Write a commentNewry & Armagh Sinn Féin MLA Mickey Brady has handed in over 1000 individually signed letters supporting the name of Raymond Nc Creesh Park to Newry & Mourne Council. The Council are conducting a consultation in relation to the name. Commending those who supported the campaign and took time to register there views.
Mickey said "The vast majority of these letters of support for the name have come from people who live within the Park area.I was born and raised in Ballybot and I know that the people of area are angry at the way this whole affair has been sectarianised. I also know that those who accuse myself and this community of an absolute lack of respect and tolerance towards the feelings of the unionist community, have deeply insulted us. I personally have spent my life championing the rights of all irrespective of their tradition, and Ballybot has always been a welcoming community and neighbourhood.
He along with other Ballybot residents and Malachy Mc Creesh brother of Hunger Striker Raymond will be speaking at a Rally tonight at 7pm in support of the Raymond Mc Creesh Park name.
He concluded "Raymond McCreesh, Booby Sands and all those who died on Hunger Strike in 1981 are recogonised throughout the world. When he died on 1981 the late Cardinal O Fiach stated
"Raymond McCreesh was captured bearing arms at the age of 19 and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment. I have no doubt that he would have never seen the inside of a jail but for the abnormal political situation. Who is entitled to label him a murderer or a suicide?" Those words ring as true today 33 years on from those dark times.Raymond Mc Creesh and the Hunger Strikers were not criminals then, they are not criminals now and we will not allow their names and memories to be criminalised".
