It has been 19 years since Patsy's death on hunger strike, nearly two decades, and yet the sorrow feels all too near us today, as we join you in rememberance of that brave soldier of the Irish National Liberation Army.

Patsy's death was felt deeply by the Irish Republican Socialist Movement's supporters here in North America. Not only was he the first INLA volunteer to die during that long and bitter hunger strike, but we knew the fight he had had to wage as INLA OC in Long Kesh to have the concerns of his men treated with the respect they deserved. We knew that the INLA volunteers had been slow to accept the British lies of the previous December and quick to deside that they were prepared to resume the hunger strike for their five just demands.

Each year we feel all these things anew, and each year it is the words of Patsy that goad us forward. "Let the fight go on!"

And still the fight does go on. Though the INLA's guns are silent, we know that they will remain at ready should further treachery necessitate they be used again. But, with or without weapons, we know that the movement that Patsy lived for, and died for, continues to fight on. It continues to fight for the ideals of Connolly, of Larkin, of Costello, and of Patsy O Hara. The ideals of Ta Power and Gino Gallagher. It continues to fight for the nation of Ireland and what makes a nation, its people, the masses of which are women and men of the Irish working class.

This is the only fitting memorial that we can give to Patsy. This is the only epitaph that can be written for a working class hero and soldier of the people . . . that we will let the fight go on. And we shall, until victory. But, Patsy will not be lost to us then, for he will live on in the hearts and minds of Irish working people for whom he laid down his life.

We salute the memory of Patsy O Hara, we give our solidarity to his comrades, and our deepest sympathy to his family and friends, but most importantly, we give our pledge, our solemn vow, that we will do our part to see that the fight goes on.