Why did Pádraig Pearse believe that Wolfe Tone was ‘the greatest of Irish nationalists…the greatest of Irishmen?’
Who was this young Kildare lawyer whom the Duke of Wellington said was:
Thomas Davis and the Young Irelanders laid a stone on this grave in 1844. The IRB, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish Citizen’s Army all gathered here over the years. Tom Clarke, executed in 1916, spoke here on four consecutive occasions. Liam Mellows, later executed by the Free State, spoke beside this grave to the Four Courts garrison just before the start of the Civil War. So, too, has a succession of Sticks, Provos, and Fianna Fáilers.
Many wish to pay homage to his inspirational life, others to opportunistically bask in his reflected glory. Some to claim his posthumous endorsement of one republican project or to imply he would have supported the surrender of another. All gather here because few in Irish history talked the talk and walked the walk like Theobald Wolfe Tone.
Wolfe Tone did not view himself as a Protestant of the ascendancy or the plantation but of the enlightenment. It was Wolfe Tone who gave the United Irishmen their name. Founded in Belfast in 1791, they were not campaigning for a united Ireland in the territorial sense; Ireland wasn’t partitioned until 1922. They were seeking to unite Irishmen in the interest of Ireland, as opposed to dividing Irishmen in the interest of England. The Irish people, Tone wrote, had ‘one common interest and one common enemy.’ The manifesto of the United Irishmen declared:
Ireland still has no national government. There is an Irish government in Dublin, but it is not the Government of Ireland. There are two governments of Ireland—one based in Leinster House and the other at Westminster in London. Stormont is a regional assembly of the British parliament.
Instead of national politics, we have partition politics. And who could look at Stormont and Britain’s Secretary of State and deny that part of Ireland continues to be ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen?
Unionists never had an issue with a united Ireland per se. They lived in a united Ireland under Crown jurisdiction for hundreds of years. The Orange Order is an all-Ireland institution. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches are all-Ireland ministries. And, of course, the Church of Ireland is not the Church of Northern Ireland. Their real objection is becoming subject to the democratic decision-making of a national electorate that contains a Catholic majority.
When Republicans speak of reaching out to unionists, we mean reaching out to them as fellow citizens and not as foreigners who happen to live here. Foreigners are born in another country. The vast majority of Ulster Unionists were born in Ireland. They must not be treated as the civil garrison of an alien state. That is not pluralism; that is submitting to the social and political modelling of colonial conquest.
Pádraig Pearse said of Wolfe Tone:
Today, the voices that ring less true tell us that far from breaking the English connection, we must work within it. That sectarianism, inequality, and partition will eventually be ended by collaborating with the government that created and sustains them.
If you want to believe that, then work away. Good luck to you. If you manage to get elected or co-opted to Stormont, the British government will subsidise your belief with a salary, expenses, and ultimately a pension. But don’t internalise Britain’s pacification project and call it a republican peace strategy. We have had pacification many times in our history. We have it now. However, we will never achieve lasting peace in our country until the root cause of conflict is definitively addressed, which is Britain’s claim to govern any part of Ireland.
Irish republicanism is fundamentally about replacing sectarian and ethnic divisions with a united civic identity in a sovereign republic. It is not about a ‘Shared Island’ rooted in British/Irish identity politics.
Many supporters of the Good Friday Agreement believe the intergovernmental British-Irish Council should keep functioning even after a pro-unity referendum is won so that Britain can continue to represent its citizens in the north east of Ireland. Far from achieving sovereignty over our whole territory and population, a part of Ireland will continue to be administered under British government supervision. Many Shared Islanders also advocate a continuation of Stormont and champion an enduring role for the British royal family as an institutional point of reference for the loyalties of those who would prefer to see themselves as a civic outpost of London rather than as equal citizens of a national democracy. A 32-county state built upon the political architecture of the Good Friday Agreement will not be a united Ireland.
A Shared Island means we share in Britain’s analysis of the nature of the conflict as a domestic dispute between sectarian factions, we share in the colonial legacy of sectarian apartheid, and we share in the imperial project of divide and rule. Differences that would become incidental in a genuine Republic remain fundamental in a ‘Shared Island’. The Shared Islanders call on us to embrace these differences for the sake of peace, as opposed to Tone’s republican vision of ending these differences for the sake of peace. Robert Emmet did not request that his epitaph be withheld until his country had taken its place as two nations among the nations of the earth.
