Irish Republicanism at a critical juncture

Posted by Jim on April 21, 2018

The following is a speech delivered earlier this month by Peter A Rogers
at the independent republican Easter commemoration in Duleek, County
Meath.

 

A cairde, is deas a bheith anseo chun labhairt an trathnona seo.

It’s an honour and a privilege to have been asked to speak here today.

I’m going to begin with a quote from the late great, Ruairi O Bradaigh:

“What Is Irish Republicanism? To the Republican Movement which maintains
direct organisational continuity from Fenian times, through the Irish
Republican Brotherhood, past 1916 and the First Dail Eireann to the
present day, Republicanism in Ireland has a very strict, yet extremely
comprehensive meaning.In a strict sense, an Irish Republican was one who
gave allegiance to the 32-County Republic of Easter 1916 and who denied
the right of the British government to rule here. With the establishment
of the First Dail Eireann in 1919 as the government of that Republic its
supporters were Republicans, just as those who opposed the setting up
here of two partition States – Six-County and 26- County – in 1921 and
1922.The ‘Treaty’ States, both North and South subservient economically
to Britain, suppressed the All-Ireland Dail which was the embodiment of
the Republic. For the Republican Movement then, a Republican today is
one who rejects the two Partition States in Ireland and gives his
allegiance to and seeks to restore the 32-County Republic of Easter
Week.”

Therefore, the many Irish patriots named here in the Duleek Hunger
Strike Memorial Garden believed in and were of similar mindset to what
is included in that quote. This is what they stood for, and most
importantly this is what they died for.

I believe Irish Republicanism is at one of the most critical junctures
of our time. We must, as a collective, make ourselves and our beliefs
more relevant to the Irish people, if we’re to progress our agenda over
the next few years. This coming December, marks the centenary of the
historic 1918 General Election, which gave the democratic mandate, by
the Irish people, to the all-Ireland Republic proclaimed on Easter Week
1916. That election set in place the constitutional legitimacy and
claimed Irish Sovereignty for the Irish people like never before. We, as
Republicans must ensure that it also marks a significant effort to see
that the true Irish Republic is restored. We must formulate a campaign
of action, that can unite as many Republican groups as possible towards
that end, and at the same time break Britain’s long-running
“Normalisation Strategy” in a partitioned Ireland.

While this move will be extremely challenging, it would be good news for
the Republican cause going forward, helping to accelerate the prospect
of a permanent end to British rule, but this alone will not be enough to
realise our core objectives. The all-Ireland Republic will not come
about simply as a result of this or born out of demographic change in
the North. The situation facing us all, will, demand renewed struggle
and a major stepping-up of the promotion of the Republican agenda, on a
countrywide basis. The Republic must be taken by Republicans, because
history shows, the British and our domestic enemies will not agree to
its restoration without some resistance.

The establishments of both States on this island, have become extremely
comfortable with the status quo, it suits their agenda. We must also
illustrate that continuing British rule in the North is not the only
major issue in the Ireland of 2018. The Partition of Ireland that has
been in place since 1922, with its unjustifiable claims to our national
territory is an usurpation of the democratic process and a violation of
the Irish people’s national rights. Partition must be ended and new
all-Ireland constitutional arrangements put in place, which secures all
our people’s democratic entitlements. The 26-County State also exists in
complete defiance of the 1918 General Election, this Southern 26-County
State survives while claiming to draw its constitutional line of
authority from the 1916 Rising and the all-Ireland General Election of
1918. This couldn’t be further from the truth as it most certainly does
not.

Its alleged authority originates from Britain’s Government of Ireland
Act 1920, through the sitting of the House of Commons of Southern
Ireland formed under this British Act, which actually ratified the
Treaty in 1922, and certainly not from the 1918 General Election. The
reality was, although the Second Dail Eireann did pass an “illegitimate”
Resolution regarding the Treaty, it never had the authority to ratify
that document. So this again has been another lie peddled by the Free
State for almost one hundred years.

This pretence has been going on now for almost a century, and the
promotion of this line of deceit was most obvious during the 1916
Centenary celebrations in 2016, across the 26-Counties. It’s this line
of illegitimate authority that the Free State fear most will be exposed,
which in turn would expose the true fraudulent nature of its existence
since 1922. We Republicans, will have ample opportunity to again expose
the true illegitimate nature of the 26-County State, with the upcoming
centenary of the birth of the First Dail Eireann in January 2019, and
most importantly, with whom the true line of legitimacy of the true all-
Ireland Republic lies today. As Ruairi stated in his quote, all of us
who believe in giving no credence to the two “partitionist parliaments”
created by Britain are true inheritors, so we must continue to act as
the custodians of the true all-Ireland Republic, until it is restored,
and also to defend its right to exist at every opportunity.

