Speaking at the graveside of O’Donovan Rossa, Pearse restated the
principles which had fired the soul and intellect of O’Donovan Rossa and
restated the determination of his generation to take up the torch of
freedom from Rossa and his generation: “I propose to you then that, here
by the grave of this unrepentant Fenian, we renew our baptismal vows;
that, here by the grave of this unconquered and unconquerable man, we
ask of God, each one for himself, such unshakable purpose, such high and
gallant courage, such unbreakable strength of soul as belonged to
O’Donovan Rossa. Deliberately here we avow ourselves, as he avowed
himself in the dock, Irishmen of one allegiance only. We of the Irish
Volunteers, and you others who are associated with us in to-day’s task
and duty, are bound together and must stand together henceforth in
brotherly union for the achievement of the freedom of Ireland. And we
know only one definition of freedom: it is Tone’s definition, it is
Mitchel’s definition, it is Rossa’s definition. Let no man blaspheme the
cause that the dead generations of Ireland served by giving it any
other name and definition than their name and their definition.”
For Ruairí Ó Brádaigh there too was but one definition of Irish
freedom. For him there was but one straight and true path leading to the
All-Ireland Republic of Easter Week. We come here to mourn the loss of
Ruairí but we also come to celebrate his long and rich life. It was a
life marked by unselfish devotion to the cause of Irish freedom. It was a
life set apart by his sense of duty, honour and the intellectual rigour
that he brought to the Republican Movement. Indeed often would Ruairí
quote these lines from Louisa May Alcott, which are inscribed on the
headstone of the tireless champion of Republican prisoners and the
working class Charlotte Despard: “I slept, and dreamed that life was
beauty; I woke, and found that life was duty.” Coupled with all of this
was Ruairí’s deep humanity. He was a man whose empathy and compassion
for the downtrodden and oppressed knew no boundaries of race or creed.
In his biography of Ruairí, Professor Robert W. White of Indiana
University, described Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s life as: “…a window for
understanding his generation of Irish Republicans and how they received
the values of a previous generation and are transmitting those values to
the next generation.” In his introduction to the same book, the
journalist Ed Maloney described Ruairí as the “last, or one of the last
Irish Republicans”. Whilst the tribute was well intentioned the case is
quite different. It is because of the life’s work of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
that he is not the last Republican but has rather ensured the continuity
of Irish Republicanism, passing on the torch to succeeding generations.
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a towering figure of Irish Republicanism in
the latter half of the 20th Century. He came to embody the very essence
of the Republican tradition, setting the very highest standards of
commitment, duty, honour and loyalty to the cause of Irish freedom. Of a
proud Republican heritage inherited from both his father Matt and his
mother May, since 1950 he served at every level of the Republican
Movement, and from 1956 took on the onerous responsibilities of national
leadership with only a short intervals, up to the present day. Ruairí
was a man of immense capability both as a politician and as a soldier.
He holds the unique distinction of serving as President of Sinn Féin,
Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and from 1957 to 1961 as a
TD, representing Longford/Westmeath.
At critical junctures in the history of the Republican Movement,
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, along with his close friend and comrade the late
Dáithí Ó Conaill, manned the gap against the forces of reformism who
sought to convert a revolutionary movement of national liberation into a
mere constitutional political party, first in 1969/70 and once again in
1986. For Ruairí the essential principles of Irish freedom were clear
and marked the political course to be followed. He dismissed any cult of
the personality warning always of the inherent dangers of following
merely the man or woman over the cause of Irish national independence.
At a time when our sense of identity is being steadily eroded, when our
people are discouraged from taking pride in their history or culture
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a tireless champion of the Irish language viewing
it as the cornerstone of our unique identity as a nation. Like Pádraig
Mac Piarais he believed in an Ireland that was: ‘not only free but
Gaelic as well; not only Gaelic but free as well’.
Gael go smior ab ea Ruairí. Óna chuid ama i gColáiste Mel is i
gConamara, d’éirigh leis an teanga a thabhairt leis go han-líofa. Ar
feadh a shaoil sheas sé go daingean le cúis na Gaeilge agus d’fhéach
chuige go raibh Gaeilge ag an gclann ar fad.
Faraoir, le caoga bliain anuas d’aithin an meath a tháinig ar an teanga
go háirithe an cúngú sna Gaeltachtaí is sa chóras oideachais. Tá an
Ghaeilge i mbaol go mór mura dtugtar áit lárnach di in Éirinn. Mar atá
faoi láthair níl áit do theangacha agus do chultúir ar nós na Gaeilge
agus ár gcultúr Gaelach atá ag tachtadh ár muintire. Daoibhse atá in
eagraíochtaí Gaeilge is gá daoibh an pictiúr mór seo, mar a deirtear, a
aithint. Tá an Ghaeilge i mbaol, tá sí á ceil tar pháistí na tire, tá
imeallú mór déanta uirthi.
