Speaking at the Easter 1916 commemoration at the Republican Plot in St Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork, Líta Ní Chathmhaoil, Ard-Rúnaí (General Secretary) of Republican Sinn Féin and a native of Cork city said that it was an honour to speak at such a hallowed venue in the history of the Irish struggle against English occupation.
As a native of Cork I have always been proud of the designation 'Rebel County', a name justly earned by the patriot men and women who sacrificed so much down through the years for the cause of Irish freedom. The names of the martyred Lord Mayors, Tomás Mac Curtàin and Terence MacSwiney resonated around the world. They led the way in the struggle for freedom, inspiring freedom movements throughout the globe, and gave their lives without flinching or hesitating. They were not alone and to this day faithful Republicans in Cork follow in their footsteps.The Irish people are proud of the struggle for freedom which we commemorate here today. Many of us had relatives involved in the struggle. In the recent past there has been much rewriting of Irish history to suit a political Establishment which has no interest in the reunification of our country. Revisionism, along with 20 years of Section 31 censorship has altered many people's view of the Irish national struggle and as a result it is no longer fashionable to honour our dead of every generation or to point out that the cause for which they gave their lives is left unfinished.
The root cause of the conflict in Ireland remains the presence of the British government and its forces here. Permanent peace will only come with final British disengagement from Ireland. Those who voted 'Yes' to the Stormont Agreement five years ago see now that the British still hold the real power in Ireland, the results of the 1998 referendums mean nothing to them as they continue to uphold the Unionist Veto.
The sacrifices of the past generation, for nothing less than the 32-County Irish Republic, count for nothing with many of those who were part of the struggle in those years as they sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, or more correctly for comfortable, well-paid seats in the Stormont Partition assembly, which was suspended for the fifth time in the past year. The current attempts to reinstate it in the lead-up to new Stormont assembly elections is foundering on the rock of the British insistence that they call the shots and not the Provos, who must now bite the bullet and not only fully accept British rule and a British police force but must stand down their military wing and 'decommission' their entire arsenal. What an ignominious situation they find themselves in but the tragedy is that the cause of Irish freedom is weakened by their actions.
The Republican Sinn Féin analysis has been proved to be correct. The sectarian Statelet in the Six Counties has not changed and hundreds of nationalist homes have been targeted by loyalist death squads in pipe and petrol bomb attacks all over the Six Counties, as the loyalists pursue a policy of ethnically cleansing parts of Antrim, Armagh and Down. The Provisionals were part of the so-called government of the Six Counties and were not able to protect the people against these attacks.
But of course the Six Counties is governed from London and the Stormont assembly remains what it always was - a puppet state in the interests of Britain. In recent days the release of a summary of the Stevens Report on collusion - the full report was too damaging for the British government to release to all and sundry - proves to the world what Republicans have said all along - the loyalist death squads were another tool of the British State against the nationalist people of the Six Occupied Counties. Perfidious Albion has not changed throughout its long history in Ireland, the only solution if for them to leave Ireland forever, lock, stock and barrel.
On the international scene George W Bush and his war-mongering colleagues in the USA, along with their British puppets, launched an attack on Iraq in March. While no one will mourn the end of Saddam Hussein, it is not for George Bush or Tony Blair to act as world policemen. The real agenda for this war is not about weapons of mass destruction or even about 'regime change', it is about oil - the first resource war of the 21st century. To their shame, the Dublin Administration have allowed themselves to be part of this unholy 'Coalition of the Willing' by allowing them to use the facilities at Shannon Airport for refuelling etc against the wishes of the Irish people.
Neutrality has gone out the window and Republicans must continue to be to the fore in opposing this unjust invasion of a sovereign state, which has primarily caused death and suffering to innocent civilians. The break down of civil order there, even to the looting of museums containing some of the most important artefacts of the history of humankind, shows how little interest the invaders had in anything but oil. They had no problem guarding their own loot, the black gold for which they are prepared to risk the lives of even their own citizens. The US and British troops should get out of Iraq now and allow the Iraqis to run their own affairs.
The struggle to regain the All-Ireland Republic continues. The 1916 Proclamation and the Declaration of Independence of the First (All-Ireland) Dáil 84 years ago provide the bedrock for the future of the Irish people acting as a unit. We in the Republican Movement present the unbroken line of Republicans since then, throughout the 20th and now into the 21st century. It is incumbent on all branches of that Movement to work together so that we can continue to provide the leadership required to achieve that which is inevitable - the breaking of the link with England and the establishment of an Ireland where all the people can live together in peace and unity,
she concluded.
