National Irish Freedom Committee
2007 Easter Address
On this weekend ninety-one
years ago, Padraic Pearse proclaimed, on behalf on the Irish
people, the right of the Irish people to a free and sovereign
32-county Irish Republic. That historic Proclamation was read
from the steps of the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin at the
onset of the military uprising against the British Empire’s
seven century long colonization of Ireland.
This is the 91st
anniversary of that historic event. That proclamation and the
subsequent uprising was a defining moment in modern Irish
history. It is considered the most sacred of days in the Irish
Republican calendar. Republicans have never missed an Easter
commemoration since then either in Ireland or here in America
This is a particularly
important anniversary that we commemorate here today because
politicians in both the twenty-six and six county partitionist
sectarian states are redoubling their efforts to maintain and
safeguard the status quo, thus securing their own selfish
interests as well as Britain’s illegitimate occupation of the
six county state.
The latest betrayal by the
Provisionals, who abandoned republican principles in 1986, is by
far the most insidious and blatant of all the betrayals to the
32-county sovereign Irish Republic proclaimed by Pearse on the
steps of the GPO in 1916. Prior betrayals, although
unforgivable, did not reach the level of deceit and treachery as
did the Good Friday /St. Andrews Agreement embraced by the
Provisionals.
Other erstwhile comrades
who abandoned republican principles did not join forces with the
British partitionist establishment to rule on their behalf.
What they did instead was embrace the partition of Ireland
created by British Government of Ireland enacted in 1920,
establish their own ruling elite in the 26-county state and
proceeded to rule accordingly. Although not intentional, they
did not defile the Republican cause by holding on to the name
‘Sinn Fein’ as have the present-day Provisionals.
On the other hand the
Provisionals became fully integrated into the British
establishment, recognized and embraced Britain’s governing
institutions in the occupied six counties and paid de facto
allegiance to the British crown. After 30 years of conflict and
the loss of over 3,500 lives this was all the Provisionals
achieved. The loss of so many volunteers and innocient citizens
did not faze the Provisional leadership whose aim, all along,
was to get, what they considered to be their rightful reward, a
piece of the British controlled partitionist pie.
All of these erstwhile
comrades including the Provisionals will continue to profess
allegiance to the Proclamation of 1916 and will undoubtedly
attend various commemorations to mark the anniversary. They will
make speeches pontificating over the blood sacrifice of the
leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising and will, unashamedly, claim
commonality with their cause.
How ironic that those who
signed on the Good Friday /St Andrews agreement have the gall to
claim allegiance to a 32-county sovereign Irish Republic that so
many patriots died for over the centuries. Politicians who
signed that agreement or any other agreement that supports or
recognizes any British claim to Irish soil is akin to affixing
their belated signature to the death warrants of Padraic Pearse
and his sixteen comrades.
As
their reward for embracing and promoting the Good Friday/St.
Andrews agreement the British gave the Provisionals their piece
of the pie which amounted to legislative and ministerial
positions in their reconstituted Stormont puppet government.
They were also afforded personal protection by the British
security forces, and a free hand to control opposition to the
continued British presence in the six occupied counties
Pearse himself was well
aware that everybody who claims to be republicans was not
necessarily so. He wrote during Christmas 1915, mere months
before the Easter rising;
“If we today are fighting
for something either greater than or less than the thing our
fathers fought for, either our fathers did not fight for freedom
at all, or we are not fighting for freedom. If I do not hold the
faith of Tone; and if Tone was not a heretic, then I am. If Tone
said, ‘BREAK the connection with England’, and if I say
‘MAINTAIN the connection with England’, I may be preaching a
saner (as I am certainly preaching a safer) gospel than his, but
I am obviously not preaching the same gospel. Separatism, in
fact, is the national position. Whenever an Irish leader has
taken up a position different from the national position he has
been repudiated by the next generation. The chain of the
Separatist tradition has never once snapped during the
centuries”
We, the Irish Diaspora in
America gathered here today reaffirm our commitment to the ideals
of 1916.
It is now clear from
Pearse’s prophetic words that the Provisionals will be the next
gang of traitors who will be repudiated by future
generations for embracing the occupier in exchange for the proverbial
shilling. In spite of the many betrayals to the ideals of
the 1916
Proclamation there has been and always will be true Republicans
who will safeguard the ideals of Easter Week.
We will continue to support
and publicize the plight of Irish Republican prisoners in HM
Maghaberry Prison who are engaged in an ongoing prison protest
for political status
in conditions that are eerily reminiscent of the period prior to
the hunger strikes of 1981.
We
will also continue to promote the Eire Nua program that
includes proposals for a
federal solution for Irish reunification based on the four historic provinces of
Ireland. This comprehensive Irish authored political program is
designed to achieve a just and lasting peace in the context of a
British withdrawal.
(Click
here for a printable copy)