We must not allow the Irish people to continue to be deceived, it is
vital that we Republicans tackle these falsehoods at every opportunity
over the coming years. The Volunteers named in this garden were not
deceived. They knew and understood that this so-called ‘Republic of
Ireland’ was not the Irish Republic that so many have fought and died
for. They most certainly did not die for a 32-county expanded Free State
either. Nor did they die that we might live in the New so-called “Agreed
Ireland” now being advocated as being the best option for the future, by
many of the constitutional establishment here in the South, including
the Provos.

All these men named here, died for the Irish Republic and a complete end
to British rule in Ireland. Every Irish Republican, no matter what group
they support, must stand, not only as the custodians, but also the
promoters of the true all-Ireland Republic, proclaimed in the 1916
Proclamation and ratified by the First Dail Eireann. Our continued
efforts must be to bring an end to the usurp of that Republic, and those
of us who follow in this mould, must remain steadfast and adamant in its
pursuit. We must formulate our demands, under a common banner, that a
Third Dail Eireann, proceed from the people, in a re-constituted true
all-Ireland Republic. This remains the Republican position and should be
the bedrock of all our efforts to restore complete Irish sovereignty.

When I spoke earlier of constitutional arrangements being put in place,
we don’t mean amalgamating a corrupt Northern State with a corrupt
Southern State in order to make One-Super-Corrupt-State for the Irish
people, with direct British involvement. With Britain leaving the
European Union and by it doing so, again, highlights the worst vestiges
of Partition, it is imperative – now more than ever – that we organise
to ensure the failed Six-County State is finally disbanded, and along
with it, this sham 26-County State, and that the true all-Ireland
Republic is restored, based on the 1916 Proclamation.

This is the challenge ahead, as we head towards the centenary of the
1918 Election, much remains to be done. Republicans need to set out
clear parameters as to what should constitute a United Ireland, which in
turn, will keep pressure on those within political circles most likely
to determine such changes, should the time arrive. As Brexit and the
demographic change in the North appears to be speeding-up a new dynamic
towards Irish Unity, Republicans must be ready with a robust “plan of
action” to promote our Republican agenda, in what will be a period of
extreme importance. Ultimately, for us Republicans, any Republic to
emerge from the re-unification of our country must be in line with the
1916 Proclamation, proceeding from there and not the engineered
constitutional process employed by the British government since 1921 to
usurp the Republic. This will be a major issue as the British government
and its agents plan for a revised capacity for the Good Friday
Agreement, if a Nationalist majority emerges within the Six-Counties.

This is an arrangement they are already working towards, the emerging
so-called ‘Agreed Ireland’, if not stopped by Republicans, will agree a
role for the British government in our country’s affairs going forward,
enforcing a further violation of Irish sovereignty. So the bottom line
for Irish Republicans must be, that any future United Ireland must be a
Sovereign Independent Country, founded on the right of the Irish people
to determine its own affairs, freely, and without any external
impediment.

We must therefore be ready to face these critical challenges, we must
formulate our own preferred political society for the Ireland we
envisage in the event of our country’s re-unification. We must likewise
set out a blueprint that determines how this will be achieved based on
Republican principles. Irish society at the moment, both North and
South, is open to change. Most importantly, I believe it is open to
Republican ideas, because of the failure of the status quo to solve our
country’s problems for almost a century.

Unfortunately because of the path taken by our former comrades in the
Provisionals, what is most absent at this juncture, is the leadership
and direction that has traditionally come from Republicanism.
Unfortunately if we don’t act quickly, public opinion could easily be
steered towards the emerging “Agreed Ireland” agenda. We must be
extremely alert to these dangers. We must develop a comprehensive
position that sets out the specifics as to how a ‘United Ireland’ will
be agreed and by whom. If this is not forthcoming, we are on the road to
another doomed settlement:

The Good Friday Agreement Number Two – the all-Ireland version.

It is an Independent Sovereign Irish Republic that we strive towards,
not some useless reform of the status quo, nor do we want, what one
might call, a more tolerable version of two Partition States, nor Irish
Unity under an extended version of the 26-county vindictive Free State.
We are out for the Republic, the same Irish Republic whose flame burned
strong in the hearts of these heroes named here at this Memorial Garden.

These Volunteers knew and understood when they joined the Republican
Movement that their allegiance was to the 1916 Proclamation and the
all-Ireland Republic. We, also seek the install a constitution for the
true all-Ireland Republic in the image and legitimate line of that
timeless document. Like all those martyred Patriots who have gone before
us, we uphold the right of the whole island of Ireland to be a Sovereign
Independent State. Nothing less is acceptable.