The Cork 32 county sovereignty movement held a
successful commemoration in memory of I.R.A volunteers Con and Jeremiah
Delaney. Marchers marched to the monument where an oration was given by
ex-POW Anthony Crowley, wreaths were laid followed
by a minutes silence and the national anthem. As usual the local
collection of state sponsored thugs were present in the form of 5
special branch cars, a Gardai Van and roughly 15 members of the Special
branch. Thank you to everyone who attended. Beir Bua!
MAIN ORATION:
MAIN ORATION:
Con and Jeremiah Delaney were unarmed when they were
shot by English gunmen in their own home. To those that sent these English
gunmen to Ireland
these gunmen were carrying out their duty. To those revisionists who are
desperate to distort our history these English gunmen were the lawful authority
in Ireland.
Con and
Jeremiah were shot in reprisal for an earlier IRA attack on a convoy of
Auxillaries at Dillons Cross. Following on from the successful IRA ambush at
Kilmichael the Black & Tans were desperate for revenge. They chose to burn Cork city in reprisal.
Were Con
and Jeremiah the terrorists and the Black & Tans the lawful authority going
about their duty? It’s a very pertinent question when discussing the ongoing
conflict in Ireland.
The
revisionists are in full flow pending the Centenary of 1916. The problem with
such questions is that they cannot be confined to the past. The recent findings
of The Smithwick Report have raised this awkward spectre again.
What
mandate did the men and women have in 1916? What mandate did Liam Lynch have to
reject the Anglo-Irish Treaty? When the Four Courts were being shelled by
British Artillery was Oglaigh Na hEireann inside or outside that building?
There is no
redemption in history for those who have accepted the violation of Irish
sovereignty. You cannot call Tom Barry a freedom fighter and Seamus McElwaine a
terrorist. You cannot call the deaths of RIC personnel in 1916 as a justified
act and the deaths of two senior RUC personnel seventy three years later as murder.
The mandate for both actions remains the same.
And the
basis for that mandate did not end in 1998 either. The Good Friday Agreement is
in default of Irish sovereignty just as much as the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1923.
The Provisional Sinn Fein argument that armed struggle now has no legitimate
basis because of their strategy is the exact same argument that DeValera used
when he brought over the English hangman to send IRA volunteers to the gallows
in the forties.
And this is
where republicans need to pay attention to this debate. The protagonists are
not the Free State
against Provisional Sinn Fein but those two entities against republicans.
The mandate
to fight for the restoration of Irish sovereignty is derived from the
continuing violation of that sovereignty. That is the mandate of Pearse, Barry,
Lynch, McCaughey and Ryan.
The
Smithwick Report is an indictment of Garda collusion with the RUC. Giving
evidence to the Barron Report convicted murderer and RUC member John Weir
directly implicated Chief Superintendent Harry Breen with loyalist sectarian
murders. Relatives seeking answers for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings have also
demanded answers concerning this implication of Breen.
Where are
the probing questions on this? Where are the howls of feigned indignation on
such damning indictments? Is this why the investigation into Dublin and Monaghan was shelved so quickly?
Republicans
are not fooled by these smokescreens. We are not detracted by revisionist
distortions of our history. We know who we are and what we are. And we know
that in the spirit of the Delaney Brothers we know that republicans working
together can achieve that republican goal of a true mandate for the Irish people.
Beir Bua
Comments