Fearghal O'Hanlon Memorial Lecture 2001

The 19th annual Fearghal O'Hanlon Memorial Lecture was held in Monaghan town on Sunday last, 25 March. The lecture honours Volunteer Fearghal O'Hanlon, who died with his comrade Seán South at Brookeborough in 1957.

The event was chaired by Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin who spoke of the enduring influence and importance of Fearghal O'Hanlon for the republican community in the Border counties. He said that countless young people had been inspired by his selflessness and there was an unbroken link of republican struggle between Fearghal O'Hanlon in 1957, Kieran Doherty TD and his comrades in 1981 and up to the present. This was emphasised by the backdrop to the platform which was a Co. Monaghan banner from 1981 honouring Kieran Doherty, the 20th anniversary of whose death occurs this year.

On the platform were Councillor Pádraigín Uí Mhurchadha, sister of O'Hanlon and chair of Monaghan town Sinn Féin, and guest speaker Ella O'Dwyer. Formerly a republican prisoner in England, Tipperary woman Ella O'Dwyer now works with other republican ex-prisoners released as a result of the peace process. We carry below extracts from her lecture:


``Most often it is the youth that rises to the ideal and certain historical moments like the Rising and the Hunger Strike are examples of this. Historical moments like those are in fact not about the past, but about the future. These are loaded moments that mark out the way forward and are the stuff of Vision itself. Youth too is about the future and about vision. Often, without necessarily being conscious of it, the visionary embarks on a project or struggle that leads to fundamental change.

     
In the silence of the cessation, we have time to organise and fully harvest the sacrifices of visionaries like Volunteer O'Hanlon and the ten Hunger Strikers. Now is the time to harvest our past and to turn it into victory
The Hunger Strike was one such catalyst for change in relatively recent times. Britain's treatment of Irish republican prisoners caused serious change on the broad national front. A line was drawn in the sand for many of us ordinary people of rural Ireland when we saw that our peers, in the late 20th century, were being abused in the same manner as republicans of earlier times, from the young Robert Emmet to Thomas Ashe. Events like the 1916 Rising and the Hunger Strike changed mindsets and cultures in very fundamental ways.

Again Volunteers Fergal O'Hanlon and Sean South made a lasting mark on the national psyche, and in ways that impacted on emergent chapters of Irish history. From the `50s to the early `80s for instance, Ireland - between the North and South, was submerged in either conflict or recession. Though conflict wasn't the direct experience of people in the 26 Counties, that same oppression that has perennially sent us into struggle existed throughout the whole country.

Poverty and oppression of various sorts have been part and parcel of the national experience for generations. The republican battle is a long one, extending through Famine, Land and Home Rule struggles. We are direct inheritors of that battle and it's easy for us republicans to understand why Volunteers South from Limerick and O'Hanlon from Monaghan took the road they did. Emmet, Connolly, Larkin, Farrell, Sands and others took that same path.

Writing of the republican project, Bobby Sands spoke of how each person in Ireland has their part to play in the task of creating the Socialist Republic. Our various roles, big or small, are all vital challenges that mark out our own particular part in The Patriot's Game. That battle is not a simple one, and demands all the intelligence and strength we can apply to it. In the quiet of the cessation we have the model opportunity of applying our intelligence. Have no doubt but that Empire applies its own intelligence. One of our challenges now is to beat them on that front too.

Political expansion

We now have the opportunity to revisit and get in touch with our own proud history. On the broad national front for instance, we have reflected that we might have better harvested the political expansion emergent from the Hunger Strike, though I note Monaghan to be the exception within the 26 Counties, where we see Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin uphold Kieran Doherty's victory of 20 years ago. In the country at large however, we did not at that time have the infrastructure for such development. Now in the silence of the cessation, we do have time to organise and fully harvest the sacrifices of visionaries like Volunteer O'Hanlon and the ten Hunger Strikers.

Now is the time to harvest our past and to turn it into victory. The current chapter of republican history is another stage in a long passage towards a just peace. These chapters are continuous and every site of struggle with which we are currently engaged directly addresses the commitments and duties outlined in the Proclamation of 1916 when the Republic was born.

The Proclamation was revolutionary for its period in that it instructed that all the children of the nation, regardless of gender, be treated equally. We are only starting to address this particular commitment as outlined in the Proclamation in a serious way, to for instance ensure that our women and the courageous youth we commemorate are today given the appropriate status under the terms of equality outlined in the Proclamation. Again I note the Cavan/Monaghan region to be an exception in the context of women's participation in Sinn Féin politics. There are many equally talented women throughout the length and breath of the country and it is important to identify and facilitate that potential. The issue of equality, in whatever context, is a core principle of republicanism

A crucial challenge to republicanism is clearly outlined in the words of Bobby Sands. I quote from something he wrote towards his last days: ``When the Irish people have the desire for freedom to show, its then we'll see the Rising of the Moon.'' Our challenge now is to call on that desire for freedom in the broad Irish context, as we cannot create the republic on our own.

We should practice the language of victory and name our sites of struggle sites of strength. When we start to speak and sing the terms and tune of strength, we will know that we are moving close to the day when the young Robert Emmet's command to silence can be lifted and we can abandon the vehicle of anonymity and write his epitaph. We have the players to call that tune agus go néirí an bothar leo.''