1916 Rising Commemoration 2022
Scores gathered at the gates of Milltown Cemetery on Easter Monday to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
Following a full colour party to the Harbinson Plot, and before main speaker Máire Drumm, the event was chaired by Lasair Dhearg’s Pól Torbóid:
“A chairde agus comraidaithe, I want to welcome you all here to commemorate with us, the 106th anniversary of the Rising of 1916.
“We gather here, like thousands of others in recent days across our thirty two counties, to remember those brave women and men that gave their lives in the pursuit of a Socialist Republic. And though today marks the date of one particular Rising, I am reminded of the fact that every generation in Ireland, since the foreign jackboot stepped foot on our soil, has organised against it.”
“We remember not just those who fought and died in 1916, but all those before it and there after.”
“This is the first 1916 Rising commemoration since the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Hungerstrike, where ten brave men died in British gaols on Irish soil. And today, we send solidarity to hungerstrikers Sibel Balac and Gokhan Yildirim in Turkey who have both engaged in a Death Fast resistance since December, and we join the call of the People’s Front that the demands of the prisoners, like the five demands of our hunger strikers in 1981, be met.”
“The struggle against imperialism can often take many forms, and we send solidarity to anti imperialist prisoners across the world, including those languishing in gaols across Ireland.”
“Today, Britain’s war against Republican prisoners takes place away from the public glare. Denial of visits, brutalisation, strip searches, families harassed and denial of basic rights is par for the course for Britain and its Stormont regime. Ireland has a long history of prison struggle and international solidarity. We know well the struggle faced by Sibel and Gokhan and we stand with them in their fight.”
Pól then called for wreaths to be laid. Fearghal Mag Uidhir laid a wreath on behalf of Republican ex-prisoners, and a wreath was laid on behalf of Lasair Dhearg by Belfast member Martine Jackson.
A moment of silence was observed during the lowering of the flags, followed by a reading of the proclamation by Lasair Dhearg Belfast branch secretary Nicola Nic Gabhann, before Máire Drumm delivered her oration:
Máire: “Is mór an onóir domh curreaidh a fhail labhairt inniu ar an talamh naofa seo. Coinnion muid inár gcuimhne laoch gach glúine a chuaigh romhainn a thug a mbeatha ar son shaoirse na hÉireann.”
“It is an honour to be invited to speak here today on this hallowed ground to remember all those, from every generation, who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom.”
“Listening once again to those inspirational words contained in the Proclamation, I can’t help but reflect on how those who penned those words would think of the Ireland we live in today. Connolly’s words were indeed prophetic when he wrote of partition leading to a carnival of reaction.”
“The two states on this island of ours is the antithesis of everything that noble document stood for.”
“Last weekend I visited the site where Liam Lynch was shot and mortally wounded on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains in South Tipperary. I could not help but think, that not only was it the end for a brave freedom fighter, but also the end of an era, as the hopes and vision of the men and women of 1916 also died on the slopes of those mountains, as the forces of reaction, both north and south brought an end to that revolutionary phase of struggle.”
“However, regardless of the hard years that followed, brave men and women kept the dream alive.”
“Many of us will know friends, comrades, and family, from this phase of struggle who gave their lives for Irish Freedom, for an Ireland where all the children of the Nation would be cherished equally.”
“Unfortunately, we most definitely do not have that Ireland today.”
“This land that so many fought for and that so many lost their lives fighting to free from oppression, now lies divided and under the control of two partitionist assemblies.”
“In the north of our country, Stormont, not surprisingly, has failed to deliver any meaningful change for the vast majority of our people.”
“Undoubtedly a privileged few, of course, have secured for themselves, a comfortable life, but that is not Republicanism. They fool themselves into thinking they have power, but they only have the power that the British – their paymasters- allow them. They can do nothing, even if they had the will, with the small amount of Block Grant the British Chancellor awards them – which is nothing more than pocket money – to divvy up. Meanwhile our people suffer. People can’t afford to heat their homes. More and more people depend on food banks to feed their families, and parents find it hard to sleep at night wondering how long it will be before they lose their homes because of rack renting landlords and mortgages that they struggle to pay.”
“The gombeen Republic is still alive and well. Is this what we fought for and what so many of our comrades died for?”
“Things are no different in the Free State, where nothing can be done without the say-so of their European masters. Banks saved and bailed out; big businesses having to pay little, or no taxes,. but families have to queue daily at soup kitchens, and resort to living in cars, or in hostels. More often than not any help they receive is through charities, not from their government.”
“Thousands can be spent across this island on fawning over British Royals but day and daily citizens in both parts of this divided island are left to suffer hardships.”
“’If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic, your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her property owners. Through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.’”
“Those words are as relevant to us today as they were when James Connolly wrote them in January 1897.”
“We have heard a lot lately about welcoming refugees to our shores, and while it is right of course that people from war situations are given shelter in their hour of need, it is also important to remember that all those throughout the world who are affected by oppression, are cherished equally. There has been an outcry about Ukraine, but the double standards are so blatant. Thousands of children are starving in Yemen, Syria has been torn apart and the Palestinian people have their homes destroyed and stolen from them on a daily basis. Everyday someone in Palestine loses their life at the hands of the Zionist government in Israel. The suffering of a Palestinian child is no different to that of a Ukrainian child, but the approach of Western states would suggest otherwise.”
“As we leave here today, the last resting place of so many of our comrades, let us continue in the pursuit of an independent 32 County Socialist Republic, with the connection to England broken, and where the citizens of our Republic are treated with dignity and respect, free from poverty and homelessness; a Republic which provides proper health care and guarantees the rights of workers.”
“This was the vision of:
Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy and Mary Ann McCracken, James Connolly, Padraig Pearse, Liam Mellows, Tom Williams, Charlie Kerins, Joe McCann, Máire Drumm, The H Block Martyrs, Mairead Farrell, and all those patriots who gave their lives.”
“Nothing but the achievement of the Socialist Republic will honour their sacrifice.”
“I would like to conclude with words spoken by my own mother:
‘We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward, for if we don’t, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country will haunt us for eternity.’
“Go raibh mile maith agaibh”
Before the colour party was asked to fall out, proceedings were brought to a close by Pól Torbóid:
“Bobby Sands, who lies mere yards from where we gather today, said that our revenge would be the laughter of our children. There are those today that frequently use this quote as though the Good Friday Agreement has provided us the space for the laughter of our children.”
“They told us that the setting aside of political violence and any subsequent ‘peace’ would allow our kids the space to thrive.”
“I want to remind you all that in the more than two decades since, our children still live in a very violent society. They live with the daily violence of poverty, houselessness, suicide, hunger and more.”
“James Connolly was not shot in a chair so that erstwhile Republicans could become landlords, turning those laughing children out into the street.”
“Bobby Sands did not die on hungerstrike so that our kids could suffer the violence and trauma of extreme poverty.”
“Mairead Farrell was not gunned down so that more of us could die from suicide after the conflict, than all those that died during it.”
“We have been fooled. Our people have been marched into a political cul-de-sac and told that the only way out is to march onward like lemmings toward each coming election and a border poll that is not even on the horizon.”
“What then is to be done?”
“We can be in no doubt, that the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent surrender of arms, goes down in history as one of the greatest defeats in the history of our proud struggle. And that this generation is now presented with the task of rebuilding Republicanism into the force that it once was.”
“And I want to ask you, each and every one of you as you leave here today, to rededicate yourself to the struggle.”
“The path to the Socialist Republic begins today comrades.”
“Otherwise, there will be no tomorrow.”
“Join us. Bigi linn. Gabh raibh míle maith agaibh.”
ENDS