The Irish Language has always been dear to Ruairí’s heart. He spoke it
on every possible occasion and he saw to it that his children were all
immersed in it. Unfortunately during the last 50 years the Irish
language has been marginalized, neglected and downgraded in every
possible way. The people of the Gaeltacht have been bullied by the
politically-powerful and by international consumerism. This bullying has
undermined their way of life. The neglect in the Education system now
means that Irish is being denied to and hidden from 100’s of 1000’s of
Irish children.
Who then is responsible for this obliteration of people’s languages and
cultures worldwide, including our own Irish? There is no place for own
heritage in this neo-liberal agenda, the EU won’t allow it, the two
states, even the 26 counties’ Dept of Education, work against the Irish
language. ‘Death by a 1000 cuts’ is the effective state policy on Irish
whatever niceties may be uttered. To the Irish Language Organisations we
say: Be very careful in your dealings with the Northern and Southern
states. Stop cosying up to these false promises. They’re only trying to
buy you off. 90% plus of the Irish people dearly love our language. They
want it passed on propery to our children, they want it central to
Irish life not neglected and marginalized. The Irish people need
leadership, the Irish language agencies need to give sustained,
determined leadership and we as Irish Republicans need to centrally
retain our commitment to the Irish language and culture at all times.
As an Irish Republican he believed passionately in Theobald Wolfe Tone’s
vision of substituting the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and
Dissenter with the common name of Irish man and Irish woman. He played a
leading role in formulating the Éire Nua proposals for a Four Province
Federal Ireland, which was based on the principles of true
decentralisation of decision making with full particatpory democracy
involving all sections of the Irish people as trust founders of a New
Ireland. Such a democratic template would provide the Unionist minority
with a New Ireland with real political power and decision-making. He was
among the Republican leaders who met representatives of loyalism and
unionism as Feakle, Co Clare in 1974 and later strongly supported the
MacBride/Boal talks, which were eventually sabotaged by a 26-County
Government Minister. Such was Ruairí’s commitment to the principles of a
non-sectarian and pluralist Ireland that he and Dáithí Ó Conaill
stepped down from the positions of President and Vice President
respectively of Sinn Féin when Éire Nua was dropped as a policy document
to further the narrow political agenda of a reformist clique operating
within the Republican Movement in the early 1980s.
For Ruairí Ó Brádaigh there could be no temporising on the issue of
British Rule in Ireland. Drawing on the lessons of Irish history he
recognised that it constituted the root cause of conflict and injustice
for the Irish people. In opposing the 1998 Stormont Agreement he rightly
viewed it as a flawed document serving only to copper-fasten British
Rule while also institutionalising sectarianism, thereby further
deepening the sectarian divide. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s analysis has since
been bourne out by a number of independent studies which have shown an
increase in sectarianism in the Six Counties in the years since 1998.
The economically and politically oppressed and partitioned Ireland of
today is far removed from the vision of a New Ireland, which inspired
Irish Republicans such as Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.
Standing by Ruairí’s graveside we can only truly honour him by turning
our eyes to the future, by pledging ourselves to once more take up the
fight for a New Ireland. Today our country is being assailed by the twin
imperialisms of British military and political occupation and the
economic and social oppression of the EU/ECB and IMF. These represent
the old and new imperialisms, representing a threat to the very
existence of the historic Irish Nation. In the Six Counties political
repression remains the norm and the very fact that there remain
political prisoners in Maghaberry, the internment without trial of
veteran Republican Martin Corey and until recently of Marian Price, the
presence of an armed Colonial police force using the same methods of
repression, drawing on the same draconian laws to enforce the writ of
the British Government all point to the abnormality of the Six County
State. British Rule in Ireland will never be wither normal or acceptable
and the lesson of Irish history remains as Ruairí continually pointed
out: as along as there is a British military and political presence in
Ireland there will always be a section of the Irish people determined to
resist it. In the 26-County State our people are being robbed of the
very markers of a civilised society, the ability to care for our sick
and old, to educate our young and to provide for those on the economic
margins of society. All of this is being imposed on our people in order
to prop up the undemocratic EU superstate and its baking system.
The Irish people it seems are merely fodder to be sacrificed on the
high alter of EU finance capitalism. But not only are our people
plundered financially but also culturally. It seems that the denizens of
Leinster House, Stormont, Westminster and Brussels are intent on
robbing us of our identity as a separate people and nation. Writing
recently in the Sunday Business Post, Tom McGurk wrote that because the
Irish people are being thought that it is wrong to take pride in our
history, of resistance, our distinct culture and identity, today they
are being denied the very tools of a strong sense of national identity
required to stand up to EU Troika in contrast to people’s across Europe
who have heroically defended themselves and their societies from the
grip of the financial and banking elites. With Thomas Davis we believe:
“This country of ours is no sand bank, thrown up by some recent caprice
of earth. It is an ancient land, honoured in the archives of
civilisation.” The Irish nation is not bound by the artificial borders
of the two partition states, The philosopher Dr Mathew O’Donnell writes
that nations rather than states, which are simply units of political
organisation, bring people together: “For people are not brought
together by a state; the state is the subsequent organisation of people
who already posses some kind of unity…It is with the nation that one’s
loyalty lies. There is no disowning it, no alternative to it. There
should be a feeling for the nation, for it is one’s own people. This is
the origin for the effective element in patriotism.”
