Young Republican, Summer 1983

Many thanks to the person who forwarded this document to the Archive. It is an eight page publication, Young Republican, the newspaper of Na Fianna Éireann – the Republican Youth Movement.

The paper carries a statement from the Fianna leadership:

NA FIANNA EIREANN (Irish Republican Youth Movement) remembers with pride our 19 comrade Fiannaidhe who have given their lives in the present phase of the struggle for Irish freedom, and their grieving parents. Their selflessness and their sacrifice is a continuing source of inspiration to the youth of this country.

We take this opportunity also to salute our members imprisoned in juvenile detention centres, remand jails and prison camps throughout the country. They are the children of war. the imprisoned youth of a nation in struggle, a thorn in the side of our country’s oppressors, unrepentant and defiant.

Na Fianna Eireann exists to promote the principles of Irish Republicanism among young people. And in every generation, from the days of the Great Lock-Out of 1913 and the Howth gun-running to the present day, Na Fianna Eireann has passed the torch of militant separatism and democratic socialism to young people. The passing years have seen each new generation denied its birthright, deprived of freedom and of justice, taking up that torch and fighting back with every weapon at its disposal.

Today, the welfare of young people is under attack as never before. With rising unemployment and increasing poverty, the most vulnerable section of society, the young,are being hit the hardest.

Young people are discriminated against on the basis of their age and sex.

Pathetic Youth Training Programmes in the North and industrial training schemes in the South offer no solution and no hope to young people. They are aimed at cutting the numbers on the dole queues without creating real jobs with real pay. The only people fooled by these schemes are the hacks and dupes of the establishment parties. Our youth are both astute and articulate and will ultimately show their contempt for this shoddy farce.

In the North, young people face the naked repression of the British army and the R UC. Stopped and questioned on their own streets by foreigners or loyalists; brutalised, humiliated and intimidated, young people have borne the brunt of the continued British presence in Ireland. Little wonder then that they are the back-bone of resistance to British imperialism.

Na Fianna Eireann sees its role in the future as training its members for further involvement in the Republican Movement and bringing to the youth of this country, and to all freedom-loving peoples, the message of Wolfe Tone, James Connolly, Liam Mellows and Bobby Sands.

We call on the voung people of this country lo support the struggle for Irish freedom, to stand up and b& counted on the side of justice and peace because there is no peace where there is injustice, and there is no justice where there is no freedom.

Note the mention of ‘democratic socialism’.

An article engages with ‘Women and Ireland’. This criticises the Article in the Constitution about ‘her life in the home’. It also argues that ‘through the years many women rejected the roles which were accorded to them by this capitalist society’.

There’s an interview with the IRA which, interestingly, examines the following:

YR: What is the relationship between tha IRA and the INLA, and what kaeps the two organisations apart? Is there a danger of a feud in the future?

IRA: The IRA, and the INLA (which is a very small organisation) live in the same areas, and, because the IRA carries out the bulk of military operations, there have been very few clashes on the same types of targets. There are political differences which history tends to make insurmountable. There was comradely co-operation int he 1980 and 1981 hunger-strikes.

The interview also considers the relationship with ‘international terrorism’.

Other articles look at the history of the Fianna Oga.

The last page of the document exhorts readers to join Na Fianna Eireann and notes:

Na Fianna Eireann is the revolutionary youth organisation of the Republican Movement. Founded in 1909 by the Countess Markievicz, “to train the youth of Ireland to fight Ireland’s fight when they are older”, Na Fianna Eireann has played an important part in every campaign in Ireland’s struggle for freedom since 1916. Today, Na Fianna Eireann maintains the ideals for which it was founded and offers an opportunity to young republicans to work for national liberation through political, cultural and scouting activities.

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