EASTER ORATION 2008
It is indeed a great honour and privilege to be invited here today, in
Derry, to give the oration at this years commemoration of the 92nd
anniversary of the Easter Rising.
This city and county has a long and proud history in the struggle for
Irish Independence, a struggle to end British Parliamentary Activity in
Ireland.
Today you the people of Derry are not only upholding the ideals of the
leaders of 1916, you are remembering them with the pride and honour
they deserve.
When the Proclamation was written it was done so with vision and spelt
out clearly the legality of the Provisional Government.
The legality of that position in 1916 is as relevant to the Irish
people today as it was then because Ireland today remains under British
occupation.
The British Home Rule preference of that era remains the preferred
choice of the present day British Government.
Unfortunately and sadly, former comrades have joined the ranks of the
Home Rulers and have moved to the British agenda with the continuance
of British Rule in Ireland and are now actively administering that
rule.
This Easter those same people will besmirch the name republican as
they use and abuse the proud name to bolster their own ego’s and to
bolster their failed agenda.
In the 26 counties the people gave PSF their answer at the last
election, when they decided there wasn’t room for two Fianna Fail’s.
PSF and Fianna Fail are two sides of the same coin and today both are
competing for a share of the same things.
PSF have failed their own people and their Southern project is dead in
the water. At their Ard Fheis it was acknowledged their Northern
leadership failed the South because of their partitionist mindset.
I do not see the Southern project being resurrected as their policies
are now in conflict between North and South and between the socialist
left and the conservative right.
This begs the question, would James Connolly a signatory of the
Proclamation have reached this position?
Would Padraig Pearse have entered negotiations that refused to address
the core cause of conflict and accept the perpetuation of British Rule
and continue to facilitate it with the public decommissioning of arms,
end the struggle without any republican gains and criminalize Irish men
and Irish women who continue to oppose British Rule in Ireland, who
continue to oppose the partition of our country and who oppose the
continuation of sectarian strife in the occupied six counties.
Today just like 92 years ago there is the ongoing effort to
criminalize the republican position, criminalize and vilify us for
putting forward the legality of our position and for stating clearly
just as Pearse did that Ireland unfree will never be at peace.
History has taught us there will always be opposition to the
occupation of any part of the Irish Nation.
The criminalization I refer to takes many forms with vilification of
individuals, the intimidation of our members and brutal beatings
resulting in serious injury by the PSNI.
The PSNI in conjunction with MI5 are actively targeting individuals in
a pattern just as they done under their former name the RUC and we
believe they are deliberately setting up people for murder.
In the past weeks we are aware of suspicious activity across the 6
Counties emanating from the British military presence and we are
certain that circumstances prevented the murder of at least one
individual.
In the days and weeks ahead we appeal to the republican base in the
occupied territory to be vigilant in the face of this serious threat
and to report all suspicious activity to the 32 CSM, no matter how
insignificant you think it is. It could save some one’s life.
Amazingly the quislings in Dublin and Stormont have not uttered a word
of condemnation, instead their public pronouncements are that of
continuing such practices and by giving their support to an
unacceptable police force they are supporting such practices and
supporting British political policing in Ireland.
Dublin have moved one step further in the criminalization process and
the abuse of civil rights with the arrest of 4 men from this city and
placed a charge without any evidence.
Their powers to intern anyone on the advice of a Garda Superintendent
demonstrates the fragility of their position. They feel the need to
intern anyone who opposes British Rule in Ireland and have these abuses
of human rights in place to remove any advancement to uphold Irish
National Sovereignty.
Those who claim the PSNI are not involved in political policing are
liars and are involved in the cover up to conceal the extent of their
involvement in carrying out British practices in the occupied 6
Counties.
The Gardai have joined this bunch with political policing and there is
little difference between their activities because their agenda is to
crush any opposition and to facilitate the British Agenda under the
guise of peace.
This very month the PSF leader in Leinster House, in response to Fine
Gael criticism of the continued existence of the PIRA Army council,
stated that the core reason for its existence was to act as a bulwark
against the growing influence of so called dissident republicanism
particularly in the border area. It now seems that a new slogan is
required for them, ‘With an MI5 agent in one hand and a private militia
in the other we’ll secure British rule in Ireland.’
We in the 32 CSM could never and will not accept such practices, that
fails the Irish people, practices that fail to uphold the sovereignty
of the Irish people and practices that allows a foreign government to
maintain their illegal presence through the use of force, intimidation,
threat and murder.
In our discussion document Dismantling Partition we recognize the
strengths and weakness’ of the republican position following the damage
that it has withstood when former leaders accepted the British agenda
in the GFA. We are confident that the position we adopted prior to the
GFA, with our challenge lodged in the UN, secured the basic tenet of
the republican position and by so doing we have set out a course to
pursue that challenge.
We recognize in the present climate we cannot do it alone and we
recognize that by uniting the separatist position across the republican
base republicanism will realign itself to the position of the 1916
leaders.
In doing so we are confident that together republicans will make a
difference in upholding the Proclamation and in so doing uphold the
right of the Irish people to National Self-determination. In other
words uphold the Sovereignty of the Irish Nation.
The Republican Unity Initiative has the capabilities to promote
debate, discussion and formulate republican strategy based on
democratic principles, agreement and decision.
Republicanism divided into factions only assists those who are content
to ignore us.
They refuse to challenge our analysis, our position leaves them
uncomfortable so they have to retreat to ignore us in the hope we will
go away.
That is not going to happen, we in the 32CSM know that with debate and
understanding across the republican base, republicans will come
together just as they done in 1916 and that with such unity the
republican position cannot be ignored.
Who would have thought that as we prepare for the centenary of the1916
rising in 8 years time that we would be back at the same position as
they were in the coming together of the differing organizations to
present the true challenge based on truth and justice.
In 1916 their leaders came together to thwart the push for Home Rule
and by doing so they lit the torch of freedom.
Their analysis in the Proclamation was correct.
They were vilified by the British and by the Home Rulers and because
they set out with the right analysis, their position was ratified by
the Irish people two short years later.
The people of Ireland elected them based on that analysis and they
formed the first Dail Eireann. The Brits refused to accept the
democratic will of the Irish people and executed our national
government because it was an Irish agenda and like today they refused
to accept anything outside their own agenda.
Does that sound familiar in to day’s terms.
Over the past year republicans have come together with their first
tentative steps in discussion and debate and have united with a number
of projects such as the Wolfe Tone commemoration, the anti- British
policing debate and in the Truth and Lies debate remembering the
victims of Bloody Sunday in Derry.
We continue to extend the hand of friendship to all republican
organizations and individuals to come together in debate and discussion
so that the real challenge based on firm analysis can be pursued to end
British parliamentary activity in Ireland.
That is what the men and women of 1916 gave their lives for and that
is the only solution to end conflict and strife in Ireland.
As the realignment of the Home Rulers begins to crack and divide,
republicans should be seeking to unite the republican position to
promote the challenge and capitalize on the flaws of our opponent’s
position.
Let us move forward from today with more tiny steps on the road to
unity so that we can grow and look to 2016 with a shared confidence for
the 100th Anniversary of a significant historic event.
An event that has left us in the position we find ourselves today by
successive intransigent British Governments.
We have a serious and sincere challenge, let us develop it with a
unified republican position.
Go Raibh Maith Agat.