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The
Blanket is a journal of protest and dissent coming
from the Irish Republican tradition. This might seem
problematic. Protest and dissent existed long before
people called themselves Irish Republicans, and many
people around the world can dissent without being
at the same time Irish Republicans. History has also
shown that on a number of occasions Irish Republicans
have crushed dissent and protest inside and outside
their ranks, and that the ideology has been used to
legitimise conservative and oppressive structures
of power.
To
the first objection, it can be replied that in the
Irish context, it is very difficult to think and develop
protest and dissent if one ignores the Republican
tradition. The second argument passes over the issue
of whether, in spite of the occasions where Republicans
have crushed protest and dissent, does the tradition
still have any progressive potential left. The baby
shouldn't be thrown out with the bath water. The ideas
of Irish Republicanism have been able not just to
survive, but to develop over the last two centuries
in Ireland, precisely because they could critically
address the major problems faced by the Irish people
at different periods in time. It is within Irish Republicanism
that the forces of dissent and protest have found
the necessary intellectual resources to criticise
the practices and discourses of powers responsible
for the problems they faced.
This
journal believes that those ideas contained within
Irish Republicanism will continue to grow and are
still relevant for 21st century Ireland, because the
problems they address haven't yet been resolved; and
as the ideals of Irish Republicanism are still waiting
to be realised. Until that day, Republicanism remains
the unsurpassable horizon of our time.
However,
this journal is also very conscious that Irish Republicanism
is at present facing a serious crisis. To attempt
to solve this crisis, this journal intends to regenerate
what is best in the Irish Republican tradition. We
believe that what is most valid in it could be summarised
as the "three Ds:" defiance, defence
and dissent. Any society needs dissent from the
structures of power, defence against the structures
of power, and to defy the structures of power.
Provisional
Republicanism long enough provided that until those
ideas were "decommissioned" by people claiming
to be Republicans. Failure to regenerate them today
will allow Truceleers and Good Friday Soldiers to
use the Republican tradition to legitimise their own
ends. Nowadays, it is "Republican" to recognise
British rule in Ireland, it is "Republican"
to sit in Stormont. The concept of a "transitional
phase" towards a united Ireland is nothing but
a metaphor for the transition of the Provisionals
into the British administration.
Deconstructing
the rhetorical strategies and exposing the underlying
tropes of their discourse is no academic exercise.
It is about reclaiming the discursive space of Irish
Republicanism for dissent; and defending it from censorship
and Direct Action Against Thought. This in turn will
facilitate the process through which the "three
Ds" will be able to re-emerge and protect what
is best in Irish Republicanism from stagnation.
Liam
O'Ruairc and
Anthony McIntyre
October 2001
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