BY RYAN MC ALEER
REPUBLICANS across Tyrone gathered on Easter Sunday to commemorate the 91st anniversary of the Easter Rising. Despite the national league decider in Healy Park, Derry MLA, Martina Anderson addressed a crowd of several hundred people in Carrickmore, while wreath laying ceremonies were held in graveyards and monuments all over the county.
The Carrickmore procession got underway shortly before 4pm with a single piper leading a parade of banners commemorating Tyrone Republicans who died during the Troubles. A Republican colour party followed ahead of the Martin Hurson and Kevin Lynch memorial flute bands and the Pomeroy Joseph Mary Plunkett accordion band.
The commemoration ceremony at the garden of remembrance was led by chairman of Tyrone National Graves Association Brain Crawley. The traditional readings of the proclamation and Tyrone brigade roll of honour were made before a wreath laying ceremony and lowering of the flag to a lament. A minute's silence was held before Easter messages from the IRA and Ógra Shinn Féin were read.
Newly elected Foyle MLA Martina Anderson then took to the podium to deliver the main oration of the afternoon. Still a rising profile in Sinn Féin but harbouring strong republican credentials, Ms Anderson reflected on the occasion and recent political developments within the context of the 1916 rising.
"The huge achievement of recent weeks has given us the potential through the institutions of power to make government accountable." She continued "We must use the template of 1916 of reaching out to communities in all their diversity, through all walks of life to build political strength, to build positive engagement on the basis of our common humanity."
A former prisoner herself, Ms Anderson in paying tribute to the Republican's who died in the conflict highlighted the 20th anniversary of the Loughgall ambush and acknowledged the 50 years since the border campaign of 1956-62. "They did what needed to be done in their day, which has brought us to where we are in the struggle to drive forward the unfinished business of 1916."
Ms Anderson spoke of a shared future and called on Republicans to engage with the Unionist community at every level of society. She referred to a "particular kind of Irish unity" based on "sovereignty and national reconciliation among all the people who share this island." She said the "hedgerow" dividing the communities that Ian Paisley described last week in Dublin "must be ploughed into the fields of history, and with that discrimination and injustice".
As well as identifying the active role that republicans need to play to ensure an accountable government, Ms Anderson pledged that Sinn Féin will "go into government to deliver for people in ending the two tier health system, in building social and affordable housing and delivering a proper education system" as well as bringing balance to regional development and addressing the "scandal" of so many young road deaths and suicide among young people.
On the issue of policing Ms Anderson who addressed the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis on the issue at the beginning of March described the challenge of the "momentous decision" stating, "We must continue on that journey and actively engage with structures to ensure that policing is accountable to the people."
"Collusion and the victims issue was also on the agenda while the prospect of a new bill of rights was described in terms of the North as "almost revolutionary.
Before the crowd dispersed Ms Anderson concluded that "1916 has given us the template and now a power sharing executive has given us the potential".
The day's procession was drawn to a close with the Martin Hurson memorial flute band playing Amhrán na bhFiann in the centre of Carrickmore.
