Mobilise now for Irish Unity, say Tyrone Hibernians
Posted by Jim on March 22, 2017
Delegates from the Tyrone Ancient Order of Hibernians are to press for the organisation to embark on a new strategy for Irish Unity at a special A.O.H. conference to be held in Toomebridge this weekend.
The Extra General Meeting will see A.O.H. members from Ireland, America and Scotland gather ahead of a national convention to be held later this year in order to access the Order’s future direction.
Sources say that a large contingent is expected from Tyrone and that they intend to present a radical nationalist agenda aimed at securing a United Ireland in the short term.
“We now have a nationalist majority in the Six-Counties and it’s time that our voice was heard and our aspirations fulfilled”, the Tyrone A.O.H. President Gerry McGeough said ahead of the EGM.
It’s understood that the Tyrone County Board of the Hibernians had a meeting last weekend at which they agreed to put the issue of Irish Unity at the forefront of the Order’s future strategy discussions.
“As far back as June, 2010, the Tyrone A.O.H. adopted a motion that political pressure should be brought to bear in order to trigger a Border Poll at the time under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement”, Mr McGeough said. “We understood that we would lose that particular referendum, but it would insure that another would need to be held seven years later. By then we felt that there would not only be a nationalist majority, but that people would have had seven years to come to terms with that potential reality and prepare accordingly. Unfortunately, our proposal fell on deaf ears and here we are seven years later facing an immediate Brexit crisis for which no-one is adequately prepared”, he added.
The Tyrone Hibernians are understood to be in a strong position within the A.O.H., having dramatically increased their numbers with a new intake of activists over the past year. The most recent Tyrone Division, as Hibernian branches are called, was formally established this week. Known as Craobh na nGael it is comprised entirely of Irish-speakers who conduct A.O.H. business through the medium of Irish.
“The political focus at the moment appears to revolve around keeping the North within the EU”, Gerry McGeough said. “We believe that this is a futile strategy and that it would be better to demand that when the British leave Europe that they should leave Ireland on the same day. We can take care of our own affairs after that.”
Citing the precedent of the Conscription Crisis of a hundred years ago when the A.O.H. actively and successfully campaigned with others to prevent the British Army forcing Irishmen to fight on the Western Front, Mr McGeough said that it was now time for the Hibernians to mobilise in the interests of the northern nationalist community again.