Easter Speech Derry 2009 - R.N.U. Tony Catney

Easter address from Republican Network for Unity.

As we gather here today, to remember and honour the brave men and women who unselfishly risked and ultimately gave their lives to serve the noble cause of Irish freedom, in the hope and expectation that they would create a better life for future generations, let us pause for a moment to reflect upon the significance of their actions and what lessons we can learn from the history changing events inspired by the Easter Rising of 1916. Ninety three years ago, inspired by the fact that the occupation of their country by a foreign force was a crime against the Irish nation, Irishmen and Irish women took to arms in an effort to end that occupation. In the short but bloody battle that followed, those men and women demonstrated that, even when pitted against the massive might of the military forces of the British Empire, that it was correct to resist the unjust and criminal occupation of Ireland by force of arms, rather than to meekly accept that might was right.

In the direct aftermath of the Rising, the volunteers and leaders who had taken part were castigated by the establishment, by local politicians and by the clergy. They were collectively labeled as ‘criminals’ and promptly shipped off to prison camps and jails for having the audacity to stand against British control in Ireland. So great was the establishment clamour around this ‘micro’ group of Irish rebels that the British felt free to do with them as they pleased, and after trying them under ‘special’ courts and by ‘special’ laws, they felt it appropriate to execute the leaders as an example to all other Rebels who may forget their place.

However, far from acting as a deterrent, the condemnation of local politicians and the oppression of the British, acted as a spur and ensured that in ever decade from then to now Irishmen and Irish women have repeatedly defied the might of British occupation and shown that the spirit of freedom will not be extinguished by the brutality of a foreign force, nor by the hollow condemnations of home grown establishment politicians and clergy.

Indeed, within three years of the ‘criminal’ act of conducting a rising, lead by an unmandated ‘micro’ group of Irish Rebels, these ‘criminals’ took their ‘criminal’ activity even farther and committed an act of treason against the British crown by establishing their parliament, Dail Eireann. Thus Irish Republicans in the eyes of the establishment, in the eyes of politicians and in the eyes of the clergy had completed the circle of oppressed people across the world, that is, by acting in an unrepresentative way, by refusing to accept the might of the state, by engaging in ‘criminal’ activity, they had become traitors, because they refused to accept and legitimise the British occupation of Ireland.

Now, almost a century later, Irish Republicans who still have the audacity to stand against British control in Ireland and who refuse to meekly accept the might of the British military presence in Ireland, face the same clamour from the establishment, from politicians and from the clergy. They still receive the same castigation as unrepresentative ‘micro’ groups, their actions are still described as ‘criminal’, the laws and courts that are used against them are still ‘special’ laws and ‘special’ courts and the treatment they receive is still brutal and barbaric.

Of course, there are those who now argue that things have changed, the imperatives for resisting British occupation in Ireland have gone and we now live in a peaceful, democratic Ireland which is “an Ireland of equals”. They argue that, Britain no longer has a selfish nor strategic interest in Ireland and the people of Ireland are now free to determine their own destinies. Evidence of this fact is there for all but the criminally insane, micro, unrepresentative, unmandated rebels to see in the form of the Good Friday Agreement and the misspelt peace process. Indeed, some would inform us that things have changed so dramatically that a united Ireland is attainable by 2014 and all we have to do is to bend the knee for five more years and all of our dreams and aspirations will be realised. Well I for one think that such a proposition is worth looking at, so let us at least consider the evidence that it is possible.

Fifteen years after the declaration of ceasefires, eleven years after the signing of an Internationally binding agreement and twenty years after the claim that the British had no selfish nor strategic interest in Ireland let us examine what has changed in the day-to-day reality for Irish Republicans and Nationalists.

