There is nothing republican about intimidating the vulnerable or putting a landlord’s property interests before human dignity. Those who claim a connection to the Republican cause while associating themselves with such disgraceful actions have shamed the very principles they profess to uphold.
As Wolfe Tone reminded us, “Our strength shall come from that great and respectable class, the men of no property.”
Our tradition should stand with the dispossessed, not the powerful; with those offering shelter, not those using violence to remove them and line their pockets with the scum landlords blood money.
In a country gripped by a housing and homelessness crisis, and amid the devastation inflicted upon the Palestinian people in Gaza, solidarity must mean more than slogans. Irish republicanism without social justice and international solidarity is republicanism stripped of its soul.
⏩Pádraig Drummond is an anti-racism activist.
No comments