Those who believe that unionists may be enticed into a 32 County state by discarding or eroding Irish national flags and symbols, by changing the national anthem, by chasing English royalty around Ireland, or by attending British war memorials forget that Ulster unionists chose to opt out of joining the 26-County state in 1922 when that state had substantially closer links with Britain than it does today. The Free State government had retracted its allegiance to the Irish Republic, set up a subordinate parliament in the name of the King, took an oath to be faithful to that King, was a member of the British Commonwealth, and was eagerly murdering republicans with arms supplied by the British government. And yet, unionists wanted no part of it then and want no part of it now. Britain ensures they don’t have to.
Republicans know that a genuine process of national reconciliation can only begin when Britain leaves Ireland and can no longer interfere in our internal affairs. This includes Britain’s claim to act on behalf of Ulster Unionists in a future non-partitioned Ireland.
Britain was awarded no right to represent Ulster Unionists in the three Ulster counties incorporated into the Free State in 1922. Many of these unionists in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal had signed the Ulster Covenant and were as loyal to the Crown in their day as their brethren a mile up the road in Fermanagh or Tyrone are today. One hundred three years later, their descendants are still Protestant; those who wish to be are still Orangemen, but they are not the British presence. They are equal and valued citizens of the Irish State.
During the Troubles, the UK government portrayed the war as a criminally motivated conflict in which Britain selflessly held the line between sectarian factions in six Ulster counties. However, there was no trouble between these same factions in the three Ulster counties outside of Crown jurisdiction after the British government left in 1922. Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished when you take London out of the equation?
Ending the partition of our country while sustaining the partition of our people, giving it constitutional legitimacy, and imprinting that division with a democratic mandate is a dream come true for the Brits. It ensures that unionists will remain forever in Ireland but not of it. It makes us willing accomplices in our national discord. It guarantees that the political malignancy through which Britain historically controlled and manipulated Ireland will endure.
Despite the assertion of many Irish politicians, the United Kingdom is not our friend or ally. It is not a force for peace and should not be allowed to define the concept of peace in Ireland. Britain continues to occupy our country. It has invaded or established a military presence in 171 of the 193 countries that are currently UN member states. Britain has caused chaos across the globe. To cite one of countless examples, it played a pivotal role in engineering the catastrophe in Palestine. More recently, there have been hundreds of Royal Air Force reconnaissance flights over Gaza and aerial bombings throughout the region in support of Israel. We must not be harnessed to Britain’s war chariot. We must not be lured into a British border poll by promises of the wonderful things that can happen if we join NATO. Ireland has a democratic right to determine the Irish national question on an Irish national basis without preconditions from unionists, partitionists, or the British government. British jurisdiction in Ireland is an affront to our national sovereignty, an assault on our national democracy, and their openly stated intention to exploit our national territory in any future global conflict presents an existential threat to our national survival.
There are those donning the mantle of Irish republicanism who are so shallow, so opportunistic, so cynical they would support a 32-county Irish state becoming a British protectorate within the British Commonwealth in order to claim they helped to achieve the united Ireland republicans fought and died for. They reveal a form of corporate narcissism in which they convince themselves that anything they do is republican, no matter how counter-republican it proves to be. Wolfe Tone would roll in his grave.
Returning to the man himself, Tone tried and failed to bring French republican forces to Ireland in 1796 and again in 1797 but was thwarted on both occasions by unfavourable winds and weather.
Tone attempted a third time to bring an expeditionary force containing 3,000 men to Ireland. This last action of the 1798 rebellion took place in October when the Royal Navy defeated the French in a naval battle off the coast of Donegal. Wolfe Tone refused an offer to escape and was captured in the uniform of a French officer. Recognised by a fellow Trinity graduate, he was brought to Dublin.
Tone was tried and sentenced to death. He was placed in the same cell that his executed brother Matthew had been placed in a month previously. In the cell, he found a small razor, possibly Matthew’s, and reportedly cut his throat to deny the British government the spectacle of hanging him. He died a week later, on the 19th of November 1798. He was 35 years old. The British government would permit only two people to attend his burial here in Bodenstown.
