Republicans protest Thatcher funeral

Republicans gathered at Free Derry corner on Wednesday to mark the ceremonial funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, with a black flag protest.

Protestors held a white line picket. (© Pacemaker) In the city's Bogside, members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement attended the protest, flying the flags to commemorate IRA and INLA hunger strikers. The prisoners died in 1981 after they starved themselves in protest at Prime Minister Thatcher's refusal to give them political status. Masked INLA men held a banner referring to Conservative MP - and close friend of Baronness Thatcher - Airey Neave, who was killed by a terrorist bomb. IRSP member Martin McMonagle said: "This is about remembering the victims of the Thatcher regime, of her misrule here in Ireland, the victims, particularly the hunger strikers and her shoot-to-kill policy." The demonstrator was defiant about marking the day in protest. "We're talking about a very evil human being who wasn't very seemly in treating the working communities in England, Scotland and Wales and here in Ireland," he said. Community workers say they will be working to keep things calm in the area this evening, as the area has seen disorder break out over the past week- during which petrol bombs were thrown and police attacked. In Belfast, a small number of demonstrators in the Falls Road area carried placards, some depicting hunger strikers, during a white line protest. Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has organised a series of white line/black flag protests across Belfast on Wednesday evening. Paul Maskey MP said: "The vigils are to give people an opportunity to mark with dignity and respect the hunger strikers and those killed through British state collusion and shoot-to-kill. "People can with dignity and respect commemorate their loved ones, friends and neighbours whose vision will live long after those that assisted in inflicting pain on our community and country are gone."

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