Mo comrádaithe,
First of all I must
thank you for this great honour to speak here today. Those we commemorate were amongst the bravest
Irishmen of their day, they were men of that long revolutionary tradition that
has always been resident in the hearts and minds of Irishmen and women, a
tradition that says so long as our ancient nation remains occupied by foreign
forces that there will be an unceasing and unrepentant resistance that will
never surrender and that will never truly be defeated.
The Irish people have
faced consistent centuries of abuse at the hands of the English Crown and the
British Government. From 1919 the
revolutionary freedom fighters of the Irish Republican Army waged a successful guerrilla
campaign that forced the Brits to the negotiating table, sadly the treachery
that ensued plunged Ireland into one of the darkest periods of her long
history, it turned father against son and brother against brother, it literally
divided our country in two and changed the face of our nation forever laying
the foundations for the dire position we are in today, this has been at the expense of thousands of lives, all so
that Britain can consolidate its dominance over the Irish people.
Despite the fact that
those who sided with the treaty of surrender managed with the aid of the
British Government to suppress the All-Ireland Republic they did not defeat it
and we here today can say with great defiance that we remain loyal to the same
Irish Republic proclaimed on the steps of the GPO in 1916 and ratified in
1919.
Vol. Paul Smith from
South Armagh, Vol. George Keegan form County Wexford, Vol. Paddy Parle also
from County Wexford, Vol. Oliver Craven from Newry and Michael Watters from
here in Edentubber stood firmly by that Irish Republic, it is men like the
Edentubber Martyrs that have kept the ideal of a United and Sovereign Ireland alive,
it is with great thanks to them that imperialism in all its guises will never
go unchallenged in this country and one thing is for certain they did not give
up their lives for the shameful sell-out we have witnessed by our former
comrades.
After the low years of
the 20s, 30s and 40s the enemies of Irish Freedom thought they had won, they
thought they had crushed the IRA and had them on the run but they were wrong
then and time will prove them to be wrong in times that are sure to come. The 1950s marked a revival within the
Republican Movement, volunteers had re-organised and has launched Operation
Harvest also known as the border campaign, although unsuccessful due to
circumstances at the time it had kept the flame alive but more importantly it
passed the torch onto a new generation, a generation that was in time to lead
an unceasing war against the Brits for over thirty years.
As Republicans steadfast
to the revolutionary tradition we are not like those who sit Leinster House and
Stormont, we are not dogs that will lie at the feet of willing masters, we are
human beings and we deserve the God given right of all free peoples,
self-determination within a sovereign nation.
Those are inalienable rights of all people, if they are denied, then moral
force is justified in taking them back, but if a people lie down and accept
this denial of freedom then its society no doubt will be ravaged by all kinds
of injustices and we bear witness to them today in both the 6 and 26 County
States.
The president of
Republican Sinn Féin, Des Dalton, has accurately defined the present set up, it
is a willing co-operative of two imperialism’s, “the old imperialism of British
rule and the new imperialism of the EU/ECB & IMF.”
In the 26 Counties they
sell the increasingly obvious lie that we have democracy. But the current political system thrives by
keeping the people politically isolated and irrelevant. The reality is, is that the peoples vote counts
for virtually nothing. The increasingly
low turn-out at polling stations is a vote of a different kind, a vote of
no-confidence in the very system itself.
The Fine Gael / Labour coalition is merely a continuation of the
austerity measures that began with Fianna Fail and the Green Party, nothing has
changed. They do not represent the Irish
people, they represent European imperialism and everything they do must be with
the slavish go ahead from their masters in Brussels. All sovereignty that the State had has been
surrendered so do not be fooled into thinking that any other party in Leinster
House can make a difference, they have all been tried, one of them is currently
being tried in the occupied territory, they have all proven to be incompetent hypocritical
failures.
People should
re-politicize themselves and support Republican Sinn Féin, support Éire Nua,
support abstentionism, and withdraw support from this British styled
institution, get on board today and help us re-build the true revolutionary
alternative to partition with a vision of Éire Nua as the guiding light towards
truly bringing Ireland into the 21st Century.
In the occupied Six
Counties England’s politicians continue to dictate the policies of
Stormont. Everyone who sits in that
parliament is a willing collaborator of direct foreign occupation. Irish people have a moral right to resist
this occupation using whatever force is deemed necessary, and we wish them
every success in that regard.
The enemies of Irish
Republicanism try to paint a picture using a great array of lies to distort the
fact’s, they say Irish Republicans are hate filled people with no support whose
only aim is to drag us back to the past.
A very basic truth when dealing with Brit sponsored propaganda is to believe
the opposite of what they say. Irish
Republicans are driven not by hate but by love, love our country and all that it
entails, we will never give up our right to nationhood, we will never lie down
and accept the grave injustices perpetuated against our people. The English have tried many policies to
destroy Irish Freedom, to destroy our sense of nationhood, they have failed but
they have succeeded with one thing and that was to awaken a un-deafeatable
resistance that mark my words will never go away and which will continue to grow
in strength as it has been despite the best efforts of our enemies.
The twin forces of
imperialism and capitalism we can see are evident throughout our entire
nation. Either side of the partitionist border
the sell-out to corporate multinationals has been intertwined by a sell-out of
our natural resources. Ireland has some
of the finest agricultural land in the world, it is clear we are not reaping
the full rewards of this. Local farmers
are struggling to compete against cheap imported goods of lesser quality, this
will need to be reversed and challenged.
