Dublin ÓSF condemn desecration of Seán Russell Memorial

dublin | history and heritage | news report

Thursday July 30, 2009 23:11

by Anti Fascist - Ógra Shinn Féin

Ógra Shinn Féin Dublin has condemned the attack on a statue commemorating Irish Patriot Seán Russell.

Unknown individuals painted Nazi flags on the base of the monument late on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and also poured red paint over it.

The new bronze memorial to Seán Russell,a veteran of the Easter Rising and IRA chief of staff during the bombing campaign launched in London in 1939, stands in Fairview Park in Dublin and was only recently unveiled by the National Graves Association following the destruction of a previous memorial by vandals in 2004.

The 2004 attack followed a year-long campaign in the Sunday Independent aimed at discrediting Russell’s memory and was claimed by a previously unknown group claiming to be anti-fascists. The National Graves Association has previously invited those who claimed responsibility for the 2004 attack to take part in a debate about the life of Seán Russell, to which they received no reply.

Commenting on the attack, Ógra Shinn Féin's Dublin organiser Marcas Ó Mhaoldomhnaigh said:

"This attack on a memorial to an Irish patriot is a disgrace. Those who carried it out clearly know very little about Seán Russell or what he stood for."