Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Unity Forum Launched
The Republican Forum for Unity
29/10/2008
Launch of “The Republican Forum for Unity”
Over the past ten years – since the signing of the Good Friday agreement – Irish Republicans have witnessed a dramatic change in the manner in which the struggle for National Liberation and the establishment of a 32 county Republic has been waged.To say that not all Republicans agree with, nor comprehend how such changes are leading to the establishment of a 32 county democratic socialist Republic, is to point out the obvious and is evidenced by the large number of groups that now exist with the stated aim of establishing such a Republic.There are those for whom the local British assembly represents the best route forward while for others the very existence of a local assembly stands as a bulwark against National Sovereignty and as such hinders not helps the struggle for National Liberation. Still others are so frustrated by the lack of progress or a clear strategic way forward or a unity of purpose that they have given up on the Republican struggle ever arriving at its revolutionary objective.In short, the Republican vision, as eloquently articulated in the Proclamation of 1916, appears to be distorted by divisions and lack of agreement around core Republican positions. That being the case a number of Republicans feel that ten years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the time is appropriate for Republicans to review where the Republican struggle stands and how best we can collectively pursue the sentiments expressed in the Proclamation.Such a review needs to address not only were we stand in relation to core Republican beliefs but also how we attempt to be pro-active on those beliefs within the Republican tradition. This is vital to ensure that we move our core aims beyond the aspirational and into the attainable. Towards this end all views should be encouraged and given equal weight using the rule of thumb that at this juncture it is of equal importance to consider where we, individually and collectively, are going to as were we are coming from.Towards this end a grouping of Republicans comprising members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the Republican Network for Unity and a number of individual Republicans are formally launching “The Republican Forum for Unity”.Within this Forum all issues of importance to Republicans can be openly discussed with the intention that the ideas generated will be taken back to existing organizations for the purpose of focussing political activity to achieve more definitive results. In this way Republicans can begin to address the areas of division that have been created due to lack of open, frank and democratic discussion and begin the process of establishing an agreed Republican agenda rather than Republicans merely responding to a series of ‘contrived’ crises.“The Republican Forum for Unity” will undertake a series of Public Meetings throughout the country to outline our position and secure as much support for it as possible. It is an open Forum and its future is in the hands of those who freely participate in its workings. The first debate under the title “The GFA: Ten Years On” will be held in the Tower Hotel, Derry at 8.00pm on November 6th 2008. Dates and Venues for further debates in the months ahead will to set later.
29/10/2008
Launch of “The Republican Forum for Unity”
Over the past ten years – since the signing of the Good Friday agreement – Irish Republicans have witnessed a dramatic change in the manner in which the struggle for National Liberation and the establishment of a 32 county Republic has been waged.To say that not all Republicans agree with, nor comprehend how such changes are leading to the establishment of a 32 county democratic socialist Republic, is to point out the obvious and is evidenced by the large number of groups that now exist with the stated aim of establishing such a Republic.There are those for whom the local British assembly represents the best route forward while for others the very existence of a local assembly stands as a bulwark against National Sovereignty and as such hinders not helps the struggle for National Liberation. Still others are so frustrated by the lack of progress or a clear strategic way forward or a unity of purpose that they have given up on the Republican struggle ever arriving at its revolutionary objective.In short, the Republican vision, as eloquently articulated in the Proclamation of 1916, appears to be distorted by divisions and lack of agreement around core Republican positions. That being the case a number of Republicans feel that ten years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the time is appropriate for Republicans to review where the Republican struggle stands and how best we can collectively pursue the sentiments expressed in the Proclamation.Such a review needs to address not only were we stand in relation to core Republican beliefs but also how we attempt to be pro-active on those beliefs within the Republican tradition. This is vital to ensure that we move our core aims beyond the aspirational and into the attainable. Towards this end all views should be encouraged and given equal weight using the rule of thumb that at this juncture it is of equal importance to consider where we, individually and collectively, are going to as were we are coming from.Towards this end a grouping of Republicans comprising members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the Republican Network for Unity and a number of individual Republicans are formally launching “The Republican Forum for Unity”.Within this Forum all issues of importance to Republicans can be openly discussed with the intention that the ideas generated will be taken back to existing organizations for the purpose of focussing political activity to achieve more definitive results. In this way Republicans can begin to address the areas of division that have been created due to lack of open, frank and democratic discussion and begin the process of establishing an agreed Republican agenda rather than Republicans merely responding to a series of ‘contrived’ crises.“The Republican Forum for Unity” will undertake a series of Public Meetings throughout the country to outline our position and secure as much support for it as possible. It is an open Forum and its future is in the hands of those who freely participate in its workings. The first debate under the title “The GFA: Ten Years On” will be held in the Tower Hotel, Derry at 8.00pm on November 6th 2008. Dates and Venues for further debates in the months ahead will to set later.
Friday, September 26, 2008
1916 Proclamation
POBLACHT NA H EIREANN
___________________________
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND
IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.
Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.
We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.
The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.
Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.
We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.
Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government.
Thomas J. Clarke,
Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh,
P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt,
James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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