In the early 1890s the Irish Revolution began in earnest, speaking in
1892 the founder of Conradh na Gaelige Dubhghlas de Híde spoke of the
need to reverse the process of anglicising Ireland: “When we speak of
'The Necessity for De-Anglicising the Irish Nation', we mean it, not as a
protest against imitating what is best in the English people, for that
would be absurd, but rather to show the folly of neglecting what is
Irish, and hastening to adopt, pell-mell, and indiscriminately,
everything that is English, simply because it is English.”
He went to set out why we as a people needed to reconnect with our
own distinct cultural identity if we were to prosper: “I would earnestly
appeal to every one, whether Unionist or Nationalist, who wishes to see
the Irish nation produce its best -- surely whatever our politics are
we all wish that -- to set his face against this constant running to
England for our books, literature, music, games, fashions, and ideas. I
appeal to every one whatever his politics -- for this is no political
matter -- to do his best to help the Irish race to develop in future
upon Irish lines, even at the risk of encouraging national aspirations,
because upon Irish lines alone can the Irish race once more become what
it was of yore -- one of the most original, artistic, literary, and
charming peoples of Europe.” As the centenary of the 1916 Rising draws
near we have the opportunity once again to awaken the national
consciousness to our possibilities as a people and the high ideals which
have in the past inspired us to greater things and a vision of a New
and better Ireland. As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising a
battle has commenced for the hearts and minds of the Irish people.
The legacy as well as the essential message of 1916 is at stake for this
and future generations. The resources of both partitionist states are
being employed in order to sanitise our history to the point that it has
been robbed of any meaning. Equivalence is being made between the
forces of occupation and the independence movement that no
self-respecting nation would contemplate. Does France commemorate the
Vichy policemen or Norway its Quislings who collaborated with German
occupation forces? The 1916 Rising for Irish Republicans is not only an
important moment in our history but a beacon to light our way forward.
It is an event that not only continues to occupy a central place in our
history but also remains relevant due to the simple fact that it remains
unfinished business.
The 1916 Proclamation sets out clearly the principles upon which
the All-Ireland Republic should rest. It takes no great examination to
see that both the Six and 26-County states fall far short of the
definition of freedom and democracy set by the men and women of 1916.
This would be and remains the abiding message of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.
In carrying on the work to which Ruairí dedicated his adult life we must
bring to it the same high standards, the same commitment to truth and
honour which guided him. We must never lose sight of the high idealism
of 1916 because it will always speak to us of a New and better Ireland
and with it the possibility of revolutionary social, political and
economic change. and should note well the words of Brian Ó hUiginn:
“Keep close to them on the road they walked without flinching, the road
whose signposts, as Liam Mellows said, are unmistakable, the road of
truth and honour and earnestness and courage, the road of no wavering,
of no compromise with wrong, of no surrender – the only road that leads
to the freedom and happiness of the indivisible Republic of Ireland.”
As we turn from this place we remember with pride our fallen
chieftain, our Fenian Chief (as Desmond Ryan described James Stephens) I
think it is appropriate to conclude with some words penned by John
Fisher Murray To the Memory of Thomas Davis:
“A spark of his celestial fire, The God of freemen struck from
thee; Made thee to spurn each low desire, Nor bend the uncompromising
knee; Made thee to vow thy live to rive with ceaseless tug, th’
oppressor’s chain with lyre, with pen, with pen, with sword, to strive
for thy dear land – nor strive in vain.
How hapless is our country’s fate – If heaven in pity to us send,
Like thee, one glorious, good and great – to guide, instruct us, and
amend: How soon thy honoured life is o’er – Soon Heaven demandeth thee
again; We grope on darkling as before, And fear lest thou hast died in
vain.
In vain – no never! O’er thy grave, Thy spirit dwelleth in the air;
Thy passionate love, thy prupose brave, Thy hope assured, thy promise
fair. Generous and wise, farerwell! – Forego tears for the glorious dead
and gone; His tears if his, still flow for slaves and cowards living
on.
To Patsy, Mait, Ruairí Óg, Conor, Deirdre, Ethne and Colm,his
grandchildren and great-grandchild we extend our deepest sympathies and
our gratitute to you and the extended Ó Brádaigh family for the life of
Ruairí and his unparalled contribution to the cause of a free Ireland.
Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam dílis.
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