"The
1916 Rising against British rule in Ireland meant
(a) the re-assertion of the right of the Irish
people to national independence; (b) the re-birth
of Christian idealism - the idea of service and
self-sacrifice to one´s country and (c)
the emergence in the 20th century of the anti-colonial
and anti-imperialist movement which was to spread
world-wide.
Those who in recent times attempted sign away
the rights of the Irish people by restoring Stormont
may have worn the time-honoured Easter Lily but
in reality they were putting back an obstacle
on the road to the freedom of All-Ireland.
This, according to one commentator (Éamonn
McCann) makes "an abstraction, if not a nonsense",
of the ringing words of the 1916 Proclamation
that they have read out publicly this weekend.
They have accepted Stormont under the Union Jack,
British police, British courts and British law
in denial and flat contradiction of that Proclamation
and the deeds of the Volunteers, Citizen Army,
Cumann na mBan and Fianna Éireann 91 years
ago.
The massive bribes made by the English government
- EUR50 billion over four years together with
EUR6 million from Dublin - remind people of "How
did they pass the Union?" in 1800, "By
bribery and fraud".
The poets´ Insurrection of Pearse, McDonagh
and Plunkett, as it was called, asserted the right
of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland,
which right could only be extinguished by the
destruction of the Irish people.
It promised civil and religious liberty, equal
rights and equal opportunities, and ignored the
differences carefully fostered by an alien government.
Resistance to British rule would continue, it
said, until "the establishment of a permanent
National Government, representative of the whole
people of Ireland and elected by the suffrage
of all her men and women".
The recent McEntee Investigation into the Dublin-Monaghan
bombings which caused the deaths of 33 Irish citizens
was fruitless because the relevant documentation
was "missing" or "lost" from
26-County police custody and the Departments of
Justice and Defence.
Similarly, the Barron private inquiry and the
Joint-Oireachtas Committee investigation into
British forces collusion with those and other
atrocities had been hamstrung because of official
British refusal to cooperate. Nothing less than
a high-powered international inquiry would be
sufficient to deal with the situation.
The task for Republicans today remained to organise
and lead the section of the Irish people opposed
to English rule here. The way forward is through
a nine-county Ulster Parliament as part of a new
four-province federation.
Optimum devolution of power and decision-making
will provide for all sections, whether of the
majority or of local minorities. Thus can the
bright ideals of the 1916 Rising be advanced and
the stand taken by Pearse, Connolly and their
followers vindicated.