Sean O Faoláin wrote:
Today we honour this intelligent and sincere man who gave the United Irishmen their name. This articulate man who defined their cause. This resourceful and persuasive man who organised three invasion fleets in an attempt to free his country from foreign rule and the sectarian structure that propped it up. This courageous man who said that if necessary, he would land in Ireland with nothing more than a corporal’s guard.
We stand today beside the grave of this remarkable patriot to honour his service and sacrifice and to reaffirm our commitment to his ideals. We stand here not as southern or northern Irishmen and women, not as Catholics or Protestants, not as inhabitants of this ‘island’ nor advocates of insipid All-Island institutions, but as United Irishmen and women. We stand today as Tone and his comrades stood then – as unapologetic Irish republicans.
Leaving Wolfe Tone’s grave, we take with us an inspiring reminder of what authentic leadership looks like. We depart re-energised by his immortal words:
Up the Republic!
Who was this young Kildare lawyer whom the Duke of Wellington said was:
… a most extraordinary ma n…With 100 guineas in his pocket, unknown, un-recommended, and without friends, he went to Paris and persuaded the French Government to send an army of 15,000 men to over-throw British authority in Ireland. This was an achievement of genius.
Thomas Davis and the Young Irelanders laid a stone on this grave in 1844. The IRB, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish Citizen’s Army all gathered here over the years. Tom Clarke, executed in 1916, spoke here on four consecutive occasions. Liam Mellows, later executed by the Free State, spoke beside this grave to the Four Courts garrison just before the start of the Civil War. So, too, has a succession of Sticks, Provos, and Fianna Fáilers.
Many wish to pay homage to his inspirational life, others to opportunistically bask in his reflected glory. Some to claim his posthumous endorsement of one republican project or to imply he would have supported the surrender of another. All gather here because few in Irish history talked the talk and walked the walk like Theobald Wolfe Tone.
Wolfe Tone did not view himself as a Protestant of the ascendancy or the plantation but of the enlightenment. It was Wolfe Tone who gave the United Irishmen their name. Founded in Belfast in 1791, they were not campaigning for a united Ireland in the territorial sense; Ireland wasn’t partitioned until 1922. They were seeking to unite Irishmen in the interest of Ireland, as opposed to dividing Irishmen in the interest of England. The Irish people, Tone wrote, had ‘one common interest and one common enemy.’ The manifesto of the United Irishmen declared:
We have no National Government; we are ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country; whose instrument is corruption; whose strength is the weakness of Ireland.
Ireland still has no national government. There is an Irish government in Dublin, but it is not the Government of Ireland. There are two governments of Ireland—one based in Leinster House and the other at Westminster in London. Stormont is a regional assembly of the British parliament.
Instead of national politics, we have partition politics. And who could look at Stormont and Britain’s Secretary of State and deny that part of Ireland continues to be ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen?
Unionists never had an issue with a united Ireland per se. They lived in a united Ireland under Crown jurisdiction for hundreds of years. The Orange Order is an all-Ireland institution. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches are all-Ireland ministries. And, of course, the Church of Ireland is not the Church of Northern Ireland. Their real objection is becoming subject to the democratic decision-making of a national electorate that contains a Catholic majority.
When Republicans speak of reaching out to unionists, we mean reaching out to them as fellow citizens and not as foreigners who happen to live here. Foreigners are born in another country. The vast majority of Ulster Unionists were born in Ireland. They must not be treated as the civil garrison of an alien state. That is not pluralism; that is submitting to the social and political modelling of colonial conquest.
Pádraig Pearse said of Wolfe Tone:
He has spoken for all time, and his voice resounds throughout Ireland, calling to us from this grave when we wander astray following other voices that ring less true.
Today, the voices that ring less true tell us that far from breaking the English connection, we must work within it. That sectarianism, inequality, and partition will eventually be ended by collaborating with the government that created and sustains them.
If you want to believe that, then work away. Good luck to you. If you manage to get elected or co-opted to Stormont, the British government will subsidise your belief with a salary, expenses, and ultimately a pension. But don’t internalise Britain’s pacification project and call it a republican peace strategy. We have had pacification many times in our history. We have it now. However, we will never achieve lasting peace in our country until the root cause of conflict is definitively addressed, which is Britain’s claim to govern any part of Ireland.
