The
true political intent of those within constitutional
nationalism who argue in favour of the Good Friday
Agreement is to sell the fallacy that partition
can be reconciled with the 1916 Proclamation.
And just as the men and women of 1916 rejected
a reconciliation between sovereign freedom and
Home Rule republicans of today reject any premise
that British occupation can in anyway be legitimised.
Democracy cannot be invoked to usurp the sovereign
democratic rights of the Irish people to determine
our own future without foreign impediment.
When constitutional nationalism berates Irish
republicanism for not heeding a partitioned electoral
endorsement of partition itself we refer them
to the Proclamation's clear assertion that;
'.the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership
of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish
destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.'
As republicans we do not stand over these words
as a mere slogan but as the fundamental basis
for sovereign democracy on this island. We hold
that it is the duty of all Irish political and
military representatives to make this assertion
the cornerstone of their ideological stance and
to reaffirm that the violation of Irish national
sovereignty is the root cause of the conflict
in Ireland.
And although the root cause of conflict may be
singular it is fought on many fronts not least
of which is the recent declaration by London and
Dublin that the Constitutional Question is resolved.
For what has prolonged the Anglo - Irish conflict
is the continued failure of constitutional nationalism
to address the issue of Irish sovereignty and
to engage with the British government on the sole
premise that its violation of it is unacceptable
in any terms and must end immediately. Instead
constitutional nationalism has repeatedly sought
accommodations with Westminster, the price of
which was a British demand that their presence
in Ireland be recognized as legitimately permanent.
This they have done again and have turned to the
Irish electorate to sanitize it in the absence
of their ability to justify it.
The out workings of these Quisling type arrangements
are most graphically seen in the issue of British
Policing in Ireland. The ultimate triumph of any
occupying power is to secure indigenous policing
of that occupation which allows the occupier to
assume the safe position of absentee landlord,
controlling the security and purse strings, to
keep the political natives in line. And let's
not be in awe of claims that a piece of paper
signed at a British Golf club in anyway inhibits
the activities of the British Security services
in Ireland. Can those who are making these claims
with hand on heart actually ask people to believe
that the British Security Services are not alone
active in policing in the six counties but in
this jurisdiction also?
Paisley has secured a double victory. He has assumed
for himself the title of leader of Northern Ireland
and at the same time has brought Northern nationalism
to heel. He has marched Northern Nationalism beyond
civil rights and onto the road of Stormont and
Westminster wherein the laws that such bodies
enact he will demand that Northern Nationalism
enforce. Paisley has no interest in their aspirations
only in their compliance to the state which he
now presides over at the behest of the British
Parliament. Where now are the claims of Irish
unity by 2016?
We salute all those candidates who stood on an
Anti British Policing platform and with equal
commitment we will endeavor to learn the lessons
from it. We salute the cooperation amongst various
republican organizations which yielded obvious
dividends and we remain steadfast in our determination
to build upon this practical unity. Republicans
need to move beyond the concept of the noble few
and build a practical movement guided by principle
and armed with a concept of winning. We need to
engage with the Irish people on our blueprint
for unity and demonstrate to them the massive
benefits and opportunities which constitutional
change can bring. This process has already begun
and we salute the efforts of those who at this
very time are working diligently to bring this
practical unity to pass.
The lineage of Irish republicanism from Wolfe
Tone to the present day is not traced through
acts of armed insurrection alone but by the ideas
that each generation applied to make their republicanism
relevant to the people of their time. And this
is the great challenge that faces republicans
today. What new ideas are we bringing to make
our republicanism relevant to our people today?
It's not enough to simply espouse the ideas that
went before us and its wrong to argue that the
solution to partition is to be found solely in
the past. The Proclamation did not envisage an
old resurrected Ireland but a vibrant unified
Ireland confident in its sovereignty and in its
future. We submit that republican unity alone
offers the greatest chance of formulating these
new ideas and in the name of 1916, who witnessed
such unity, we call for such unity now.
Comrades we face into a predicament worse than
that which was faced when the 1922 Treaty was
rejected. It's worse because the precedent set
by that treaty has been ignored by those supporting
an updated version of it. By ignoring that precedent
they are demonstrating that their political intentions
are similar to DeValeras - that of gaining political
power at the expense of our sovereign integrity.
Our sovereignty needs to be defended. It needs
to be promoted. It needs to be the cornerstone
of our republicanism and above all its complete
restoration can be the only circumstance in which
our hopes and our history finally rhyme.
Beir
Bua.
