It is an enormous privilege and honour to be invited here today to speak at the rededication of this monument to the legendary Roddy McCorley. This is because, not only was this man a patriot but the story and history involved surrounding his memory resonate to this every day in many different ways.
While there are few verifiable written details remaining about his life and the circumstances surrounding his last few days, there is much we can draw from his story. Several things emerge in the telling. Because, as with so many aspects and events in the history of this land, there are contradictory accounts of what happened.
If we are to believe the account of Roddy McCorley supplied to the Belfast Newsletter at the time by the British establishment and its intelligence agencies, McCorley was a common thief and highwayman. A criminal correctly and properly executed for his crimes in order to protect the law-abiding subjects of his majesty King George III.
This account has of course, long been challenged by Irish Republicans who have always insisted that Roddy McCorley was a patriot and, as a member of the United Irishmen, had played his part in the battle for Antrim town.
Let me say that this is not a simple matter of which story do we believe. This is not a case of simply accepting a version that suits our particular political position. This story merits, deeper analysis and reflection than merely agreeing with a view that we like.
It is important to consider the era in which these events occurred and moreover, to reflect on how this message resonates to this very day. This was a period of enormous transformation in global politics. A mere quarter of a century before his execution, the British Empire had been shaken to its core by the American Revolution. And of enormous significance was the fact that many of those who fought along with George Washington were from the northern Irish Presbyterian community.
Shortly thereafter, the seemingly invulnerable French monarchy was overthrown by the common people, thereby dispelling a myth that Catholic people would never rebel against a monarch. A fact with obvious relevance for British rule in predominantly Catholic Ireland.
I need hardly add to that by telling this audience, the influence and impact these events had in Ireland, when a mere few miles from here in 1795, on a hillside overlooking Belfast, a group of men made a vow, “never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted our independence”. Of major significance and a fact not lost on the British was that many of those espousing the republican doctrine were members of the Northern Irish Presbyterian community.
Something that was highlighted by words spoken by the Catholic McCorley in the hours after his capture and sentencing, when he famously stated that, ‘Had I remained among the Presbyterians, I would never have been betrayed’.
A sentiment that alone would have alarmed the British authorities, fearing the cementing of a relationship between Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. A unity that would certainly have definitively fractured the Empire’s grip on territory it considered of immense strategic importance to its interests, not to mention its security.
Herein lies an obvious explanation for the lurid reporting of alleged criminality in the Belfast Newsletter by the then British intelligence services. The attempted criminalisation of Irish republican resistance by the Empire had clearly began several centuries before the British Labour Party’s introduction of the policy in the 1970s.
How we know that the allegation of criminality bears no relationship to the truth is testified to by the celebrated work of the renowned poet, Ethna Carberry, who composed the words of the popular ballad bearing the patriot’s name. Ethna Carberry was the daughter of Robert Johnson, a Fenian from Ballymena who had spent many years through the first decades of the 19 century collecting stories and memories of veteran United Irishmen from Co Antrim.
Due to both to his collecting of these memoirs and his residing in Co Antrim, it is impossible to believe that he could have mistaken a common criminal for a noble and heroic patriot. Nor is it credible that his daughter would not have been aware of the true facts of this case before penning words that have come down the decades since.
True to the last, true to the last
He steps the upward way
And young Roddy McCorley goes to die
On the bridge of Toome today
No, the Crown could not permit the real and accurate story of young Roddy McCorley to be told in case it might result in a challenge to the Empire’s rule. Fear and panic was the method of operation by the forces of the Crown, then as now. Instead, we are aware of how this fear was spread and maintained, as once summed up in a memorable poem by another notable friend and contemporary of Ethna Carberry, the great Alice Milligan, when she wrote her poem entitled, ‘ When I was a little girl’. A piece of poetry telling how children in unionist households would be admonished and terrified, if staying out too late, with the cry, ‘Come in, or when it’s dark, The Fenians will get ye.’
There is an important message in all of this that resonates with us today and in a certain way that reaches beyond simply correcting history, important though that is.
We are today still faced with deliberate falsifications and distortions promoted in order to perpetuate unnatural divisions between people with the clear objective of maintaining a corrupt and vile governing system on this island.
As outlined above, there was a consciously implemented policy of promoting unnatural sectarian division in order to facilitate the maintenance of the Empire's rule. An ancient imperial policy of divide, conquer and thereafter rule. Today, the contemporary delivery of that policy is provided not by relying solely on secretarial division but by the evil use of racism.
Over the last few weeks, we witnessed a toxic campaign of hate as people of colour were driven from their homes. These despicable attacks were carried out in the north by loyalist thugs. However, we must not become complacent or adopt a partisan attitude since there is unfortunately ample evidence that such odious racist opinions are not confined to our unionist neighbours. The poison is all too evident south of the border.
If we are to be faithful to the memory and heroic contribution of Roddy McCorley and his comrades in the United Irishmen, we must resist the manipulations of the Deep State as it strives to create dissension. We know what is needed and we must be aways be alert to the machinations of the forces opposed to its achievement. Dissension and division assist none but the servants of imperialism and prevent the long overdue establishment of an independent sovereign Irish Republic.
Let us, therefore, leave here committed to achieving the dream for which young Roddy McCorley went to die on the bridge of Toome so many years ago.
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| Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney |
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