Founding Members Michael Flannery, George Harrison, Joe Stynes and others founded The National Irish Freedom Committee in 1987. They did so out of concern for what they believed to be a betrayal of traditional Republican principles and values after the Sinn Fein convention was highjacked and the sitting leadership ousted. Their fears were well founded. It turned out that the agenda of the new leadership had more to do with maintaining the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that with achieving a united Ireland. In supporting the British initiated Good Friday Agreement (GFA) the new leadership of the reconstituted Provisional Sinn Fein (PSF) acknowledged and accepted the British occupation of six-counties as a fait accompli. In furtherance of that acceptance they proceeded to work within the existing political, military and security institutions, the same colonial era institutions that bedeviled the native Irish for centuries. For their part the British rewarded PSF with legislative and ministerial positions in the reconstituted Stormont government, personal protection by British security forces, and a free hand to control opposition to the GFA, thus, the continued British presence in the six occupied counties. In pursuit of this British mandate, PSF thugs resort to beatings, knee cappings, and murder. In founding the National Irish Freedom Committee the intent of the founding members was to build an organization that would safeguard and ensure that the traditional Republican principles and values would continue to be represented here in the United States of America. defined by Wolfe Tone and sanctified by the blood of countless thousands of patriots down through the centuries including Tone himself, Emmet, Pearse and more recently the martyrs of 1981, The leadership of National Irish Freedom Committee takes this responsibility seriously, has and will continue to abide by the intent of the founding members and by its charter. In so doing, the leadership has set forth clear and achievable objectives and has developed an action program to pursue and achieve those objectives in strict adherence to the founding members dictum.
George Harrison (1915 -
2004) George Harrison was born May 2, 1915, in Shammer, Kilkelly, County Mayo, in an Ireland oppressed and impoverished by British occupation. A year after his birth the Easter Rising, which was crushed by British troops, took place. Its executed leaders James Connolly and Padraic Pearse would become Harrison's heroes. As a young man Harrison worked as a wheelwright and a stonecutter. At age 15, he enlisted in the East Mayo Battalion of the Irish Republican Army. The Depression forced Harrison to leave Ireland. He first went to England, where, like many Irish emigrants, he picked crops and labored on building sites. In 1938 he came to New York, working first as a bartender and then on the docks. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and later became a security guard for Brinks Armor. Working at Brinks for 30 years, he fought for justice as a shop steward and union organizer. Over the years, George developed a relationship with the legendary transport workers' leader Michael Quill who would on occasion pass money to George to assist in George's life long commitment to supply the resistance in Ireland with the means to resist. Quill knew how the money might be spent and gladly gave it anyway. George supported freedom movements worldwide. Of George it was said, "Never met a revolution he didn't like." and to paraphrase the old ballad, "God grant you glory, old George, and open heavens to all your men, the cause that called you may call tomorrow in another cause for the Green again." To George the fight for Irish freedom was one with the world struggle against imperialism and racism. He stood vigil every week outside the British Consulate in New York to support the Irish people. And he was at every march against war and racism or in solidarity with the people of South Africa, Palestine and Latin America. In 1981 the Reagan regime prosecuted George, Tom Falvey, Michael Flannery, Paddy Mullens and Tommy Gormley for arming Irish freedom fighters. The "IRA Five" refused to deny the charges but waged a political defense. Witnesses on George's behalf included Irish leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and Sam Gulabe, United Nations representative of the African National Congress. (Dr. Gulabe, then known as David Ndaba, is today a colonel in the South African army and physician to Nelson Mandela.) The five were acquitted. George remained an Irish republican because he was an anti-imperialist and a socialist. Consequently he was the Patron of Republican Sinn Féin and an implacable foe of the Good Friday Agreement. Unfortunately, the fruits of George's and his friends' labor is now being bartered as the price of admission for revisionist former Republicans to participate in British direct rule of the six occupied counties in the north of Ireland. Adams and his purloined posse are swapping semtex for summer homes, guns for governmental positions, and they are cementing over arms dumps to secure their status as second class citizens in their Loyalist controlled state - not what George and his compatriots had in mind when they set about their clandestine weapons quest. But he never stopped thinking of the struggle. On the day he died, Harrison penned a verse for the newspaper Saiorse: "May the spirit of those who suffered in the torture chambers of the Empire of Hell animate us with enough strength to free the land of our heart's desire. In dedication to all my comrades--the living and the dead." George was in his ninetieth year and his passing leaves a huge gap in the ranks of Irish American supporters of the Republican Movement in Ireland.
