Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 15:44:28 -0800
Subject: Protest Thatcher Visit in New York



>>>>Thatcher visit to New York to be marked by protests

Irish American activists in the New York tri-state area will
converge on a number of venues next week to express their outrage
at the continued feting of former British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher by well-meaning Americans who are drawn in by her slick
tongue and her hundred dollar haircut.

Activists from Irish Northern Aid, the Ancient Order of
Hibernians and other groups supporting peace in Ireland through
the rebuilding of the failed peace process, will demonstrate on
Monday, March 3, in front of the Carlyle Hotel at 35 East 76th
St., between 76th St. and Madison Avenue, at 6 p.m., where
Thatcher will be the featured speaker at a reception for the
Jerusalem Fund. Some 60 people are expected to attend the
Manhattan reception.

On Tuesday, March 4, activists will mount another protest, this
time at the Purchase, N.Y., campus of Manhattanville College,
where Thatcher will be honored at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising
awards dinner scheduled for 7 p.m.

"Over the years, Thatcher has  freely traveled the U.S. preaching
her particular form of democracy that is oftentimes critical of
U.S. support for peace in Ireland," said Dennis Prebensen,
chairperson of the Southern Connecticut Unit of INA.

"No one knows how many  millions of dollars  she's raised for her
private 'Thatcher Foundation,' or what the money is used for. We
will not let her visits go unnoticed." he added.

Thatcher has a long history of anti-Irish involvement, and is
responsible for the deaths of many Irish citizens including ten
Irishmen on hunger strike in 1981, the deaths of 9 men at the
Loughgall massacre in 1987 and the SAS murder of three unarmed
Irish people in Gibraltar in 1988.

Activists, who will travel from Long Island, New Jersey,
Connecticut and upstate New York,  are encouraged to bring
whistles, bin lids and banners to both demonstrations.

The New York-based Irish Northern Aid Committee, founded in 1971,
is a non-profit, humanitarian organization which raises funds for
the families of Irish political prisoners in British, Irish and
American jails.




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