Liam Mellows Commemoration
9th of December 2023
Castletown, Co. Wexford
By Sean Doyle
‘PROPERTY VALUED AT BILLIONS, PEOPLE VALUED AT NOTHING’
We have assembled here today to commemorate the life of Liam Mellows. Through the generations revolutionaries have come to the fore to take up the mantle to guide, inspire and lead us is our quest for liberation.
Liam Mellows contribution and sacrifices places him amongst our Socialist Republican visionaries. He was born in Manchester to William Joseph Mellows on the 25th of May 1892, who was a British army non commissioned Officer, and Sarah Jordan of Inch, county Wexford where he grew up. His family moved to Fairview in Dublin in February 1895 when his father was transferred, however Liam remained in Wexford with his grandfather due to ill health. He was educated in Cork and Portobello garrison school in Dublin but ultimately refused a military career much to his fathers dismay choosing to work as a clerk in several Dublin firms.
Nationalist inclined Mellows approached Thomas Clarke who recruited him to Fianna Eireann an organisation of young Republicans. Mellows was introduced to James Connolly at Countess Markeviczs residence recuperating after his hunger strike. Connolly was deeply impressed and told his daughter Nora “I have found a real man”. He was possibly about 19 years old and Connolly was 47 but they were equally committed on views to achieve an Irish Republic. Mellows was active in the I.R.B and a founder member of The Irish Volunteers being brought in to its organising committee to strengthen the Fianna representation. He was arrested and jailed on several occasions under the Defence of the Realm Act, another spoke in the wheel of British Trany, there are many spokes in their wheel but there is no motion without the axel, the axel is division.
Division, the weapon of the ruling class, empires the world over, particularly the tentacles of the British spread throughout.
I don’t intend keeping you long in the cold but to chill you to the bone with truth and honesty about our history.
Let the truth be recognised in the name of those throughout our struggle for freedom who sacrificed their lives at gun point, the gallows, firing squad or genocide.
The propaganda and distortion from the puppet governments, media and revisionist historians must be challenged and renounced.
Tom Clarke, fondly known as the old Fenian said “They tried to bury us, they did not know we were seed” I say let us today commence by sowing the seed in the fertile soil of young minds, grow truth and weed out the lies sow by the collaborators.
Liam Mellows, who we honour and commemorate today was a prisoner of war, he and 3 comrades were taken out of their cells and illegally executed by the British tools of their Free State. In the British tradition exercised throughout our history against our defence of our republican government, namely by revenge and retaliation all sanctioned by London. Our history is full of documented proof eg: the Sacking of Swords, murder by the Black and Tans etc.
When the British pup, The Free State got the recognition from the Catholic Hierarchy, the Pastoral Letter was read out in every parish in the country, within a week they instituted British Free State democracy, the execution of Republicans totalling at least 88. I call this absolution for execution.
William T Cosgrave father of Liam Cosgrave, leader of Fine Gael stated in 1923 that he wished the people in the poor houses would just emigrate because they had no ambition just a burden on the rate payers. The British and their Free Staters had crushed the Republic and supressed the Proclamation and tore up the democratic program.
Do not speak of a failed state, it is a tool of British tyranny, blood soaked in the suppression of the people’s Republican government.
You can trace our denial of truth throughout our history most glaring is our insistence, still educating our children and revisionist historians and famine villages, selling the lies to the world alike. When will we own up and say it was genocide? When our fertile land was producing enough food to feed 6 times the population, that was carted under guard to ports, while peoples wailing cries of starvation, dying by the road side.
Little wonder we were silent about industrial schools, mother and baby homes, golden bridge, Tuam Babies etc and presently homelessness, over 10 thousand, and presently the highest figure yet, over 4 thousand children in temporary accommodation. The lie “we have a housing emergency for at least 10 years” if not so sad it would be laughable. The truth is they only tinker with it, truth they are more concerned with market share. Their values of buildings worth billions and people worth nothing.
We must develop our own society with our own principles and values. A few years ago, to commemorate James Connolly on May Day, the Revolutionary Workers Union Council passed a motion to acquisition empty buildings which was carried out by the revolutionary housing league. The first property was owned by the Salvation Army, which was vacant for nearly 2 years, to our astonishment, when we entered the first, we noticed was the heating was on, ESB and hot water while people in tents shivered in the cold on the streets while unfortunately some succumbed to hypothermia, some others gave up and are regularly taken from The Liffey. A massive Free State force of 66 cops backed up by the ERU and an overhead helicopter to make sure the people we were giving a temporary respite were back out in the cold and wet. And as of this week that building is still not in use. When we were summoned before the courts the Salvation Army stated that they were within weeks of completing restoration building works and we were impeding that process. That sums of the shallowness and hypocrisy that is prevalent throughout this so called Free State.
Humanity is at an all time low the world over. The ruling classes try to divert our attention by scaremongering, preaching about the treat of radicalisation, the truth and real treat is de-sensitising, destroying our standards, conditioning people to the ever-decreasing values of human life, from military to economic war. How long must the Palestinian people be corralled abused and murdered by the Zionists, answer, as long as America continue to support and supply bombs. Not even supporting a cease fire breaking while Zionists annihilate the Palestinian people.
