Dozens gathered in Creggan Cemetery on Saturday to mark the 107th anniversary of Republic Day, when hundreds of women and men marched out to take on the might of Britain’s empire during the Easter Rising of 1916.
A wreath was laid on behalf of Lasair Dhearg by Derry’s Caolán Doherty before a reading of the Proclamation by Lasair Dhearg’s Aoibheann Ní Chríostai.
Kicking off the event, Lasair Dhearg Derry’s Lorcán Deeney said, “The 1916 Rising was not just a struggle for National Liberation but a struggle for social and economic liberation as well. The rebels understood that true freedom cannot be achieved without addressing the structural inequalities and injustices of capitalism.”
The main oration was delivered by Tommy McKearney. Tommy is an organiser with the Independent Workers Union and the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, as an organiser with these groups, he has helped to promote the interests of his fellow workers and the marginalised. He is a political ex-prisoner, having served many years in prison as a result of his political activism, and endured 53 days on Hungerstrike in 1980, whilst fighting for better conditions for Republican prisoners.
