Over 100 attended Lasair Dhearg’s second annual Ard Fheis which was held on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Saturday 11th of October 2025.
Attended by Socialists and Republicans from across Ireland, the event was chaired and introduced by Lasair Dhearg’s Pádraic MacCoitir, former Blanketman and political ex-prisoner, and included speakers focusing on global resistance to imperialism with a particular emphasis on Palestine.
The event ended with an address from the incoming Cathaoirleach Lasair Dhearg, the text of which we carry below:
“A chairde agus a comradaithe,
Tá mé iontach broduil a seas anseo ar an darna Ard Fheis Lasair Dhearg. Míle buiochas agus tá fáilte romhaibh anseo inniu.
You are all very welcome to this, the second annual Lasair Dhearg Ard Fheis.
It’s a real pleasure to see so many people gathered here with us today. Events like this are often used to gauge the growth of interest in an organisation like ours, and if that metric is one worth relying on, then it should be noted that last year, we gathered in this very building but in a separate smaller room, with about half the capacity.
Our members only session, held this morning, increased in size significantly, with an almost 40% uplift in attendance compared to last year.
I note this, not for any other reason, but to thank all those who have come to support us over this past year and more, and to the many members and supporters who have joined us on this path. We are genuinely grateful, and it does the heart good to be surrounded by so many people of like mind as we continue to build this project.
This mornings closed session of Lasair Dhearg members elected our incoming An Ciorcal Naisiúnta. This National Executive will oversee the day to day running of our Movement over the coming year and continue to build upon the solid foundations laid by previous executives.
It is a real and genuine honour to be re-elected as Lasair Dhearg Chairperson, and to address you all here today.
Prior to voting in our new Executive, our members debated and discussed a number of motions relevant to the ongoing struggle against imperialism across the globe, most notably in Palestine (some of those motions were addressed to you already at the start of this session).
Additionally, our members debated and discussed the first draft of our new and developing Lasair Dhearg Policy Document analysing the Housing crisis across both failed states in Ireland. We look forward to the coming months, when this policy paper will be concluded, providing us with a much needed analysis of the situation, alongside a Socialist Republican position on housing.
In the coming weeks, all Lasair Dhearg branches across the country will meet, elect their organisers for the year ahead, and commence a job of work campaigning and building across our island.
It is worth noting, that today’s event was organised on this date, Saturday the 11th of October, because it closely coincided with the October 7th Palestinian uprising just two years ago. We did so very deliberately, to mark that anniversary, and to send a clear message of support to the Palestinian people in their continued resistance against colonialism and imperialism.
Lasair Dhearg’s position is very clear.
We support Palestine’s right to resist.
We support the complete eradication of the Zionist colonial entity known as Israel.
And we support a one-state solution; that is, Palestine.
Only in a FREE Palestine will the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities live in peace, like they did for many generations before the creation of this entity.
A Palestine free, from the river, to the sea.
And the ground has shifted significantly in recent days, with a new and developing peace process.
Such a peace process may see the eventual decommissioning of Palestinian weapons, the release of political prisoners, a potential transitional authority rumoured to be headed by none other than British war criminal and arch-imperialist Tony Blair.
Some key elements remain undefined, including the delivery of critical aid and the reconstruction of the Gaza strip. But for now, Israeli tanks still lurk the streets of Gaza City.
In Ireland, we too had a peace process, it began almost thirty years ago. Weapons were handed over to the occupier. Prisoners were released. And our occupier is still here.
We urge caution to our Palestinian comrades, and we send our solidarity as they navigate the road ahead.
The ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians has had a significant impact on the Irish people, and indeed the global masses.
Ever greater numbers are understanding the global system of imperialism and colonialism.
Ever greater numbers are understanding also, that the liberal path of protests and pickets will have little effect on governments who are only too happy to nod and smile in the face of those gathered at government buildings, whilst they sell weapons to genocidal regimes.
Many within the liberal spheres of activism are waking up to the realisation of the need for resistance to end imperialism. They understand the need for revolution; not reform. This is a step change, and an opportunity that must be seized upon.
In Ireland, imperialism continues unabated.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a once Revolutionary Movement has been completely absorbed into the state apparatus in the Six and Twenty Six Counties, alongside the complete abandonment of significant anti-imperialist positions and policies. This slow march away from Revolutionary Republicanism has led that Movement into the cul-de-sac of Nationalism.
There is now no qualitative difference between Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
Significant resources built up over many generations, intended to defend the Irish people from British aggression, and to remove that occupying colonial power, have been handed over to that same foreign government; a government that has no right, and never will have any right in Ireland.
One of the greatest failures of the Good Friday Agreement was to solidify Britain’s criminalisation policy and give it de facto support, as Republicans continue to be pursued for actions taken in support of Irish liberation decades ago, alongside the extradition of Republicans from the Twenty Six Counties into British controlled jurisdictions.