Joe Stynes Joe Stynes was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland on January 15, 1903. Athlete, patriot, father and friend are words synonymous with Joe Stynes, the renowned Clan na Gael leader of the latter half of the 20th century. Around 1927, Stynes emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. He remained active in both North American GAA and emigrant Irish Republican groups. He regularly returned to visit Ireland, and represented America in football internationals against Ireland at the Tailteann Games in Dublin in both 1928and 1932. During his 1928 trip, he turned out once more for Dublin in their Leinster Final defeat to Kildare He also represented New York in challenge tour matches against Mayo in 1932and Kerry in 1933. In December 1932, he won a Dublin junior club title with Sean McDermotts. He won New York state championships with Kildare in 1938[ and with Kilkenny as late as 1947. Stynes was politically active in Clan na Gael, and after 1948 was leader of the few branches that had remained loyal to the rump of the IRA.In 1938, he signed on behalf of the American GAA an Irish-American petition for the release of Frank Ryan, the IRA leader imprisoned by Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War for fighting in the International Brigades. After the decline of Clan na Gael, and the outbreak of the Northern Troubles, he was sympathetic to NORAID. He sided with Republican Sinn Féin after its 1986 split from Provisional Sinn Féin, and in 1987 he co-founded the National Irish Freedom Committee (NIFC; Irish: Cumann Na Saoirse Náisiúnta) for its American supporters Joseph Andrew Stynes married Bridget Mahon 06-Jan-1930 in St Stephen RC Church at New York, New York. Joseph was born 15-Jan-1903 at Newbridge, Ireland. Joe was very active in the IRA which he joined in 1920. He was a friend of Michael Collins but after the treaty of December 1921 he sided with DeValera and the anti-treatyites. At Joe's death, Gerry Adams the Sinn Fein leader sent a message to the mourners. Seeking more details of Joe's descendants. Joseph died 29-Jan-1991 at New York, New York; Remains: Woodlawn Cemetery Joe was #1 to all of us who worked with him in the Clan over the last twenty or more years of this (now betrayed) campaign, and although I miss his guidance and experience, at times I am grateful that he missed the full extent of the current treachery. Joe was no novice to failure and betrayal. He witnessed the establishment of the Free State and with his brothers rose again in arms against the Treaty and the traitors who betrayed the Republic, for which they had fought and bled. He was jailed for his part in the Civil War and upon his release he left a divided Ireland and sailed for America. He joined the Clan upon his arrival in New York and remained faithful for life to the precepts of the Clan's Fenian legacy. My years with Stynes and Sheehan as my mentors opened for me a connection with a veritable Who's Who of Irish Republicanism stretching back to the Black and Tan era and the Civil War. Cosgrove, Healey and 0 Higgins were judged and found wanting as were Mac Eoin, Collins and Lemass. The arch fiend de Valera was skewered each and every week, as was Sean McBride, who deserted the Movement in the dark days before World War 11, and de Valera's programs of the 1940s (that lasted past the death of Sean MacCaughey in 1946). The heroes of the long struggle came alive once more. Cathal Brugha, Maire McSweeney, Sean Tracey, Dan Breen, John Joe Sheehy, John Joe Rice, Sean Russell, Liam Lynch, Liam Mellows, Harry Boland, Peadar 0 Donnell, Frank Ryan, Joe McGarrity, George Plant, Harry White, Joe Crystal, the three Mac's, Charlie Kerins and Richard Goss. South, 0 Hanlon and the Edentubber martyrs were remembered with pride tempered with regret. But it wag the martyrs of this campaign that brought the struggle full circle and unbroken. The Hunger Strikers, Loch Gall and the Gibraltar Martyrs were spoken of by younger members of the Camp who had known or served with many of the martyrs. But it was the murder of our fellow camp member Liam Ryan in 1989, that brought it back home to all of us. In old Joe's own words; "A shame and a waste of a brave Irish Patriot." Now before we create the image of Joe Stynes as a single faceted individual, we must remember that this great Fenian was also a repeat All Ireland Champion, a stalwart of the New York GAA and the father and grandfather of a large and loving family, and a man who followed baseball, football and other American sports, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention his keen appreciation of the French art of cognac making.
