige.

After the workshops on “planning for the coming year” finished, areas report on what local work was being done at the moment. The reports that were been given show a hive of activity with in the Cúige, with banners being made, leaflet drops, talks being organise, trips being planned to the Blocks and one area even planning a sponsored swim in the ice waters of the sea in early January to name just some of the work that is happening with in Leinster Ógra. There was also a political up date as part of the meeting with Ógra activist raising a number of interesting points around current developments.

When the meeting was concluded Leinster Ógra Shinn Féin members joined with there comrades from Dublin Ógra and had a leaflet drop and petition signing out side the GPO highlighting the issue of José Ignacio de Juana Chaos Hunger Strike and calling for his immediate release as part of Ógra A.R.I.S.E.( Anti Racism Imperialism Sectarianism Exploitation) campaign

José Ignacio de Juana Chaos is a political prisoner from the Basque country and has commenced a second hunger strike after being forced feed off the first one. This time he say’s it till the end, He did so on the eve of his sentencing 11th of November in protest against the expected term of 12.5 years, which has been handed down by the Spanish court, this sentence is for promoting 'terrorism', [de Juana Chaos authored a series of articles calling for the continuation & escalation of ETA's armed campaign.]

There were hundreds of leaflets handed out and dozens of names collected for the petition. Speaking at the leaflet drop Leinster Ógra Shinn Féin organiser Eugene Garvey said,

“As Ógra actives we feel meeting are only worth having if something productive comes out of them, we don’t do talking shops. When we see a campaign that we should be backing or highlighting we go out on the streets and do so. As Irish republicans we understand what a hunger strike is all about, it is the last form of protest taking by people in desperate situation. We are acting on this issue today because tomorrow may be too late.”