The following piece is delivered by Pádraic MacCoitir, blanketman and political ex-prisoner.
How often have we heard the country we live in being referred to as a ‘democracy’?; Because we have the right to vote and in theory make those we elect responsible for the everyday running of an establishment that will work to our benefit. It obviously doesn’t work in practice.
If we just take the state of the country since it was partitioned we will see that it is far from democratic. Britain ignored the 1918 election which they set up given the pretence they would leave Irish matters to the Irish people. Sinn Féin won a very impressive 73 seats out of 105. With Britain ignoring the outcome it was inevitable there would be backlash and within months an armed rebellion took place. This particular phase of armed struggle lasted two years and as history has shown us some of those in leadership positions met the British government in talks which were supposed to be negotiations on behalf of the IRA.
They signed a treaty supposedly under the threat of war (since the British invaded Ireland the threat of war was always there) which in turn led to a counter revolution led by those who have been in control of the country since.
From then until now we have seen a country run by an elite in both failed states which suits our ancient enemy – the British. This will continue to be the case no matter what those main political parties tell us. Britain has pacified many but not all of us!
On a personal level I can’t remember the country being in such a bad state. I was born in the late 1950s and remember going to school and running about the streets oblivious to poverty and deprivation. We were a family of twelve – two parents, six girls and four boys – and although never well off I can’t remember us going hungry or not having good coats and shoes. Of course we would envy some neighbours who were slightly better off but it didn’t make us feel inferior.
As the late 1960’s rolled into the 70’s I became more aware of politics and was very supportive of those engaged in armed struggle. That struggle was inevitable despite what revisionists say about civil rights. As written in the 1916 Proclamation: ‘every generation the Irish people has asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty, six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms’.
As the struggle progressed it politicised more people and many of us saw it as much more than ‘Brits Out’. Social issues came to the fore as we witnessed discrimination in many areas such as employment, housing and education. Many families were finding it hard to get by and this led to community centres opening up. At first they were run by the catholic church but we saw them as part of the state and over the years they came under the control of local activists.
With an armed struggle intensifying this led to many deaths and imprisonment but despite this many communities got stronger. Of course not everyone supported the IRA but I would argue a lot of respect was shown to many of its volunteers because for the most part they were part of the community and some had endured a lot and they weren’t seen as making a living out of it.
Things were to change with some seeing that elections were the only way forward and in 2005 the IRA surrendered. Sinn Féin started appealing to the middle classes and many of the once thriving community centres became the preserve of those who toed the line. Of course there are some community activists who will continue to work on behalf of the people, especially at a time when they are most in need.
I would argue that if Sinn Féin had stuck to their principles from the 1980’s our communities would be in a stronger position but as we have seen over the past 100 years once many former Republicans get a taste of ‘power’ and take their seats in Stormont or Leinster House there is no going back.
The British and Unionists are not threatened by Sinn Féin because they now see them as a party they can work with. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael see them differently, not because they are ‘reds under the bed’, but because they are in danger of losing the power they once thought they had a privilege to.
It is more than a cliche to say that history has a habit of repeating itself. We can look back on the ‘hungry thirties’ and wonder how it ever got that bad but it is happening again. The only difference is that we are far more aware of it and we can and should do something about it. Food banks are well and good but they cannot sustain our communities forever.
An election in the Six Counties is a possibility and we will hear the usual things from those standing that if elected they will bring about change. Living in a capitalist society will only mean hardship for the majority and those in political power want a cowed people dependent on handouts which just about keeps them from starving.
They may call it austerity or the cost of living crisis but in reality it is capitalism. This famous quote from James Connolly is very appropriate today:
“Yes, friends, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class”.
