Cork Address
The county of Cork has a noble place in the struggle for Irish Independence. Its Sons and Daughters have both endured and inflicted hardship, from and on the occupier, and it is because of this resolute commitment that we again gather to honour two of her many sons who made the ultimate sacrifice. Two brothers, Jeremiah and Cornelius Delaney from Blackpool in Cork, having been enthused with Irish culture by a Gaelic loving family became involved in the national freedom struggle in the Cork area. Their home was open to the legitimate armed forces of the Irish Republic an assistance essential in helping to defeat the terror of the Black and Tans. But as we well know such assistance can carry a heavy price. For on the 12th December 1920, the night of the Burning of Cork, that terror descended on the Delaney home to wreak retribution. Both Jeremiah and Cornelius were shot outright, Jeremiah dying instantly, Cornelius some time later from his wounds. It was one of an all too familiar pattern, a fact of history, a fact which some today would seek to obliterate to justify present political arrangements.
What Jeremiah and Con died for has yet to be realised. That is another fact currently under sustained attack by those who would try and tell us that Partition is now reconciled to the Proclamation. And as with the Delaney brothers the spectre of criminality is again brought to bear by those seeking to de-legitimise those who fight on in their tradition. They will not succeed because the crime of Partition is the core cause of the conflict and to perpetuate partition by affording it legitimacy perpetuates the crime of it. Using partition to end partition is a failed legacy and holds as its champions DeValera’s Hangman and the Provo murderers of Joseph O’Connor. And now to complete that ignominious trilogy we have public calls from Provisional Sinn Fein leaders for a campaign of informing to be pursued against Irish republicans continuing the separatist tradition. To invoke the words of one of those leaders previously uttered: SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!
The analysis of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement on the current political process has been proven to be correct. The direction of the political process testifies to that. But being correct is not enough. Our inability to impact on the political process in any meaningful way is testament to this fact. We cannot dwell on the past, or analyse ad nauseum, or apportion blame or seek refuge in righteous principle. We need to look forward, build our organisation and establish for ourselves a programme of political tasks with stated objectives to achieve this. The 32CSM National Executive has drafted such a programme and is currently engaged with our members on its implementation.
Amongst the broader Republican Family the 32CSM has been the strongest advocate of both political engagement with our political opponents and that a unified republican approach to that engagement offered our struggle a greater leverage to secure our objectives. The 32CSM has drafted definitive Policy Papers both on the issues which political engagement should be centred on and on clear mechanisms as to how that engagement can take place.
The Republican Unity Project has moved beyond the realms of a debatable idea and has entered a phase of actual political activity on a unified front. The Republican Unity Bodenstown Commemoration this year was widely hailed as a most positive development and the 32CSM remains determined to build on this success. We call on all republican organisations and supporters to involve themselves in the Republican Unity Project and to realise that all those who subscribe to the Good Friday Agreement represent a unified front against Irish Republicanism.
Irish republicanism needs to rebuild and reconstitute its republican constituency. We cannot forever stand on the coat tails of our historical forebears and invoke loyalty to their efforts as a relevant republican action to pursue the objective which they themselves actioned upon. Just as they brought new ideas to their era of struggle likewise republicans today need to introduce new ideas to make our struggle relevant and dynamic. That the objective remains the same does not imply that the strategies employed to achieve it are obliged to remain static.
The political establishment lectures us that the Constitutional Question is resolved. There are others within that establishment who would try and tell us different but yet cannot reconcile their political actions with their political words. Irish National Sovereignty remains violated, the cause of conflict remains and the task for republican separatists is clear. We need not listen to the argument that the agenda of sovereignty is a narrow one and aloof from the day to day needs of the Irish people. The issue of sovereignty is central to Irish democracy because a violation of one is a violation of the other. Sovereignty is at the heart of the Shell to Sea campaign wherein our natural resources should be under the control and benefit of the Irish people. Sovereignty is at the heart of the European Union debate wherein our inalienable right to declare our neutrality is gravely undermined. Sovereignty is at the heart of the Save Tara Campaign wherein our national heritage, on a par with Egypt in historical significance, is threatened by bad planning and dubious practice. But it is not enough for republicans to state these facts, we must enact them through political programmes that brings this reality to our people.
The 32CSM has initiated a campaign to secure a unified republican approach to the proposed referendum on the repackaged EU Constitution. Specifically we have identified partition, and the consequences of partition, as solid ground upon which to launch defined objectives to this Constitution. In effect we seek to introduce a definitive separatist flavour to what will undoubtedly be a very broad No Campaign. We have written to various republican organisations outlining our thinking and included in that correspondence Six Points Of Objection which represent an impetus for those organisations to debate and draft similar points so as to coalesce the separatist objection around solid and relevant arguments.
Currently four members of the 32CSM are before a British Court along with five other political activists for protesting against the Raytheon Arms Manufacturer. The Raytheon 9 as they have become to be known are equally in a struggle on the issue of sovereignty highlighting what multinational arms companies in a partitioned Ireland do in the name of the Irish people.
And now we must face the prospect of former comrades being urged by their leadership to turn informer. To ameliorate their supporters to this idea their leadership has begun a deliberate and insidious campaign of criminalisation against us. Through a compliant media they have sought to employ the most blatant revisionism of our struggle, worthy of the pen of any Sunday Independent hack. For them the struggle is now an object to be fashioned to their will so as to justify their acts. They are now the British establishment in Ireland and we expect nothing less from them.