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Protest held in Magherafelt for hunger strikers and against arms trade
A protest was held at the Diamond protesting the British government's treatment of prisoners, who opposed the Israeli arms trade in the UK, currently on hunger strike
Some of those who took part in the recent protest in Magherafelt.
Reporter:
Staff Reporter
23 Dec 2025 9:33 PM
Email:
news@derrynow.com
On Sunday past, a protest was held at the Diamond, Magherafelt, protesting the British government's treatment of prisoners, who opposed the Israeli arms trade in the UK, currently on Hunger Strike.
At the candlelit protest, placards for each of the hunger strikers were held.
Mid Ulster IPSC spokesperson Saoirse O'Neill said: "Christmas is a time where we sing about compassion and peace. Yet in Gaza, at the minute, parents are watching their children freeze to death. This is why we will continue to stand with Palestine and stand with the Palestine Action hunger strikers, people who have put their own bodies on the line to stop the arms trade.
"One of those arrested is Jordan Devlin from Ballymena. He's an Irish citizen and local man. He's being held in an English jail where he's been held without trial for over a year. This will be the second Christmas where he hasn't been at home with his family. He was arrested not for harming anyone, or for causing anyone any injury, but for trying to stop a genocide, which is his legal duty.
"Supporting the hunger strikers means standing against the arms trade not just with Elbit systems in England, but Moyola Precision Engineering in Castledawson and all the other complicit arms factories in the north. It means standing against our own government who continue to fund and subsidize these arms companies, and standing against every institution, which includes the GAA leadership, who have chosen to keep sponsorship from Elbit-insurer Allianz."
Pádraig Mac Niocaill from the Mid Ulster IPSC said at the protest: “While hunger strikers are dying in British prisons for opposing the arms trade, Stormont uses taxpayer money to fund and give rates relief to factories involved in the F-35 program across the North. While our services crumble, our hospitals lay under-resourced with huge waiting times at such a critical time of the year, this is what our ruling parties decide our limited resources should be spent on. Endless money for warfare not welfare.
"Worst of all, while the F-35 program is a priority Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions target worldwide, it has emerged Mid Ulster Council greenlit an extension to F-35 program factory Moyola Precision Engineering in Castledawson. Our council is complicit in genocide, and has failed the Palestinian people. We say no more, we need systemic change now."
Local activist Joan Dillon Trengove finished the protest by stating: "The hunger strikers now at day 50, must be deafened by the silence of the British government. Voices calling for the basic human right demands for the hunger strikers are not being heard. I am again asking for all people, whoever they are, wherever they're from, to keep raising your voices for the people of Palestine and for those being criminalised for solidarity.
"Come Thursday, most of us will be in the company of our loved ones, safe, warm, comfortable with gifts. All while the children of Gaza, starve in the winter of Palestine, no home, no food, no water, with childhoods brutality stolen. All while air trucks are refused entry to Gaza by their Zionist occupiers. Tell your children about the children of Gaza. Be honest, be truthful, and teach them that compassion and humanity, above all else, is what matters in this world."
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