Ten men died on hunger strike in 1981 fighting the criminalisation of our struggle. Today, former Republicans now fully endorse, and give their full support to the peelers that lifted them, the courts that condemned them, and to the screws that beat, brutalised and tortured them.
That Agreement completely stunted any revolutionary potential within Ireland, to the benefit of Britain and its imperialist policies. Capitalism now runs rampant across the Six Counties, as it does in the Twenty Six Counties, with a now unbearable cost of living, rising rents, lack of access to adequate healthcare, a mental health crisis, increasing addiction and a complete failure of Stormont and Leinster House political parties to bring into force any type of plan to rectify the issue.
We are now held to ransom by an economic and political system which prioritises profit over every other societal need, as the British government and their imperialist allies continue to carve up the world for their own self-interests.
Without that revolutionary potential, there is no end in sight. Our generation, and those that come after us, will inevitably be victims of an ever worsening situation, unless someone puts a stop to it. The only solution to this ever worsening crisis is an Irish Socialist Republic – a Republic where the economic interests of the people are placed firmly within the hands of the people. A Country where our people are not living under the jackboot of an imperialist foreign power or capitalist interests. A Nation where democracy stretches beyond the halls of power like Stormont or Leinster House, and along the streets and into the hallways of every single home.
Our only hope to achieve this, is to rebuild Republicanism across all of our Thirty Two Counties, and in doing so, ensure that those who build this new Movement for a Socialist Republic are credible, respected representatives of the people. We must discard everything that stands in the way of achieving these goals, and begin to move beyond ‘hope’ and into the concrete reality of Revolutionary Potential.
The contradictions in Capitalism will ensure its inevitable demise. As Imperialism continues to run rampant across Ireland, we must ensure that this generation or those that come behind us have the necessary skills and self-confidence to make the inevitable decisions for the future of our struggle as part of that new Movement.
Such a Movement must be well positioned, resourced and supported, so that whatever the conditions of the time, it can bring about real, radical, revolutionary change. This is the first step on the road to the Socialist Republic and the eventual Reconquest of Ireland
A few years from now, those that led the Republican Movement into the cul-de-sac of nationalism, will all have moved on from this world. And behind them, they will have left a legacy of poverty, capitalism, and solidified British rule.
When they do go, the Revolutionary apparatus that they steered into government will leave with them, and in its place will stand another Fianna Fail; another Fine Gael.
That is their legacy.
But know this. Another generation is fighting to create something different.
They do not want citizens assemblies.
They do not want an agreed Ireland.
They want a Thirty Two County Socialist Republic.
They want the complete eradication of the Six and Twenty Six County states, and on their embers, they will build an Ireland fit for the generations that perished to achieve it.
That will be their legacy.
A Republic that will cherish all the children of the nation equally. One that will shelter the despot and the slave.
A Republic of equality and justice – not just in name, but in reality.
An economy built on need, not greed, democratically planned to serve the working class.
A Republic where our natural resources – our oil, gas,minerals and more – are all brought into public ownership, funding housing, healthcare, and education for all.
It will be a Republic where a home is a human right, not a commodity. Where empty houses are brought into public use, vulture funds are banished, and a National Housing Service will ensure that no family is ever left without a roof over their head.
It will be a Republic where every worker has the right to a living wage, where unions are strong, and where no one is exploited for another’s profit.
It will be a Republic where healthcare is free and universal, where no corporation can profit from illness or patent our right to life. And it will be a Republic that guarantees complete bodily autonomy and dignity for all.
It will be a Republic where our language, our sports, and our culture are restored to their rightful place at the heart of the nation, where Irish is spoken proudly in our schools, our streets, and our homes, and where our cultural life is vibrant, confident, and free.
It will be a Republic that protects the Earth, ending the capitalist exploitation of our environment. We will restore our forests, protect our waters, and teach future generations to care for the land that sustains us.
Our Socialist Republic will bring about the complete Reconquest of Ireland, where Britain’s impact upon every part of our island will be eradicated.
The poverty enforced by their economic system will be reversed.
The statues of imperialists and bigots will be torn down.
The street names honouring the viceroys of empire will be eradicated.
We will round up all those who were complicit in the political and economic system that subjugated our people.
Those who hoarded homes. Those who denied justice. Those who persecuted and tortured prisoners. Those that wrote their laws, and those that enforced them.
These people and more will face our justice system.
They know this to be true. That is why the political system has rallied its forces against us.
And they are right to be afraid – to quote Karl Marx, ‘We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.’
The coming years will be critical for Irish Republicanism. We have built our Movement from the ground up with just a handful of activists a few short years ago. Most of our members and organisers are from newer generations, and we are developing resources and implementing plans for the future. Our new Movement has no shortage of will, or people that are ready and willing to implement any plan of action. Significant gaps remain, and we have a long road ahead of us.
That road leads only in one direction.
It is time – it is long past time – for an Irish Socialist Republic.
Ar aghaidh linn le chéile. Béir bua. Bígí linn.
Go raibh maith agaibh.”