Divisiveness and division has been he most effective weapon of the ruling class. Liam Mellows speaking during the debate on the proposed British Treaty ultimatum stated “The will of the people was when the people declared for a Republic” Mellows called the treaty “A new co-hersion act” It’s function was to destroy the existing Irish republic, he continued “they did not want peace with surrender or peace with dishonour” the treaty would not bring peace, under the treaty the Irish people would be committed within the British Empire, something they had always opposed. The British Empire represents to me nothing but the concentrated tyranny of ages. The government of the Free State will, with those, support it now, liking it or not, eventually occupy the same relationship towards the people of Ireland as Dublin Castle does today, because it would be a barrier government between the British and the Irish people. The Irish people, before they can struggle on will have to do something to remove Free State government. Little wonder what followed.
On December the 7th 1922, two free state deputies were fired on in Dublin, one of them, Sean Hales of West Cork was killed. The next morning the treatyites in keeping with the British master’s rule at 9 O’Clock Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe Mckelvey and Dick Barrett were executed by firing squad in reprisal, it was announced officially for the shooting of Hales. There was no trial. Executions take place at dawn, these were delayed because the prison Chaplin kept pressing for postponements because Mellows would not accept the hierarchy’s pastoral condemning the republicans and was denied absolution in consequence, I believe with the old Gaels, who dies for Ireland has no need for prayers, Mellows said. In the end the Chaplin backed down by using strategy “are you sorry if you’ve done wrong” he asked “of course I’m sorry for any wrong I’ve done” Mellows replied, and that satisfied the chaplain. The executions were duly carried out.
I wish those who call themselves patriots, which I think is disgraceful, would look at our history and the traps laid by the free state to divide us in to competing against each other for our basic needs. Trying to reduce us from conscientious caring citizens to fighting sometimes with neighbours never mind migrants, reducing us to political dependence. They should read Connolly “every enemy of tyranny is my brother no matter where be his birth place, every enemy of freedom is my enemy though he may be as Irish as our hills”.
Liam Mellows said “the Free State is a British creation, you can not make a silk purse out of a sows ear”
During our war to protect our new peoples Republican government, the British campaign of arresting members of the government and carrying out atrocities was having an adverse affect amongst Irish Americans. Lloyd George and Churchill were a formidable duo. Churchill was aware of the growing opposition to their war crimes in Ireland amongst Irish Americans even though president Woodrow Wilson was siding with the British as Allies. Not much changed to the present day with their support of the Isrealies. Churchill suggested if we pretend to offer a truce and the IRA refuse we will get the high moral ground, if they accept even for a while they will find it difficult to get men to go back to war.
The British have mastered division the world over in our country they have deployed it for centuries. When they were plundering and confiscating the states from the Gaelic Irish London was complaining of the cost of building garrisons and supplying soldiers to protect their spoils. The solution was to offer the dispossessed tenancy provided they recognised the king as their sovereign and ward off the Gaelic Irish and police the estates in the name of the king. The name given to this ultimatum became known as surrender and regrant.
Once again they used division when they convinced protestants in the still occupied 6 counties, that they were privileged to have houses and jobs and if the Catholics were to have parity, they would lose their considered privileges, sectarianism, British created. In an earlier example, 1796, Wolfe Tone tried to break the British strangle hold by uniting what he described as the protestant decentres and the Irish defenders. He said “the British ploy was to convince the protestants they were the Catholics masters, but they were only their jailers”.
Next their master stroke, the treaty, wrote the ultimatum of division in the full knowledge it would be repugnant to those loyal to the Irish Republican government that was legitimately elected by the people. But this plan of division by the British created and opportunity for the upper class who had a vested interest with the British to deny us our rightful claim to our 32 counties, its wealth and resources, yet another case of surrender and regrant or face a terrible war or enforce our rule and our interests. The usual conditions apply. In exchange for rifles, machine guns and armoured vehicles Lloyd George said “give Collins what ever he wants, even men if necessary” British rule enforced wearing Irish uniforms. A counter revolution, finance supplied and directed by the British, not a civil war. Fast forward to the Good Friday ultimatum, a carbon copy of British rule.
All our focus must be towards reclaiming and re-instating our Republican government and fulfilling its forcibly denied unified country, distribution of the nations wealth and resources for the welfare of our people. We affirm our claim to our 32 counties, no vote is necessary what is our country is not for sale or barter, no surrender or regrant, no compromise.
Our language must change, our demands are in response to the free states neglect and total disregard for people’s welfare. Connolly said “we use constitutional methods in normal time, revolutionary methods in exceptional times, these are exceptional times”.
In conclusion, I want to commend Anti Imperialist Action Ireland over the last 6 years, The Revolutionary Workers Union Council, The Revolutionary Housing League, our ever increasing youth group OR, and also to pay tribute to our comrade and friend Eamon McGrath who passed this year, for their initiatives and proactive defence of the welfare of the most vulnerable people, abandoned by the callous free state. A brief summary of some of the activities, anti-eviction, bring it to their doors, housing for all, citizens injunction Moore Street, water meter campaign, household tax, KBC banks occupation, anti-NATO campaign when fully armed British warships were docking in our ports, brandishing their guns on their deck, America using Shannon Airport in their war efforts, one example on route to Guantanamo Bay etc, great activism.
The global elite’s hunger of greed is destroying humanity and its basic needs, earth, water and air, it was pure and plentiful for all there. The planet is in melt down, drought, flooding, environmental catastrophes and greenhouse gas emissions are completely off target.
COP28 held in Dubai agree to throw crumbs from their table of greed to the most immediate effected countries a proof absolute of the horror awaiting us all in the destruction.
Pleading with those who are destroying humanity and the planet is akin to asking the hungry fox to mind the hens, insane. Time is running out, time to assert, time to remove, time for a global people’s revolution.