Lasair Dhearg 1916 Rising Commemoration 2021
The following address was delivered by Ciarán O’Brien, Lasair Dhearg Belfast, with contributions from Alána Ní Dochartaigh, Lasair Dhearg Derry, Dave Walsh, Lasair Dhearg Dublin and members of Lasair Dhearg Supporter’s Network.
Ciarán O’Brien:
“‘Beware, Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people, who shall take what ye would not give.’ – This was the warning of Patrick Pearse.”
“Within a year of this warning Pearse would be dead. Executed for his part in a rising 105 years ago that set in motion a cataclysm of events that shaped Ireland today. That Easter week, the new armies of the Irish Republic set out to assert the birthright of every Irish man and woman – ‘the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies’. A birth right that remains today.”
“Occupying strategic positions across Dublin City, the rebel men and women under the leadership of Pearse and Connolly, made the cry for freedom and proclaimed a Republic for all. The Brits, as ever, replied to freedom in the only means they know how: through repression.”
“Five days of street fighting ensued as the rebels of Easter week defended the Republic through force of arms. Their cries for freedom now echoing from the barrel of a gun, echoes that rang out not just across Dublin, but the world. And as the walls of the GPO shook from canon fire, so too did the foundations of Britain’s colonial empire In Ireland.”
“Two weeks later the final shots of the rising were fired – 15 leaders lay dead – with Roger Casement soon to follow. ‘We die so that Irish nation might live’ said MacDiarmada. And as the bullets of the executioners pierced the leaders, and as life springs from death, that great republican ideal for which they fought for that Easter week pierced the hearts and minds of the Irish nation. What came after was a rumbling of national conscience. A new dead generation had awakened the children of the nation, and summoned to her flag – they began to strike for her freedom.”
“105 years on we are yet to achieve the Republic they sought. And so every year on this date we remember and rededicate ourselves to the commitment of that goal. We commemorate all those since then who have given their lives to its realisation, especially those who have paid with it. We acknowledge the sacrifice of all those still active in the fight for its achievement today: who often leave their workplaces only to go home to begin their real jobs – those who are prepared to lose everything, so that we may gain everything worth having.”
“For what is the lesson of Easter week? It is the lesson that reigns throughout Irish history for Republicans – that the path to the 32 County Socialist Republic is laid not within the confines of constitutional nationalism, it doesn’t lie within the halls of British or west-Brit parliaments, it is the lesson that we have always been closest to the Republic when our struggle is embedded within the working class communities wherein the Socialist Republic will be built, and with whose sole authority it will lie with.”
“That Socialist Republic won’t be built through ‘Fresh Starts’ and ‘New Deals’, it won’t be forged through a border poll or federal arrangement. It won’t be found in EU markets. We must never lose sight that the goal was never just a united Ireland: BUT A 32 COUNTY SOCIALIST REPUBLIC.”
“The realisation of the Republic we seek, and the unity of catholic, protestant and dissenter through which it will be achieved – will not be won through miracle arguments of GDP growth, of public sector savings and access to European markets — It will be won through the issues that plague both catholic, protestant and dissenter – issues that only a Socialist Republic can fully resolve.”
“But the Socialist Republic can’t just be something we promise, a vague aspiration for the future – it is the duty of all republicans in the here and now, to begin to build as best we can the projects that the socialist republic will complete, and the welfare that it will ensure.”
“2020 has shown this to be possible. When covid-19 struck our shores Socialist Republicans across Ireland organised to defend their communities, not just from the virus, but from capitalism. When the fragile free market failed to deliver – threatening starvation to thousands – it was Republicans who filled the gap, and those Republicans, across Ireland, across the spectrum – organised to ensure the survival of their communities.”
“And when the fascist snake slithered from its den, and sought to use the pandemic for its revival – It was Socialist Republicans who joined forces to drive them from our cities.”
“We’ve shown time and time again: that we can deliver for our class, that we can achieve a whole lot more with whole a lot less than the politicians who have all the resources of the state at their disposal.”
“These tasks did not require state regulation, or the consent of a British minister – all it required was the effort and belief that we can do better – that we deserve better.”
“It is along these foundations that we must build.”
“We must build the Republic street by street, house by house. We must measure the confidence of our movement – not with votes – but with the rallying of people to organise for each other. Our value will not be measured in the people’s reliance upon us, but the reliance of the people upon themselves.”
“In the words of Óglach Bobby Sands: ‘There is that much to be done that no select or small portion of people can do; only the greater mass of the Irish nation will ensure the achievement of a Socialist Republic, and this can only be done by hard work and sacrifice’.”
“And it will be the sacrifice of us, the children who were born into a so-called ‘peace’, peace we’re told we must be grateful for – who know an absence of war, but not violence – who do not know assassination, but know suicide. Who’s violence is dealt, not from British soldiers in khaki, but British Politicians in suits. One in three children in poverty – that will be the legacy of the revolutionaries turned statesmen – We will not make the same mistake.”
“So to the rulers of Ireland, the landlords, the bosses, the politicians and bureaucrats, we say: beware of the thing that is coming… Whilst the bourgeois politicians may deliver their united Ireland, where your eviction notice is stamped with the harp and not the crown – it will be the revolutionary youth of this generation that deliver the Republic – who shall take what you would not give.”
“We have been born into an unjust system. We will not be prepared to grow old in it – Join the fight for a Socialist Republic friends – we only have the world to win!”
