Standing here today does not make you an Irish republican. If we choose to stand in this hallowed spot as Irish republicans then we must relay to the Irish people, in clear and concise terms, our justification and credentials for doing so.
We cannot claim to act on behalf of the Irish people if we cannot explain to them why and how a sovereign Irish republic affords our people the political, social and cultural framework within which Irish society can progress along genuine republican principles.
The supreme lesson bequeathed by those who fought in 1916 is a line of clarity, a fundamental starting point from which Irish republicanism must commence, and from there, cultivate its core philosophy to impact on the current political climate in which we find ourselves.
That line of clarity determines that the Irish people must reject any British dimension, influence or agency in the sovereign affairs of the Irish people. It also declares that no such interference can form any part in a just and democratic conflict resolution process. In the words of the 1916 Proclamation Irish sovereignty is inalienable and indefeasible; it cannot be bartered or given away for any purpose especially for political and constitutional expediency.
Grattan’s Parliament, Home Rule, Partition, Leinster House and Stormont are all manifestations to serve British strategic interests in our country. They originated and were nurtured with the direct and dependant collusion of a domestic Irish politics which has flourished for its own ends and has placed its own welfare above the welfare of our people.
But it is not enough for Irish republicans to simply quote from those who went before us. All generations of our people have the inalienable right to exercise their sovereignty in the face of the circumstances in which they live. And equally, all generations of Irish republicans have a right and duty to articulate their voice so that those generations take notice of it. History has given us our foundations; what we build on them is a matter for us.
Where is the voice of Irish republicanism today? What are we saying that is remotely quotable to those who will come after us? What ideas do we possess to advance the objectives of those buried here, who faced British firing squads in the sure confidence that such ideas would follow and secure the Republic they died for? If you cannot answer these questions, then you must remain silent. Marching bands are not a republican dialogue.
Our first task is to liberate Irish republicanism itself. We have mired it so deeply in the past that we have strangled any relevance it can have today. We have surrendered its future to historical decisions that were noble and relevant to their time but are, nonetheless, done and receding. There is no redemption in pointing at betrayal, in the comfort blanket of ideological purity or claiming heredity succession, which in itself is a deeply anti-republican concept. The core reasoning of republicanism is not traditional opposition but pragmatic progression.
The Republic proclaimed in 1916, democratically ratified in 1918, convened in 1919 and usurped in 1922 no longer exists both in fact and influence. The Proclamation of 1916 has been neutralised by the current political class who can claim empathy with its sentiments but will suffer no political consequences by refusing to pursue them. If we do not accept this reality, then we cannot begin to address the current realities which Irish republicans now face. It is not a question of republicanism going back to basics but rather Irish republicans taking those basics and moving forward.
If Irish republicanism is to have any chance to progress it needs to close the chapter on the First Republic, and the unsuccessful struggle to re-establish it, and open a new chapter for a Second Republic and initiate a new struggle to realise it.
The struggle to end the violation of our national sovereignty by the Westminster Parliament and the struggle to forge a viable and functioning Republic are one and the same. A so-called United Ireland is too vague a description to render it an objective, in any sense, of Irish republicanism. Building what we mean to establish is the surest means of defeating all those who stand in our way, both British and Irish.
By seeking to establish a Second Republic we address our people from a starting point of modernity. We make events in their lifetime relevant to their future and in turn to the republican project itself. Our duty to republican history is fulfilled because only those who have ideas to advance that history can inherit its mantle.
A Second Republic must serve its people and not itself be a servant to the political class; its own proclamation must state this and how it means to achieve it. It is not an altar at which to exalt historic patriotism but a living blueprint to build, foster and administer genuine republican ideals. The Proclamation of 1916 did not discard the Fenian Proclamation of 1867, it was a natural progression of it. That natural progression, once again, needs to be made manifest if the status quo is to be effectively challenged.
The Ireland of today is far removed from the vision of either proclamation, and more alarmingly, drifting ever further away. And once again British strategic interests have their hand on the tiller.
The political reasoning behind partition alters and adapts to the differing needs of the British establishment to preserve it. And because the Good Friday Agreement does not oblige the Twenty-Six County State to pursue the ending of Partition those British needs will go unchallenged.
More nefariously the dominant narrative on the constitutional question is now ingrained with the flawed need for a British citizen dimension to any future 32 County State. It is abundantly clear that British long-term thinking is looking beyond partition and modeling a so-called unitary state that will continue to serve its strategic interests in Ireland.
The British are no longer dependent on Unionist consent to guarantee its strategic interests in Ireland because under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement they have secured nationalist consent for the very same ends.
This British strategy is clearly audible in the language and actions of constitutional and establishment nationalists. Gone is the language of sovereignty and self-determination instead replaced with terminology such as ‘Agreed Ireland’ and ‘Shared Island’ couched in the emotive rhetoric of peace and reconciliation.
The relentless assault on the policy of neutrality, to enmesh present and future Irish Armed Forces in Western Military Alliances, further underscores Westminster’s long-term intentions and nationalist compliance with same.
This is precisely why the British retained complete control over that aspect of the Good Friday Agreement which deals with constitutional change. The primary purpose of a Border Poll is not what establishment nationalists hail it to be, but rather a mechanism by which the British can determine the nature of any state that results from such a poll.
This is an Ireland in the Commonwealth. An Ireland as the western flank of NATO. An Ireland as a sub-entity in a capitalist financial system. An Ireland whose ancient culture and identity will be deliberately eroded for political expediency.
Here is where the Republican Movement must step up to the mark. Any republican critique of the British occupation of our country must be cognisant of British long-term planning and its use of domestic Irish politicians to make that planning effective.
If the British establishment is thinking forward to shape future events so too must republican strategies to challenge them. Waving history at the British is as effective as using old medicines to treat modern ailments; if anything, British history has taught us this.
What we are witnessing in Ireland today is the counter-democratic outworking of the Good Friday Agreement. Even if the terms of that agreement fall into obscurity the political direction it initiated will continue to prevail.
The strongest argument that Irish republicanism currently possesses is a democratic one. We must now focus our attentions and resources into developing this argument to its fullest potential. As it stands, Partition is seen as being democratically endorsed via the so-called principle of consent. Achieving that consent is the red herring which both governments would have all interested parties endlessly but fruitlessly pursue.
A modern Proclamation, setting out in clear and precise terms, the sovereign democratic premise upon which a Second Republic must be founded, should by default graphically expose the counter-democratic nature of this consent fallacy.
If we resort to ideological abstractions or historical rhetoric as the primary focus of our efforts, we will only be talking to ourselves; an ever decreasing and irrelevant circle. What we need to articulate is not what the principle of consent is supposed to give us, but what it actually denies us, in real terms.
Peace on the island of Ireland should not be held hostage to a compromise on the integrity of our national sovereignty. If, as republicans, we recognise the people as the nation then it is through the people that our vision of nation and statehood must traverse if it is to have any relevance to them at all.
And for this to happen we must speak and understand the language of the people, the language of need, of necessity and of priority. The welfare of the people must constitute the social imperative of the Second Republic.
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