Guiding Principles
Two hundred years ago, Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish
Republicanism gave us the following principles upon which we base
our position regarding the reunification of Ireland:
to unite the whole people of Ireland regardless of religious conviction.
to break the connection with England, the never ending source of all political evil The National Irish Freedom Committee views the 1798 uprising led by Tone as no mere rebellion, but the beginning of an ongoing struggle for Irish freedom and unity that continues to this day. The subsequent uprisings of 1803, 1867 and 1916, the 1916 Proclamation of an Irish Republic, and the War of Independence, all historic events, nevertheless, were part of the same struggle. In each succeeding generation Irish men and women remaining true to Tone's principles continued to struggle, and many gave their lives, as did the men who died on hunger strike in 1981. We believe that the determination of the Irish people to be free will eventually overcome Britain's insistence on maintaining their colonial rule in Ireland. The National Irish Freedom Committee considers the British presence in Ireland and their colonial policy of divide and rule to be the root cause of the never-ending source of political evil that continues to plague Ireland. The success of this policy is due to the greed of collaborators in Ireland and elsewhere who are rewarded with power and privilege for their cooperation. The establishment of the so-called "College Green Parliament" of Gratton and Parsons was a prime example of how this policy was implemented. This parliament, which was created and used by the British to legitimize the infamous Act of Union of 1803, left Ireland vulnerable, defenseless and deeper in the colonial web. During the War of Independence when freedom and sovereignty was within reach, the British once more used the divide and rule policy to frustrate the will of the Irish people. In concert with their collaborators in Ireland, the British government enacted the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and engineered the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, for the sole purpose of maintaining its control in Ireland. Instead of independence and freedom for Ireland, these infamous political maneuvers partitioned Ireland into two parts, the 26-county Irish Fee State and the 6-county Northern Ireland State. The southern 26-county southern state was controlled from Leinster House in Dublin and the 6-county northern state was controlled from Stormont in Belfast. These British initiated arrangements led to a civil war between pro-treaty collaborators and Irish republicans who opposed the treaty and in so doing remained true to Tone's principles After the collapse of the Northern Ireland State in 1972 caused by the renewed armed conflict, the British moved to impede any progress towards unification. This time they invoked the support of the authorities in Dublin, first through provisions of the failed Sunningdale Agreement of 1974 and subsequently through the Hillsborough Agreement of 1986, which also failed and finally through the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Apart from legitimizing British rule in Ireland, these agreements provided for coordinated British and Irish military and police actions, extradition of Irish citizens to Britain and the use of other draconian measures designed to defeat Republicans in their quest for Irish unity. The National Irish Freedom Committee in defining its position recognizes the mandate of the First Dail Eireann (1919) as its justification to pursue and promote a united and free Ireland. This all-Ireland parliament was convened as a result of the only all-Ireland general election in 1918, which was won by Republicans invoking the principles of Tone and the 1916 Declaration of an Irish Republic. For the stated reasons the National Irish Freedom Committee will direct its energies and resources to further the cause of Irish reunification in accordance with traditional Irish Republican values and principles as defined by Wolfe Tone in 1798.
Action Progran
The Irish Republican Activists Support Campaign The NIFC supports the dependants of Irish Republican political activists, through Cabhair in Ireland, who are harassed and prosecuted by British and Irish authorities for promoting Eire Nua. This undertaking is an obligation inherent in the NIFC’s founding principles as espoused by Wolfe Tone i.e. 1) to unite the whole people of Ireland regardless of religious conviction and 2) to break the connection with England, the never-ending source of all political evil. As a result of constant police harassment at homes and places of employment, political activists and family members are being ostracized and marginalized in their own communities. As an added burden, political activists appearing before non-jury courts are subjected to arbitrary bail conditions that inflict severe hardships on their dependants. These arbitrary bail conditions are tantamount to a virtual state of imprisonment. All of these malicious tactics are designed to silence the voice of Eire Nua proponents, who are viewed by the ruling elite in both states as a threat to the status quo; hence, a threat to their own privileged lifestyles. The NIFC will continue highlight their plight. The Eire Nua Awareness Campaign The NIFC will engage in informational related activities to increase the level of awareness in the U.S of the Irish authored Eire Nua political program and the proposals contained therein to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ireland Eire Nua (New Ireland) is a comprehensive Irish authored political program designed to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ireland in the context of a British withdrawal. Initially proposed by the Republican movement in 1972, Eire Nua would reunite the British occupied six counties of Ireland with the rest of Ireland in an all-Ireland federation comprised of the four historic provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. The principle on which Eire Nua is based, envisions a system of government in which all creeds and traditions would be represented and all citizens could exercise real power, without any one group infringing on the right of others. This comprehensive and far-reaching program is in stark contrast to British imposed arrangements such as the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Sunningdale, Hillsborough and the faltering Good Friday Agreement, all calculated to copper-fasten and legitimize British control over the occupied six counties of Ireland. The NIFC will also endeavor to engage political leaders, the media and the American public in bringing pressure to bear on the U.S. government to reverse its selective visa denial policy directed at Eire Nua proponents. Eire Nua is a comprehensive Irish formula for a just and lasting peace in Ireland in the context of a British withdrawal. More importantly Eire Nua is an Irish alternative to the faltering British-initiated Good Friday Agreement, an arrangement that after many years in existence is still ineffective. | 