We still live in a state of emergency, governed by emergency laws that are administered by special courts, we still have interment without trial, we still have masked and uniformed gun men on our streets, we still have an armed British garrison based in our towns, all of our actions are still subject to British approval, we still suffer from economic hardship and unemployment, we still have to endure a housing crisis, our language and culture are still regarded as second class, many of us cannot live in our family homes, many more are still branded as criminals and forced to live in the margins of society and changes that we were told had been agreed and would be guaranteed by an internationally binding agreement are as yet unfulfilled.

Now I may well be deluded by a micro criminal myopia, but much of the above seems to me to be exactly what the men and women who took part in the 1916 rising rebelled against, and in cemeteries all over this country and in all parts of the world, children of the nation of Ireland will gather today to pay tribute to the bravery and vision of those men and women. Yet some of those paying tribute and honouring Ireland’s dead see no contradiction in demonising and calling for the imprisonment of those rebels who take inspiration from the rising and still resist the British occupation of Ireland.

While I am not a betting man, those who are assure me that not even Paddy Power would give you odds that this particular prophesy of a united Ireland by 2014 is true. Yet even if it is only an outside bet, I for one would call on those who make such grandiose predictions to spell out publicly for all the children of the Nation how we will get from the present state of emergency, which has now lasted for a century, to the Ireland of equals we all aspire to. And then allow me and anyone else who wishes to, to openly and in a public fashion debate the merits of such a claim. To have such a master plan and not share it with the people of Ireland is surly more of a ‘crime’ than resisting British occupation! To have a blue print that will put and end to Irishmen and Irish women having to risk their lives or liberty to end the occupation of any part of this country and keep it to yourself is not only foolish, but it also creates the suspicion that perhaps the ‘master plan’ is not all that you are claiming it to be. Maybe the fact that the spirit of resistance has not and cannot be quelled by if buts and maybes, perhaps the fact that you have created so many ‘false dawns’ that people are no longer prepared to accept empty promises, possibly because you have allowed your thinking to become influenced by the oppressor and not the oppressed that rather than offering a way forward you have now become a part of the problem.

When considering all of what I have just said, there is a responsibility on me to answer the most frequently asked question by those who support the Good Friday Agreement. That is, what is your alternative? And to ensure that I am clear in what my alternative is allow me to firstly outline what it is that I need to put forward an alternative to;

An alternative to political policing. An alternative to draconian laws and courts. An alternative to internment without trial. An alternative to a sectarian and divisive mandatory coalition called the Good Friday Agreement.

And here are my alternatives; An end to political policing. An end to draconian laws and courts. An end to internment without trial and the use of 28 day detention. An end to the illegal and immoral occupation of Ireland. An end to the GFA and its replacement with the full implementation of the 1916 proclamation and the full implementation of the democratic programme of the first Dail.

For me the alternatives are straight forward and have already been endorsed by over 80% of the Irish nation in the only truly all Ireland election that this nation has ever had. Such an alternative is not new nor is it difficult to see the logic in it if you chose to. However, it does require you to be clear about what the causes of violence in Ireland are and what side you are on when it comes to resolving them, in this respect and in the words of the Deputy first minister of the Stormount executive allow me to proudly say that when it comes to the cause of freedom, peace and democracy in Ireland I know what side I am on.

So while the alternatives are straight forward and obvious, the task facing all of us and all of those Irish people concerned with the creation of a new and just society is to collectively design the mechanisms and processes that will allow us to implement those alternatives. This will be no easy task, however, if Republicans approach it in a unified fashion and in an open and honest manner we will rapidly see the same vision and leadership that was demonstrated by the men and women of 1916 producing the road map for the full implementation of the proclamation for Irish independence.

For our part, the Republican Network for Unity believes that the process initiated by the Irish Republican Forum for Unity of bringing together the different strands and shades of Republican opinion offers the best chance of success. As such, we here today call upon all of the children of the Nation who believe in peace, justice and democracy to join with us in RNU, the IRSP, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and non aligned Republicans in the creation of a blueprint towards the establishment of a socialist and democratic Irish Republic.

Gura maith aigbh.