Republicans need to shun sectarianism and reach out to the unionist population, Gerry Adams said in Belfast yesterday. Speaking at a rally in the GAA's Casement Park in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes, the president of Sinn Féin told a crowd of 20,000 people to be proud of the hunger strikers.
He said the 10 men who died in the H-Blocks of the Maze Prison in 1981, and two men who died on earlier hunger strikes in the 1970s, were role models, "ordinary people who did such extraordinary things".
He also urged republicans to be confident in facing the future. "We need to have united leadership, we need to continue to be strategic, we need the confidence to take political power. We are transferring from power of those who have no right to rule over us to ruling ourselves.
"The challenge facing us is to be avowedly unsectarian and to face up to the challenge of making peace with the unionist section and that means we should not be afraid of making strategic compromises."
The rally was opened by MEP Mary Lou McDonald and Toireasa Ferris, a Kerry county councillor and daughter of Martin Ferris TD. Frances Black also sang.
Family members and friends of the hunger strikers read profiles of each of the 12 men. The daughter of Joe McDonnell, who died on July 8th, 1981, after 61 days without food, told the crowd that the family's life had been "constantly disrupted" by her father's IRA activities.
"When he was sent to Long Kesh [ Maze Prison], he had refused family visits as it meant wearing prison uniform, but he kept in touch with my mother through 'comms' [ clandestine communications]."
Former republican prisoners and their families taking part in a parade to Casement Park had donned thick brown blankets in memory of the men and women who wore blankets in protest at not being allowed to wear their own clothes.
Eibhlin Glenholmes of the Sinn Féin ardchomhairle denied the rally was political. "It's very obvious this crowd outnumbers any political party gathering," she said.
The GAA's central council had said that for the Antrim county board to allow the rally to take place would be at odds with GAA policy.
The families of the hunger strikers declined to be interviewed and said the controversy over the use of the ground should not divert attention from the anniversary.
At the end of Mr Adams's speech, Mary Lou McDonald thanked the Antrim county board of the GAA for allowing the sports ground to be used. The rally closed with Sinn Féin councillor Francie Brolly singing The H Block Song.
Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell criticised the use of Casement Park.
"I think . . . some people have tried to turn from this perception that the GAA is the IRA at play, but things like this will reinforce that perception," he said.