Activists from the Republican political group Lasair Dhearg today targeted a British Army recruitment stall at Queen’s University.

The stall, part of a jobs fair organised for the recruitment of students into various fields of work, was manned by members of the British Armed Forces, extolling the ‘virtues’ of the organisation and its ‘activities’ across the globe.

Of the dozen or so activists from the organisation in attendance, a handful had managed to make it inside the venue to protest the attendance of the British Armed Forces.

Group spokesperson, political ex-prisoner & Blanketman Pádraic Mac Coitir, said that their activists did so “to highlight the human rights record of Britain’s Murder Machine in Ireland” and to make sure that prospective recruits were “made fully aware of the task they would be undertaking” when signing up.

“Britain’s armed forces and their proxies in the PSNI have for some time now continued their attempts to recruit young Irish people into their ranks. They have done so without much opposition, as their policy of making those forces appear ‘normal’ continues.”

“Generations of Irish people know full well that those forces are anything but normal. They are the blunt edge of a political machine designed to subjugate, steal and murder across the globe. They attempt to recruit mostly working class youth, with the promise of a career, an income, and supposed humanitarian missions, only for them to be shipped off to training camps where they will receive lessons in how to effectively kill other human beings.”

“Ireland in particular has suffered at the hands of Britain’s Armed Forces and has yet to receive justice for their war crimes in Derry on Bloody Sunday or in Belfast’s Ballymurphy Massacre; to name a few. These events were conducted by one of Britain’s most notorious gangs; the British Army’s Parachute Regiment.”

“Queen’s University should give due consideration to the history of such organisations in Ireland and reject their presence at events such as these. Not doing so allows them a pretence of ‘normality’. So long as Britain continues to recruit in and occupy our Nation, we will oppose their presence at all opportunities.”

“End the occupation. Britain out of Ireland.”

ENDS