In defence of Irish Republicanism
Many
will find the following uncomfortable reading while more will argue the
issues dealt with here should be avoided at all costs in the interest
of ‘unity’. I believe that to brush these issues under the carpet
instead of confronting them head on would be to do a disservice to Irish
Republicanism. I would go further and say that to confront these issues
is a duty that can no longer be ignored. A time comes when certain
things must be said and placed on the public record.
Irish Republicanism
is possibly one of the oldest revolutionary traditions in the world.
Its roots reach right back to the end of the 18th Century and the
foundation of the Society of United Irishmen in 1791.
Throughout that
long history it has faced many threats and at certain periods it
appeared that it had been extinguished – in the 1940s 26-County Justice
Minister Gerry Boland boasted that the IRA was dead and that he had
killed it. Boland was no more successful than many who went before or
would come after him, despite centuries of coercion the revolutionary
flame has been kept alight.
Republicanism has survived the gallows, the
firing squad, internment camps, and prisons.
The full panoply of
draconian laws and repression has been employed by Westminster,
Stormont and Leinster House in an attempt to extinguish that flame. That
they have not succeeded in doing so can be put down to a number of
reasons. However one reason that stands out over all others is the
simple fact that Irish Republicanism has commanded, at the very least,
the respect and regard of large sections of the Irish people.
Even those who
would declare themselves as opponents of the revolutionary Republican
tradition have admitted to a grudging respect for the idealism and
integrity that underpins it. Writing in the Irish Times
on September 14 John Waters, whilst dismissing the organisations to
which Bobby Sands and Patsy O’Hara belonged to in withering terms he
still acknowledged: 'there was something noble and redemptive about the conviction and sacrifice of these men'.
Today the ranks of
the enemy have been swelled with erstwhile comrades now prepared to
administer and enforce British rule, but a new threat has emerged in
recent years and in many ways one which is potentially the most serious
of all that Irish Republicanism has faced throughout its long history.
The emergence of
groupings styling themselves as ‘Republican’ but who in reality are
merely using that noble title to mask their real purpose of extortion
and racketeering. In some cases such groupings masquerade as anti-drugs
activists, posing as ‘champions of the community’. These gangs are an
insidious threat to the very survival of the Republican ideal.
These
pseudo-Republican groups seek to control their communities through fear.
Posing as revolutionaries hides the grim reality that the only war they
wage is not one of national liberation but instead a war on the youth
of their own communities. The forcing of a father to present his son for
a punishment shooting as happened in Derry is medieval and far removed
from any ideal of progressive Republicanism.
The drugs’ gangs
who peddle their wares in communities throughout Ireland and across all
classes are enemies of the Irish people. The community and political
activists who oppose them deserve our full and active support. Irish
Republicans are rightly proud of the part they played in groups such as
Concerned Parents Against Drugs in the 1980s, and today it is vital that
Irish Republicans continue to stand by their communities both urban and
rural in opposing these dealers of death and social destruction.
However the
pseudo-Republican groupings that take money from the drug dealers are no
less parasitical than the drug dealers themselves. In many ways they
are worse in that they leech from the communities they purport to defend
– in effect they are drug dealers by proxy with the added insult of
sullying the noble name of Republicanism in doing so. The activities of
these pseudo-Republican gangs have the potential to eat away like a
cancer at the very heart of Irish Republicanism, leaving in their wake
an empty husk with neither relevance nor credibility.
The duty to halt this slide lies with those who claim the title deeds of Republicanism. We
have a bounden duty to hold out against this hijacking of the
Republican ideal; we must lead by example in ensuring that authentic
Irish Republicanism continues to live in the hearts of the Irish people.
It is not enough to
claim those title deeds without acting on them. To do so we in
Republican Sinn Féin must ensure that a clear distinction can be made
between what represents true Republicanism and those who instead provide
a perverse and twisted parody of it. Over the past two years Republican
Sinn Féin have been direct targets of such activity. A Limerick led
grouping has attempted to steal our identity and good name in order to
cloak their criminal activities. This particular gang meet the criteria
of the classic black operations or ‘black ops’ engaged in by state
forces whereby a shadow grouping is set up which is a perversion of
everything that the legitimate revolutionary movement represents. The
purpose of these bogus groupings is to sow confusion, lower morale and
discredit the genuine revolutionary movement.
In the past,
Republican Sinn Féin has been accused by its opponents of being
“elitist”. I believe this is an accusation we should not be afraid of
but indeed embrace. When it comes to ensuring our movement is a
credible, motivated revolutionary political organisation to be described
as elitist should be considered a badge of honour.
The Republican
Movement throughout its history has prided itself on attracting the most
idealistic, sincere and able of each generation. In his seminal history
of the IRA The Secret Army writing
of the Republican Movement in the 1920s, J Bowyer Bell had this to say:
'The army council meetings and GHQ conferences seethed with ideas,
disputes, options and suggestions; despite the attrition of time and
politics, there remained within the leadership as much talent as could
be found within one group in Ireland.' Thomas
Davis sets out the what is required in forging a national movement: 'We
must be disciplined – disciplined in rigorous virtue and made strong in
a sense of justice, truth and national trustfulness.'Terence Mac Swiney
too sets a high standard: 'We must get a proper conception of the great
cause we stand for, its magnitude and majesty, and that to be worthy of
its service we must have a standard above reproach'. In
the Ireland of the 21st century that should be the bar we aim for. It
is from such material that revolutions are fermented and through whom
ideals and a cause live on.
To do other wise is
to surrender a revolutionary tradition - which has survived the best
efforts of both the British and 26-County states to destroy it – to dark
forces dancing to the twitch of many puppet-masters.
I
believe it is fitting to finish with the words of the 1916
Proclamation; these are words which all who seek to take up the standard
of Republicanism should ponder long and hard: 'we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine.'
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