Speaking from Dublin Brian Leeson said: “Those who have conspired to bring the British Army to the K Club are guilty of organising a sickening public relations stunt. The perversion of incorporating the British military into a fund-raising event for an Irish children’s charity will not be lost on the people of Ireland. The British military has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. In one well documented case members of the Irish Guards were responsible for the drowning of a fifteen-year-old boy, Ahmed Jabar Karheem, in a canal in 2003.
"While it is no surprise that the SESIF are involved in organising a publicity stunt of this sort it is shocking that a children’s charity has lent its support to it. The parading of the British Army around the K Club will do nothing but cause division and distress to the victims of the British Army in Ireland. The British Army was directly and indirectly responsible for the murders of hundreds of Irish citizens over the last forty years. Has The Jack and Jill Foundation anything to say about that? Or has it anything to say to the parents or the siblings of those children who died at the hands of the British Army in Ireland? Has the Jack and Jill Foundation asked the relatives of those who died in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings what they think of their Irish Guards extravaganza?”
Leeson continued by outlining the true motives behind the K Club event: “Whether The Jack and Jill Foundation realise it or not, this event has nothing to do with reconciling relations between the peoples of Britain and Ireland or fundraising for charity. This stunt is just the latest attempt by Britain and her supporters in Ireland to normalise the occupation of the Six Counties.
"Like the royal visit last May it is designed to present a false image of normal relations between these two islands. And like that visit it serves only the interests of the ruling class here and in Britain. These lavish events in the banqueting halls of Dublin Castle and the K Club are nothing more than disgusting demonstrations of excess, where the rich and powerful come together to toast their own success and reaffirm the status quo.
"éirígí is calling on The Jack and Jill Foundation to withdraw their support for, and involvement in, the Irish Guards event at the K Club.
"They need to protect the integrity of their organisation and prevent it from being cynically used by those with ulterior motives. To do otherwise is to move out of the arena of charity and into the arena of politics, something which will inevitably cause division and reduce the level of support for the Jack and Jill Foundation.”
* éirígí is an Ireland-wide, socialist republican political party, formed in 2006 to provide a vehicle for the national, social and economic liberation of the people of Ireland.