|
The
IRPWA organised last Friday evening in West Belfast
a lecture on Wolfe Tone given by Dr O Reilly. This
was one of those rare public events left in this part
of town where alternative views are encouraged and
developed. Though organised by the IRPWA, this was
a very open and ecumenical event. There was no Provo
or RSF bashing, It must have been very disappointing
for the organisers that only a handful of people turned
up for the event. However, in these times, probably
more people in Belfast believe in the Bermuda Triangle
and in alien abductions than in Tone's ideals. These
are no longer the days where West Belfast and Republicanism
are as synonymous as Ivana Trump and liposuction.
The "Real" Republicans have been so demonised
by the media that they could as well called themselves
Fatso or confessed to a furtive interest in coprophilia,
as Terry Eagleton would have put it. This is most
unfortunate, as those events could potentially be
the Wolfe Tone societies of the twenty first century.
However, if few were present, significantly a great
number of them were young, and most of them have benefited
much from this occasion, which in itself is a reason
to keep holding those meetings.
This
event differed from both the "mass meetings"
organised by the left or the sort of gatherings recently
organised by the IRSP. The "mass meetings"
organised by the various "internationals"
in Belfast are usually sad occasions which attract
a couple of dysfunctional and frustrated people. Those
meetings are close in spirit with religious cults,
although in this case it is to build the Irish section
of some "International world party of proletarian
revolution" (be it Cliffite, Mandelite, Taafeite,
or any of the other thirty six varieties) rather than
some Church of Christ. It also differed from the recent
series of successful meetings organised by the IRSP,
which attracted dozens of individuals, whose purpose
was to collectively develop ideas for a political
strategy on the basis of a discussion on current affairs.
But this was neither a political cult or an attempt
to develop a political line. This event was essentially
convivial in nature. What Marx wrote about the conviviality
of communist meetings could also apply to this one:
"When communist workers gather together, their
immediate aim is instruction, propaganda, etc. But
at the same time they acquire a new need -the need
for society- and what appears as a means has become
an end. This practical development can be most strikingly
observed in the gatherings of French socialist workers.
Smoking, eating, drinking, etc. are no longer means
of creating links between people. Company, association,
conversation, which in its turn has society as its
goal, is good enough for them. The fraternity of human
beings is not a hollow phrase, it is a reality, and
the nobility of individuals shines forth upon us from
their work-worn figures." Such was the spirit
of this meeting.
Writing
of Tone, Connolly noted: "Apostles of Freedom
are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when living."
(Collected Works 1, 321) Lenin had written
something similar: "During the lifetime of great
revolutionaries, the oppressing classes hound them
constantly, attack their doctrines with the most savage
malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous
campaign of lies and slander. After their death, attempts
are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonise
them so to say, and to surround their names with a
certain halo, for the 'consolation' of the oppressed
classes and with the object of dumping them, while
at the same time emasculating the revolutionary doctrine
of its content, vulgarising it and blunting its revolutionary
edge." (Lenin, State and Revolution) For
a long time, the 26 counties establishment has tried
to appropriate and monopolise Tone's teachings for
its own ends. The most substantial attempt so far
has probably been Marianne Eliott's 1989 biography
of Tone. A more recent example is the chapter on Tone
and the United Irishmen in Martin Mansergh's book
on the history of Republican thought (2003). However
we should always remember Connolly's point that "the
men who push forward most arrogantly to burn incense
at the altar of his fame are drawn from the very class
who, were he alive today, would hasten to repudiate
him as a dangerous malcontent." Tone and his
comrades "were overwhelmed by the treachery of
their own countrymen more than by the force of the
foreign enemy." Part of the greatness of Tone
was that he refused "to prostitute his genius
in the cause of compromise and time-serving",
something which must not have gone down very well
with those who could celebrate the bicentenary of
1798 while at the same time signing the Good Friday
Treaty. (ibid, 322)
Dr
O Reilly's lecture was a straight account of Tone's
life and times. He presented the subject in a lively
manner. People listened to him with attention for
three quarters of an hour. His account was neither
partisan, controversial or polemical. Nor did he try
to appropriate and instrumentalise Tone for contemporary
political ends, he wasn't telling the audience that
had Tone been alive today he would be in the 32csm.
He left it to those present to make up their own minds
about Tone's legacy. However, this potentially carries
the danger of reducing Tone to essentially a historical
figure, maybe great, but with little contemporary
relevance. The lecture on Wolfe Tone was followed
by a session of traditional "Rebel Music".
In his introduction to his 'Songs of Freedom', Connolly
wrote: "No revolutionary movement is complete
without its poetical expression. If such a movement
has caught hold of the imagination of the masses,
they will seek in a song for the aspirations, the
fears and hopes, the loves and hatred engendered by
the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the
joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it
lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular
revolutionary movement; it is a dogma of the few,
and not the faith of the multitude." (Collected
Works 2, 105) The songs and the way the audience
reacted to them showed that after more than two centuries,
Tone's teachings were not the dogma of the few and
still could be the faith of the multitude.
Connolly
said: "We are told to imitate Wolfe Tone, but
the greatness of Wolfe Tone lay in the fact that he
imitated nobody." (Collected Works 1,
324) In itself, going back to Tone or Robert Emmet
is not sufficient. "If the national movement
of our day is not merely to re-enact the old sad tragedies
of our past history, it must show itself capable of
rising to the exigencies of the moment. It must demonstrate
to the people of Ireland that out nationalism is not
merely a morbid idealising of the past, but is also
capable of formulating a distinct and definite answer
to the problems of the present and a political and
economic creed capable of adjustment to the wants
of the future." (Connolly, Collected Works
1, 304) That is the challenge faced by Republican
and Socialist organisations today. But it is important
to think about Tone. What a contrast between him and
the politicians standing in this week's elections!
"Do not be misled by the promises of politicians"
wrote Connolly, "Remember that the whole history
of Ireland is a record of betrayals by politicians
and statesmen, and remembering this, spurn their lying
promises and stand up for a United Ireland -an Ireland
broad based upon the union of Labour and Nationality."
(Irish Worker, 4 April 1914) That evening reminded
those present that in this period of opportunism and
parliamentary cretinism, Wolfe Tone remains a figure
of inspiration.
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
