32 County Sovereignty Movement | Easter Statement 2010
A chairde,
let me commence by extending all our best wishes to Terry McCafferty who was recently released by his British gaolers. Terry was re-imprisoned because he holds republican beliefs. He was re-imprisoned so that the British Direct ruler could demonstrate his authority on behalf of Westminster, an authority they will not dilute with devolution. That steely determination to retain this authority over part of our country will inevitably mean that there are, and will be, more Terry McCaffertys.
We extend our hearty congratulations to all those republican activists, from various republican organisations that campaigned long and hard for this outcome. You have shown the way.
More of our fellow country people remain incarcerated because the root cause of the conflict has not been addressed in the so called peace process.
Home Rule is not the issue that needs to be resolved. Pearse told us this in 1916. Devolution of limited powers to micro ministers is not the answer either.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement tells us this today. We do well to avoid clichés but the parallels of then and now are as stark as ever. In 1916 the Home Rulers, led by Redmond, were telling the Irish people that their blood was needed on the battlefields of Europe to secure Home Rule.
Today Mary McAleese, styling herself the President Of Ireland, is in Gallipoli telling us that those who died in that carnage should be equally remembered as those we remember for 1916. She is wrong in both her title and her assertion. She is not the President of Ireland. Ireland does not stop at the border as her constitution makes clear. And she is wrong to say that those who fought for the British Empire and those who fought against it deserve equal recognition in our memories. That Empire still exists in Ireland and only when that reality ends can we begin to address the historical legacy. History is only in the past when history is resolved. We salute those who fought the British Empire in 1916. We salute those who fight that empire today.
The Centenary of Easter Week is fast approaching. All sides of the conflict know the significance of this date. The revisionists are working hard to ensure that Partition and the Proclamation can in some way be harmonised. We know they can’t, but that is not enough. We too must prepare and because our resources are not as great as theirs we must prepare in fenian fashion. Our intellectual objections to this deliberate misinterpretation of our history must be matched with action on the ground that leaves our people in no doubt that 1916 is unfinished business. But we cannot wait until then.
What’s happening in the Six Counties today is part of this revisionist trend. Criminalisation of republicans is its violent expression just as it was with the executions of the Seven Signatories. There is no great analysis required to discern this.
The British jackboot, British Gaols and quislings denouncing us as traitors on their behalf is the old familiar chorus. The so called devolution of policing and justice to her majesty’s minions in Stormont reinforces the British strategy of allowing her loyal Irish give the veneer of normality to her occupation.
But just as Westminster duped the Irish on the Somme concerning Home Rule the same deception applies concerning the PSNI and a route to a United Ireland.
Lions cannot be led by donkeys no more than republicans can be led by quislings.
We must turn to our communities to seek and provide solutions. Our republicanism cannot speak over their heads or on their behalf without us engaging with them. The reclamation of our sovereignty can only begin with community actions because the people are the nation. We need to build a new interface between our people and republicanism so that both can act independently of the British state.
The 32CSM has long contended that the relevance of the border to British interests is best exposed by political actions which force the British to defend it. Organised communities can provoke such actions so long as they act as Pearse and Connolly acted, as representatives and defenders of Irish sovereignty.
This was the great flaw in the so called peace process as espoused by those who championed it as a means to engage with the British. It did not defend our sovereignty.
Republican opposition to this process was primarily based on this salient point. We are not anti peace, we are not anti politics but we are against any process which seeks to violate our sovereignty as a quick fix to the conflict in our country.
We will talk to the British about one issue only, Irish National Sovereignty and Britain’s violation of it. We will seek the UN’s intervention as guarantor for the integrity of such talks so that Perfidious Albion can be left outside of the room. Our door remains open, our resolve remains fixed.
To our unionist brothers and sisters we say this; let us build a new Ireland together. Let us start with a blank canvass without veto or pre condition. Let us all recognise that our fears and concerns are subordinate to Westminster’s interests and used and abused accordingly.
Ireland needs a new beginning. It needs a new dynamic in nationhood, a new dynamic in economic development, a new dynamic in expressions of culture and faith. We need a new democratic order that can look back on our history and say assuredly that we have found the way forward. Partition is squalid. It is the product of division and exclusion. It is a throw back to a world that gave us nothing but imperial slaughter. It has to end. And it will end.
The Free State has descended into a melting pot of corruption and political stagnation. Its actions have declared itself unfit for existence. It is so far removed from the ethos of the Proclamation that only the wealthy developers and bankers are cherished equally. It is proof positive that partition is squalid on both sides of it. Dublin has finally lain to rest the flawed notion that a united Ireland is nothing more than subsuming the Six Counties into the Free State. It cannot advance the cause of Irish unity. Using partition to end partition cannot work either.
We need to come out from the apparatus of partition and act decisively against it. Merely standing there is not an option. We remember the heroes of Easter Week because they acted on their beliefs. They acted on their history, their culture, their ideological discourse and above all they acted in unison. They knew the imperfect day would come. They knew that their preparations would themselves be imperfect. But they grasped the reality that in revolution participation is an essential part of that preparation. Belief becomes redundant when it is not acted upon. Republicans today are at this crossroads also. Our imperfect day is here.
We have talked long on belief, on history, on culture and on ideology. We are as prepared as we can ever be. We need to act in unison.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement is now acting on this unity. We urge all republicans to act with us, as themselves, but we are not prepared to wait any longer for you. The patriots of 1916 deserve no less of us.
