From Wolfe Tone to today

JUNE is the month when republicans honour ‘The Father of Irish Republicanism’, Wolfe Tone, where he is buried in Bodenstown, County Kildare.
Tone’s ideal was:
“To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country — these were my objects.
“To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissentions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in the place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter — these were my means.
“To unite Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter under the common name of Irishmen in order break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils, that was my aim.
“If the men of property will not support us, they must fall. Our strength shall come from that great and respectable class, the men of no property.”
The ‘men of property’ - the bankers and the speculators and their friends in high places — have not just failed to support us but they have brought families to the edge of ruin and misery.
Daily, people are losing their jobs; daily, more see the only future in emigration and leaving their families behind; daily, those left behind fear for their future and what tomorrow and the years ahead hold for their children.
Bondholders, bank executives, financiers and property barons can still live well despite their losses. Others who are being made to pay for their recklessness, speculation and greed — and who had no hand or part in the financial maelstrom — face the daily fear of how they are going to pay their mortgages and bills.
On top of this is the worry they have of how to keep their loved ones well when public services are being cut to the bone by the EU/IMF deal negotiated by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and now meekly implemented by Fine Gael and the Labour Party who falsely promised things would be different.
The people of property have brought the people of Ireland — and elsewhere internationally — to this sorry state.
Sinn Féin has been buoyed by recent electoral successes that have seen more republican voices in the corridors of power, North and South. But we need republican voices in the corridors and halls of people’s homes, workplaces, schools, colleges, community centres and streets, delivering the republican message that politics is not ‘all the same’ and that there is a better way.
Sinn Féin’s ‘Uniting Ireland: Towards A New Republic’ conferences and events are being held in the spirit of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. They are dedicated to rediscovering what is good from the past and what can help build a better future. Help to make these events a success.
In this year of the 30th anniversary of the heroic sacrifice of the 1981 H-Blocks Hunger Strikers and in this month when we remember Wolfe Tone, let us honour all those who have fought for a true Irish Republic — a New Republic — by going out and making it happen. We owe it to those who have gone before us and those generations who will follow us.