First Allegiance – A Socialist Republic

Posted by Jim on October 6, 2018

By Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

My personal acquaintance and friendship with Seamus Costello began in
1973. Before then I knew him only, as most people in Ireland, by
reputation.

On hearing of his death, I could find no words of my own to express the
deep sense of loss I felt, both personally and as a revolutionary
socialist committed to the struggle for Irish freedom. I took therefore
the words of a fellow revolutionary on the death of Malcolm X, the black
revolutionary champion of black liberation and socialism in the U.S.A.:
“Without him, we feel suddenly vulnerable, small and weak, somewhat
frightened, not by the prospect of death, but of life and struggle
without his contribution, his strength and inspiration.”

There is no doubt that the struggle continues and its victory or defeat
is not measured solely by the number or quality of our fallen comrades
individually. Yet it is equally true that in every generation of
struggle the combination of circumstances, history and the nature of the
struggle itself, produces from the ranks of its rebels a few, and a very
few individuals who, notwithstanding the fundamental principles of
organisation, political correctness and practical ability, common to
many, rise head and shoulders above the rest, with a potential for
leadership, far beyond the ranks of the already committed. Such a
comrade was Seamus Costello.

Brutally murdered by petty, small-minded men of no vision whose only
place in history is to serve as a warning to others how revolutionaries
gone wrong can degenerate into worse than nothingness, Seamus Costello,
for all that he was and did in his lifetime, was only at the beginning
of his potential contribution to the achievement of national liberation
and socialism in this generation. That is not to say that Seamus was
above making mistakes or that he was always politically correct. There
were many questions on which I disagreed with him, and which I
considered crucial to the development of the struggle. These remain
unresolved.

Nonetheless, in leaving the Official Republican Movement and taking the
initiative of forming the IRSP, Seamus Costello proved his ability in
practice – once convinced that the approach of the organisation to which
he belonged was wrong and could not be altered from within – to take on
the daunting, but necessary task of building an organisation capable and
willing to carry the struggle forward. The fact that he was capable of
it underlined his key position in the struggle, and his recognition of
the need to forge a revolutionary force in Ireland from the unification
of the republican and labour movements.

If I did not accept his arguments on how it could be done, I remained
confident that he, again, if he found himself mistaken, would move
further in his political analysis to another approach. He did not live
to see the test of theory in practice.

Much is said of his single mindedness, his ruthlessness and
organisational ability. At his hardest, Seamus Costello was never
hateful, nor was there a fibre of his being that was petty or personally
malicious, and despite the slanders of his enemies, he was neither
politically nor religiously sectarian.

He owed his first allegiance to an ideal – a 32 county socialist
republic. His enemies he defined only as those who consciously strove to
suffocate, distort or deny _expression to that goal, and prevent its
achievement. As an orator, he was brilliant and inspiring. In debate, he
was uncompromising, skilled and learned. As an organiser, he was
efficient and did not easily tolerate idleness or half-hearted effort.

Yet in my mind’s eye, when I think of him, I see him laughing. A sense
of humour, the ability to laugh at oneself, and the predicament in which
we find ourselves, is sadly too rare a quality among revolutionaries.
Seamus possessed it in good measure.

His single greatest attribute was, however, his ability to relate to the
mass of the people. His potential as a leader of mass struggle is not
easily replaced. He could inspire not only the dream but the confidence
of its achievement, and the commitment to work towards that end.

From the ranks of mass struggle, others will come. From the experience
of struggle, the political programme, organisation and method of
struggle will come. But another Seamus Costello may never come again.
When our freedom has been won, let us guard it well, remembering it was
paid for in the blood and the lives of those now dead, but whose memory
lives forever in the hearts of us who loved them for all that they were
and all they might have been, had they been allowed to live.