Adams to unveil hunger strike monument in Cuba

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and a delegation of party members have begun a three-day visit to Cuba.

During the controversial visit Mr Adams is to meet Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and unveil a plaque in memory of the 1981 hunger strikers.

Ten men died during the republican hunger strikes in the H-Blocks of the Maze prison as they sought to achieve political status.

Mr Adams is accompanied by north Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly and the Director of Sinn Féin’s International Department Joan O’Connor. Mr Kelly said that he wanted Fidel Castro’s support for the hunger strike to be acknowledged.

In addition to unveiling the 1981 hunger strike monument and meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro and representatives of the Cuban government, the Sinn Féin delegation is also expected to visit the Juan Marquez Paediatric Hospital and visit the Latin American School of Medical Sciences.

The Sinn Fein representative in Cuba, Niall Connolly, was one of three men arrested and charged with training Marxist guerrillas while in FARC held territory in Colombia earlier this year.

Alex Attwood SDLP Chairperson said he had recently returned from America and that while Sinn Féin were entitled to meet with whoever they wanted, he said that there was deep anger in the US at the visit to Cuba by Sinn Féin. He said: “ The fall out from Columbia and Cuba will be substantial and enduring, in America and in Ireland.”

Senior American politicians have expressed their grave reservations about the trip by Sinn Féin - one congressman said that he considered the Cuban trip to be a “mistake”. (SP)