When the Free State
signed up to the EU it marked the death of the Irish Sugar beet industry. Our
fishing rights have also been stolen by the EU, it is believed since membership
of the EU that we have lost in the region of €600 billion by the time the fish is
packaged and sold. In what can only be
described as a national disgrace, the quotas imposed by the EU force Irish
fishermen to throw overboard dead fish only for it to go to waste. When we look at a report last month from the
Irish League of Credit Unions that says over 1 Million Irish people are living
on less €100 a month and struggling to put food on the table, one has to wonder
how much more are people going to take, before they decide it is time to take
back what is theirs.
A Gold mine in Co.
Tyrone worth millions of dollars in the current market is owned 100% by
Canadian company Galantas, so it is not only our citizens we are exporting to
Canada amongst other places but our resources aswell, can people not make the
connection?
In County Meath, Boliden,
a Swedish mining company owns the largest zinc mine anywhere in Europe. Once extracted it is sent to Dublin Port
where it is shipped out of Ireland. Apart
from local jobs which would be there anyway we benefit little or nothing.
Irish Oil & Gas is
worth billions to our economy yet Ray Burke who done time for corruption and
Bertie Ahern who should be locked away for the same sold the rights to foreign
multinationals such as the Royal Dutch Shell.
We in Republican Sinn Féin vow to reverse these shameful acts and to
return the wealth of our nation to the people.
These were criminal acts and this should not be tolerated by the Irish
people and Republicans should lead the way in opposing these traitors. These are just a few examples.
Despite all this there
are those who will fight back in defence of Ireland. Like all other times in the struggle there
are political prisoners, in Maghaberry and Portlaoise but also as far away as Lithuania
where currently Micheal Campble is being held.
Currently in Maghaberry Prison the Republican POWs are on a dirty
protest. Men who dare to stand up to the
injustices already mentioned are locked up to 23hrs a day in rotting cells with
long beards reminiscent of the blanket-men of the H-Blocks, history is again
repeating itself. This is in protest to Britain’s
attempts to criminalise Irish Republicanism.
They have failed in the past and they will fail again. The vindictive nature of the Brits needs to
be exposed. In August 2010 an agreement
was reached with the POWs that rather than using humiliating degrading strip searches,
the BOSS Chair would be installed which would scan the men as they leave their
cells to go to visits etc...
Rather than implement
the agreement the screws continue to implement controlled movement. They forcibly strip naked the prisoners and
insult them with all kinds of vile remarks.
They beat the prisoners on a regular basis who are then forced to live
in disgusting conditions; 23hr lock up is not abnormal in Maghaberry. The attitude and abuse directed towards the prisoners is
sickening and sadistic.
The prison officers are
a disgrace to humanity and they were warned in the past that if it they persisted
they would be deemed as legitimate targets, they did not heed that message but now
they have no choice but to take heed, only a few days ago the execution took
place of a prison officer who worked in Maghaberry. Irish Republicans will not tolerate this
abuse
any longer. Irish Republican Political Prisoners of War
have a right to political status, and it should be restored immediately and the
abuse of Irish Political Prisoners must come to an end right now.
In recent times we have
also seen the Brits bring back internment in various forms. The most blatant to date has been that of
Martin Corey, who has been locked up now for two and half years. I would urge people to visit the website
releasemartincorey.com for a full update on Martin’s case. Martin is not the only republican to be
interned, Marian Price is suffering from serious illness, in isolation and
depressed she like Martin is a victim of British attempts to criminalise Irish
Republicans, there are many other cases also where people have been lifted by
the Brits and thrown into prison. Over
the last few weeks members of Republican Sinn Féin including Ard Comhairle
member Cáit Trainor have been lifted by the RUC and put into prison for
non-payment of fines, fines received for attending a public protest calling for
the Release of Martin Corey. This is the
nature of the enemy we face, we call on all the Irish people for their support,
these are your Irish brothers and sisters suffering in 2012 the same plights
hundreds have met in the past in British prisons, and it must be opposed. Last week we seen the worldwide support that
the POWs have. From Glasgow to London,
New York to Toronto, Vienna to Sydney and many more places in between we in
Republican Sinn Féin salute you for your efforts in raising awareness for what goes
on in Ireland today.
The Republican Movement
faces a mighty struggle if we are to succeed, but it is a real possibility, for
the Brits, it is this frightenly
clear reason, if the Republican Movement succeeds once again in bringing down
Stormont the British Government will have no more options left open to them,
what else can they try? So much has been
invested in the normalisation process and it is failing as more people open
their eyes, so much has been banked on the Provisional’s maintaining the
partition and the implementation of the Belfast Agreement but more and more
people are seeing through their hypocrisy and are moving away from their
direction.
The primary objective
for Republicans has not changed and nor will it until we succeed once again, we
aim to smash Stormont whilst simultaneously exposing imperialism elsewhere, the
knock on effect from this will expose once more the complete and utter failure
partition has been and where Stormont goes Leinster House will follow and thus
this is why they fear the message of Revolutionary Irish Republicanism, out of
the ashes of this outdated foreign system we will build Éire Nua, a New
Ireland, one which truly cherishes all of the children of the nation equally, a
nation that will put people before profit, a government that will reclaim
Ireland, all its resources and wealth and return it to all to the people in a
modern 21st Century model of sustainable governance.
This will allow us to provide for our people a healthier more humane way of
life, a life where we are not the economic wage slaves of an unaccountable debt
based society but rather proud citizens participating within an inclusive
democracy truly Socialist in nature, truly Republican in outlook. We stand for the creation of a society that
does not tolerate imperialism, that does not tolerate capitalism that does not
tolerate all the disgusting practices that both those methods promote and
sustain, we stand for the historic Irish Nation, in defence of it, for truth of
it, for the honour of it.
Long live the All-Ireland Republic.
An Phoblacht Abú.
Seán
Dolan,
Seán
Costello / Martin Hurson Cumann,
Republican Sinn Féin, Co. Westmeath
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