IRSM: 2002 Easter Commemoration Speech

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Easter 2002

Commemoration Speech of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement  

[To be delivered by Irish Republican Socialist Party Ard-Chomhairle (National
Executive) member John Murtagh.]

Comrades, once more we gather to pay homage and remember those 
Republicans and Socialists who gave their lives in the struggle for a 
democratic Socialist Republic. 

Extraordinary events make for extraordinary people. The men and women 
of 1916 may seem like heroic figures, but we must never forget they 
were ordinary men and women who lived in extraordinary times. 

Today as we come to the slow ending of the armed conflict that has 
engulfed us all over the last three generations it is time to take 
stock and re-affirm our first principles. What did the ordinary men 
and women, including our own comrades, who died for a Republic think 
they were doing? 

Was it fighting for an abstraction called freedom? No. 

Was it for glory? No. 

Was it for the freedom to exploit others? No. 

Was it for the copper fastening of partition? No. 

Was it for the restoration of Stormont? No!! Emphatically No. 

It was for the right of you and me and all citizens born of this 
island to live with political, economic and social freedom in a 
Republic that really did cherish all the children of the nation 
equally. 

For us in the Republican Socialist Movement, that can only come about 
in a Socialist Republic. The Republican Socialist Movement is made up 
of ordinary men and women who live ordinary lives but who want, what 
is considered extraordinary today, the right to live in a Republic 
that is democratic, inclusive and based on socialist principles. 

Ask yourself who today stands by that concept of the Republic.

Those fat cats of Irish business life who can award themselves 
bonuses of £17 million in one year for refusing union recognition
as in Ryan Air? 

The bought politicians, who feed on the stench of corruption greed 
and bribery in the current Dail? Without principle, idealism or 
compassion they have allowed the poor of this country to slip further 
into debt and misery. 

The drug dealers in every town and village in Ireland who spread 
their poisonous trade amongst school kids? 

The Northern politicians who enflame sectarian passions with their 
petty disputes over symbols and flags? 

The racists who turn worker against worker by enflaming prejudices 
and ignorance? 

The trade union leaders who, if the example of Mick O'Reilly is 
anything to go by, would sell their workers out faster than Judas 
betrayed Jesus? 

Or the great and the good whose desire is to be photographed with US 
Presidents, preferably on St Patrick's Day in Washington?

Our political life in Ireland has become so dumbed down that a photo 
opportunity means more than a political manifesto. 

None of those groups of charlatans stand by the Republic of Connolly. 
We salute those ordinary men and women who - whether in the INLA, the 
IRSP, the prison camps, on the blanket, on picket line and strike 
action, in mass action and in day to day trade union activity, in 
community and tenant associations, trying every day to alleviate the 
hardships of working class life - are the real defenders of the 
Republic. Not for them the easy allure of the Yankee dollar. Just the 
ongoing republican struggle for a socialist Ireland.
 
Friends and Comrades, you will not hear words of consensus and 
compromise 'of moving the process forward' or of 'inclusive dialogue' 
from this platform. 

For what those words and phrases stand for is capitulation to the 
class enemy. We know what side of the barricades we stand on. It is 
on the side of the oppressed, the exploited, the marginalised and the 
derided. We are on the side of the victims of US imperialism and 
militarism. We stand by the Palestinian masses in their struggle for 
justice. We are with the poor of Afghanistan oppressed by foreign 
armies and religious fundamentalism. We are with the poor of Colombia 
and in defence of the Cuban Revolution. We salute the bravery of the 
continuing Turkish death fasters and the revolutionary communists in 
Spain that are tirelessly fighting against the most awful repression 
of fascism. We make no apology for our anti-imperialism and sincerely 
hope no one from this country flies to the USA to apologise to Senate 
hearings for the anti-imperialist actions of any Republican. 

In the North there is now a politically and economically aware 
nationalist middle class prepared to sup from the spoils of the 
Stormont table. They appoint their friends and relations on the 
growing number of quangos, award contracts to their best friends and 
tut tut about violence in working class areas. 

Yet every day in those areas violence continues unabated as the 
poison of sectarianism enflames working class areas. The INLA has 
been active in defence of working class areas. That poses no threat 
to any ceasefire or threatens anyone except sectarian and racist 
bigots. When the police and the forces of the state turn a blind eye 
to sectarian attacks is it any wonder that republicans have to take 
to the streets to defend areas from sectarian attacks. This movement 
will not turn the other cheek. 

However we appeal to all those who claim to be either republicans or 
nationalists in front line working class communities, neither by word 
or deed heighten or enflame sectarian tensions. That was not the way 
of Connolly, Mellows or any other Republican Socialist. It is not our 
way. 

As we predicted when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, 
sectarianism has not only been institutionalised it has spread like 
wildfire. The Good Friday Agreement has benefited the middle classes 
not the working classes. And it has not been fully implemented. This 
movement took the extremely difficult decision to recognise that the 
will of the Irish people was for the implementation of the GFA and 
for peace. We acted accordingly and the INLA ceasefire has been as 
solid as any. We have respected the wishes of the Irish people. We 
now call on the 26 County Administration to respect their own Good 
Friday Agreement and immediately release one of the last remaining 
prisoners to qualify for release under the Good Friday Agreement, 
Dessie O'Hare. They have acted in bad faith over the release of 
Dessie. From this platform we send greetings to our comrade Dessie 
and say we will not stop until your release. 

Elections are due to take place in May in the 26 Counties. At this 
time the Ard-Chomhairle are considering a proposal by the Dublin 
membership to run Dessie O'Hare as a candidate in Bertie Ahern's 
constituency of Dublin Central. The Ard-Chomhairle will, after 
conclusive debate with the membership, make a final decision at an 
election convention, which will take place within the next ten days. 

Comrades, friends, relatives of our martyred dead, as we walk away 
from this graveyard ponder not on the dead but on the living. No one 
can predict the future. But if everyone here played just a small role 
in fighting injustice and oppression then the dawning of a new day in 
political life in Ireland would be that much closer. 

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