Irish republicanism is fundamentally about replacing sectarian and ethnic divisions with a united civic identity in a sovereign republic. It is not about a ‘Shared Island’ rooted in British/Irish identity politics.
Many supporters of the Good Friday Agreement believe the intergovernmental British-Irish Council should keep functioning even after a pro-unity referendum is won so that Britain can continue to represent its citizens in the north east of Ireland. Far from achieving sovereignty over our whole territory and population, a part of Ireland will continue to be administered under British government supervision. Many Shared Islanders also advocate a continuation of Stormont and champion an enduring role for the British royal family as an institutional point of reference for the loyalties of those who would prefer to see themselves as a civic outpost of London rather than as equal citizens of a national democracy. A 32-county state built upon the political architecture of the Good Friday Agreement will not be a united Ireland.
A Shared Island means we share in Britain’s analysis of the nature of the conflict as a domestic dispute between sectarian factions, we share in the colonial legacy of sectarian apartheid, and we share in the imperial project of divide and rule. Differences that would become incidental in a genuine Republic remain fundamental in a ‘Shared Island’. The Shared Islanders call on us to embrace these differences for the sake of peace, as opposed to Tone’s republican vision of ending these differences for the sake of peace. Robert Emmet did not request that his epitaph be withheld until his country had taken its place as two nations among the nations of the earth.
Those who believe that unionists may be enticed into a 32 County state by discarding or eroding Irish national flags and symbols, by changing the national anthem, by chasing English royalty around Ireland, or by attending British war memorials forget that Ulster unionists chose to opt out of joining the 26-County state in 1922 when that state had substantially closer links with Britain than it does today. The Free State government had retracted its allegiance to the Irish Republic, set up a subordinate parliament in the name of the King, took an oath to be faithful to that King, was a member of the British Commonwealth, and was eagerly murdering republicans with arms supplied by the British government. And yet, unionists wanted no part of it then and want no part of it now. Britain ensures they don’t have to.
Republicans know that a genuine process of national reconciliation can only begin when Britain leaves Ireland and can no longer interfere in our internal affairs. This includes Britain’s claim to act on behalf of Ulster Unionists in a future non-partitioned Ireland.
Britain was awarded no right to represent Ulster Unionists in the three Ulster counties incorporated into the Free State in 1922. Many of these unionists in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal had signed the Ulster Covenant and were as loyal to the Crown in their day as their brethren a mile up the road in Fermanagh or Tyrone are today. One hundred three years later, their descendants are still Protestant; those who wish to be are still Orangemen, but they are not the British presence. They are equal and valued citizens of the Irish State.
During the Troubles, the UK government portrayed the war as a criminally motivated conflict in which Britain selflessly held the line between sectarian factions in six Ulster counties. However, there was no trouble between these same factions in the three Ulster counties outside of Crown jurisdiction after the British government left in 1922. Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished when you take London out of the equation?
Ending the partition of our country while sustaining the partition of our people, giving it constitutional legitimacy, and imprinting that division with a democratic mandate is a dream come true for the Brits. It ensures that unionists will remain forever in Ireland but not of it. It makes us willing accomplices in our national discord. It guarantees that the political malignancy through which Britain historically controlled and manipulated Ireland will endure.
Despite the assertion of many Irish politicians, the United Kingdom is not our friend or ally. It is not a force for peace and should not be allowed to define the concept of peace in Ireland. Britain continues to occupy our country. It has invaded or established a military presence in 171 of the 193 countries that are currently UN member states. Britain has caused chaos across the globe. To cite one of countless examples, it played a pivotal role in engineering the catastrophe in Palestine. More recently, there have been hundreds of Royal Air Force reconnaissance flights over Gaza and aerial bombings throughout the region in support of Israel. We must not be harnessed to Britain’s war chariot. We must not be lured into a British border poll by promises of the wonderful things that can happen if we join NATO. Ireland has a democratic right to determine the Irish national question on an Irish national basis without preconditions from unionists, partitionists, or the British government. British jurisdiction in Ireland is an affront to our national sovereignty, an assault on our national democracy, and their openly stated intention to exploit our national territory in any future global conflict presents an existential threat to our national survival.
