The following is the main oration delivered by socialist republican activist Pádraig Ó Fearghaíl at the annual Paddy Dermody commemoration in Fore, Co. Westmeath.
Anti-Imperialist Action would like to thank the Spirit of Freedom Society for the invitation to speak at this annual event.
“Ireland without her people is nothing to me, and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for ‘Ireland’, and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, the shame and the degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland, aye, wrought by Irishmen upon Irishmen and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements which he is pleased to call ‘Ireland’.”
There is no reason to list off numerous statistics to highlight the injustices and suffering facing thousands of Irish people in 2019. All we have to do is to look at our cities and communities to witness it ourselves. Such statistics can at times dehumanise the suffering and struggles that face the Irish people. The aforementioned quote from James Connolly merely refines the perception and the reality that nothing has changed since Connolly wrote these words one hundred and nineteen years ago.
For this reason it is as imperative as ever to commemorate men such as Paddy Dermody.
Dermody gave the ultimate sacrifice in defence of the Irish Republic proclaimed in arms in 1916. The Irish Republic is the Peoples Republic. It declares that it is the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland.
I repeat the word right. The right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland.
Just because the British currently claim jurisdiction over six counties and the other 26 counties are in the hands of a garrison classs and international financial vultures does not extinguish that right. Just because the balance of forces currently do not lie with us, the Irish people at this moment in time, does not extinguish that right. We have to live in the Free State. We do not have to accept it.
Connolly speaking on the Visit of the English King to Ireland in 1910 stated that “The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings” and so in Ireland in 2019 there are those who have become reliant and dependent on the electoral system, elected representatives, ballots and referendums to achieve what is theirs by right. However, not for the first time the Irish people are ahead of movements, political parties and organisations. Half of those registered to vote, both North and South do not take part in the electoral system. Believing that the political parties do not represent them and/or that nothing will change through these elections. In both cases they are correct. The Irish people are starting to reject the parliamentary system and process. In essence they are rejecting the Counter Revolution which saw he establishment of the Free State and the creation of the six county state. As Mellows stated: The Free State is British created. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear. It should be the role of political activists today to harness this passive opposition into an active opposition.
Paddy Dermody died for an independent, united and Gaelic Irish nation. As Irish Republicans we commemorate in order to honour men such as Dermody and recognise the sacrifice they gave and to reiterate that the aims and objectives for which he died has yet to be realised. As such; a movement for independence in 2019 is badly needed. But an independence movement must be based on the concept of independence and seperatism. Not based on dependency and unionism, whether British or European.
A border poll dependent on British acquiesce cannot bring a united Ireland nevermind the Irish Republic. A general election constrained within the economic and political diktats of the European Union will not bring ownership of Ireland closer to the Irish people.
The destiny of my generation and future generations are set by a boundary set by British imperialism and EU unionism with the compliance of a domestic garrison class. The Irish nation is once again caught between two international powers. The British state and the European union. Negotiations are currently underway between the British state and the European union on how to deal with what they consider the Irish border. We the Irish people have no say into the future of our own destiny. We are back to serving neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland
Two campaigns recently initiated by Republicans in a modest attempt to start to address this contradiction have been the Bring it to their Doors campaign and the Our Mandate Our Republic campaign. The Bring It to their Doors campaign has seen actions take place against politicians, bankers and receivers. Done in the tradition of the Brehon laws where when an injustice was committed against you you brought it the door of the accused, the reaction of the Free State to this campaign confirmed that it is but a paper tiger.
Blueshirt Minister Simon Harris reaction to a small taste of the peoples justice was NEARLY correct when he said these people have no allegiance to this republic. Correction, They have no allegiance to this Free State.
The enemies of the Irish people need to be made aware that they cannot hide behind their facade of democracy and their boardrooms. Injustice has a face and an address.
The moral codemnation of the compliant media and certain section of society were illuminating. They would find an hour long inconvenience to our social betters to be of more concern than the lives of women who have had cervical checks, people on hospital trollies or those families facing eviction. The campaign has highlighted a number of different issues none more so than OUR own sense of justice and OUR moral code does not equate with the current establishment sense of justice and morality. For that reason alone the campaign has served an immense purpose for socialist republicans.
To paraphrase that great Irish man Roger Casement; he spoke about the right to subsist in our own land, to think our own thoughts, to have our own moral code. To be a rebel to the injustices of today is a saner and truer thing than to accept it as the natural lot of men.
The Our Mandate Our Republic campaign is hopefully a modest first step in the process of the re establishment of the all Ireland Republic proclaimed in 1916. A long term campaign it will necessitate the building of the republic, street by street and community by community.
Allegiance to the Republic of 1916 is a counter pivot of allegiance away from the partionist states which currently exist. This can only come about as a result of Republicans providing the Irish people with leadership and providing an alternative which will be in accordance with the Democratic Programme of the First Dail for which Paddy Dermody gave the ultimate sacrifice that the Nation’s sovereignty will extend not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation’s soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation, and reaffirm that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare.
Sula fhagann muid ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabhail as ucht an cuireadh a thabhairt dom labhairt libh inniu. Is mór an onoir dom. Cead bliain ó shin nuair a bunaiodh an Chead Dail bíi an lá iomlan á reachtail trí Ghaeilge. Ráiteas a bhí ann ag an am go raibh an fís ag an ngluin sin go mbeidh Eire ní amhain saor ach Gaelach. Ní amhain Gaelach ach saor. Caithfimid ár ndicheall a dheanamh an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn chomh minic agus is feidir linn agus e a normalú sa saol atá romhainn.
Paddy Dermody was shot in the back by a Free State Special Branch Detective. He was 22 years of age. Revolution belongs to youth. This generation, which have been handed an economic and social noose around their neck and have inherited a shattered anti-imperialist movement have a duty to re-establish a revolutionary movement based on traditional republican principles and reassert the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland. As stated in the Proclamation of 1916 and the Democratic Programme of 1919 for which Paddy Dermody gave his life.
An Phoblacht abu!