There are those donning the mantle of Irish republicanism who are so shallow, so opportunistic, so cynical they would support a 32-county Irish state becoming a British protectorate within the British Commonwealth in order to claim they helped to achieve the united Ireland republicans fought and died for. They reveal a form of corporate narcissism in which they convince themselves that anything they do is republican, no matter how counter-republican it proves to be. Wolfe Tone would roll in his grave.
Returning to the man himself, Tone tried and failed to bring French republican forces to Ireland in 1796 and again in 1797 but was thwarted on both occasions by unfavourable winds and weather.
Tone attempted a third time to bring an expeditionary force containing 3,000 men to Ireland. This last action of the 1798 rebellion took place in October when the Royal Navy defeated the French in a naval battle off the coast of Donegal. Wolfe Tone refused an offer to escape and was captured in the uniform of a French officer. Recognised by a fellow Trinity graduate, he was brought to Dublin.
Tone was tried and sentenced to death. He was placed in the same cell that his executed brother Matthew had been placed in a month previously. In the cell, he found a small razor, possibly Matthew’s, and reportedly cut his throat to deny the British government the spectacle of hanging him. He died a week later, on the 19th of November 1798. He was 35 years old. The British government would permit only two people to attend his burial here in Bodenstown.
Sean O Faoláin wrote:
If Tone did not in his life time achieve much, he started much. Without him republicanism in Ireland would virtually have no tradition.
Today we honour this intelligent and sincere man who gave the United Irishmen their name. This articulate man who defined their cause. This resourceful and persuasive man who organised three invasion fleets in an attempt to free his country from foreign rule and the sectarian structure that propped it up. This courageous man who said that if necessary, he would land in Ireland with nothing more than a corporal’s guard.
We stand today beside the grave of this remarkable patriot to honour his service and sacrifice and to reaffirm our commitment to his ideals. We stand here not as southern or northern Irishmen and women, not as Catholics or Protestants, not as inhabitants of this ‘island’ nor advocates of insipid All-Island institutions, but as United Irishmen and women. We stand today as Tone and his comrades stood then – as unapologetic Irish republicans.
Leaving Wolfe Tone’s grave, we take with us an inspiring reminder of what authentic leadership looks like. We depart re-energised by his immortal words:
To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country—these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissentions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in the place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter—these were my means.
Up the Republic!
 |
| John Crawley is a former IRA volunteer and author of The Yank. |
What a great address. Not to belittle any of John's previous efforts, but I think this is his best.
ReplyDeletePolitical overview, critique, historical retrospective are provided with Palestine mentioned, while it's still with us.
I would have included mention of that third governnent in Ireland, the one headquartered far away in Brussels.
It's flag is regularly flown in towns in Mayo, and who knows how many other places throughout the Twenty Six counties.
Interesting read.
ReplyDeleteThe free state reached synthesis between 'some' people who were out in Easter week and the people who owned everything by not touching property and just letting it not quiet wither but not quite be the same
For all the talk of Catholic church dominance in the 26 counties and it existed in education and health but similar structures in education up north
The first Catholic on the board of management of Guinness in Dublin wasn't until the 60s
The first Catholic editor of the Irish times wasn't until the 1980s
The first Catholic chief executive of the bank of Ireland wasn't until the 1990s
So in a Catholic theocratric state finance media and industry weren't touched.
Is that a success or a failing. Even today Irish capital tends not to invest in Ireland bar property. Just sucks everything up and invests in London
The free state trys to leverage the state to get investment, protesctionest measures in the 30s, fdi since the 60s.
Not quite the Gaelige reconqest but there was in the 26 counties a century of peace. All as a consequence of not going after property. Worth evaluating if this question of reaprochment is being teased out again for future steps.
Red Ron,
ReplyDeletethe named author of the piece has exercised his right to prevent you availing of the shield of anonymity when engaging with his work. He invokes the blog spirit of a level playing field. He has the right here. Invisible people have invisible rights. The blog seeks to dissuade people from hiding behind a veil when engaging with the site.
You are free to respond to his comments on Bates and Wilkes Central, where your latest comment will appear.
TPQ