Comrade Ryan
05-29-2008, 01:51 PM
The IRB: Organising For Revolution
28/05/08
The following is the text of speech given by Breandán Mac Cionnaith at a commemorative event for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, held by éirígí in Dublin, on March 15, 2008.
It outlines how and why the IRB formed and organised for one of the most revolutionary periods in Irish history, and how the activism of its volunteers encompassed the social, economic, political and cultural strands of struggle to the greatest effect.
After the great hunger of the 1840s, An Gorta Mór, Ireland found itself socially, economically and psychologically drained. The country had two overwhelming concerns: the struggle of its people to secure whatever little livelihood they had and the struggle for national independence from Britain.
These two struggles were to be played out, at times separately and at times jointly, during the rest of the 19th Century and into the 20th century with varying degrees of success. And intimately involved throughout the development and execution of those struggles was to be one organisation: The Irish Republican Brotherhood – The Fenians.
By St Patrick’s Day 1858, when James Stephens, Thomas Clarke Luby, Joseph Denieffe, Garret O’Shaughnessy and Peter Langan met together to form the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Lombard Street in Dublin, the Registrar General’s Office recorded that in the previous five decades almost three million people had emigrated from this country to escape persecution and repression, famine and poverty. The Irish diaspora were already scattered so far around the globe that they reached into both hemispheres.
It is little wonder that, as that meeting took place in Dublin, similar moves were afoot in America under the leadership of a close associate of those men, James O’ Mahoney.
The immediate origins of the IRB can be traced to the Young Ireland insurrection of 1848 in which Stephens, O’Mahony and others had actively participated. In its aftermath, they had escaped to France. There, the exiles came into contact with other European socialist and revolutionary movements and developed the notion of creating a pledge-bound, hand-picked, disciplined elite, a revived and improved version of the United Irishmen’s organisation which would act as the shock-troops of revolution in Ireland.
The Fenian organisation developed rapidly in both Ireland and overseas and O’Donovan Rossa was appointed the main organiser. A planned insurrection in 1867 had little chance of success. But despite its failure, the politics of the IRB, as exemplified by its 1867 proclamation, was basically radical and democratic, with a strong labour-movement content, including an appeal to the English working class for support. It was this radical trend which excluded no options in progressing their struggle that ensured an IRB influence upon all major events in the coming years.
Although the IRB did not openly declare they were socialist the public statements and the politics of their widely distributed newspaper The Irish People were most definitely inclined that way as they urged people to rally to Irish republicanism, to social justice, opposition to landlordism and end Catholic church domination in political affairs. Because of this, because of the largely working class and agrarian background of its membership, and their seeking of some form of common good, the I.R.B. were often labelled as Communist by their detractors. Indeed, Bishop Moriarity of Kerry declared that hell wasn’t hot enough, nor eternity long enough for them.
The following years saw popular movements demanding the release of Fenian prisoners in Ireland and abroad including support from the First International. The reorganisation of the IRB took place in Ireland and America. The rescue of Fenian prisoners from Australia occurred in 1876 in the Catalpa escape and a military campaign was conducted in England in the 1880’s. One of those arrested and imprisoned during that campaign was Tom Clarke, signatory of the 1916 Proclamation.
With its organisational and resource capabilities stretching from Ireland and around the world to the US and Australia and right into Britain itself, the IRB was viewed by the British state as al-Qaeda-esque in its day. Special legislation was introduced to try to deal with it, and the British Government formed what was known as the Counter-Revolutionary Secret Service Department while, in Scotland Yard, the Special Irish Branch, or Section D, later to become known as just the Special Branch, was established in attempts to counter the threat posed by the IRB.
There was also a major IRB influence in the development of the popular movement on land agitation and the campaign led by Michael Davitt. Davitt had suffered long term imprisonment for his Fenian activities and later returned to Ireland to found the Land League. Four of the 6 officers elected with him onto the Land League’s executive were active in the IRB.
The founding of the GAA was another IRB project and IRB members played a major role in developing the GAA in every one of the thirty two counties to assist the growth of national cultural reawakening.
Conradh na Gaelige, too, came under IRB influence. The revival of the concept of pride in language, culture and national identity was essential in the IRB’s strategy for strengthening separatist aspirations. The centenary commemorations of 1898 remembering the United Irishmen were controlled and organised by the IRB as another means of increasing the political consciousness of the Irish people and resisting the normalisation of the continued British presence.
The formation of Fianna Éireann provided an ideal recruiting ground for the IRB and finally, the Irish Volunteers, Óglaigh na hÉireann, provided the decisive link in the IRB’s long chain of organisational activities undertaken in preparation for the struggle for national independence.
PS O'Hegarty, who was a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB, traced the rise of all these associations to one and the same source, the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
He Said:
"It helped and guided the others, it co-ordinated and organized, and at the supreme moment it acted. . . . It had members everywhere, its tentacles went into everything, it maintained a footing in every organization and movement in Ireland which could be supported without doing violence to separatist principles. Everywhere it pushed separatist principles. . . . Strange and transient Committees and Societies were constantly cropping up, doing this and that specific national work. The IRB formed them. The IRB ran them. The IRB provided the money. The IRB dissolved them when their work was done."
There are lessons to be learned from the IRB, lessons which I know that éirígi have taken on board. éirígí, like the IRB, believes that electoral and parliamentary politics alone cannot deliver the type of change required in Irish society. The lessons of history indicate that the social, economic and political transformation of society in Ireland cannot be achieved without the active support and participation of the people.
The IRB recognised that various campaigns and initiatives had the potential to empower, to politicise and to mobilise the Irish people, to provide the dynamic needed for such a transformation. By similar campaigning today on political, social, economic and cultural issues, éirígí aims to help create a modern–day dynamic.
éirígí was formed during the ninetieth anniversary year of the 1916 Rising. Even the most cursory examination of Ireland today would confirm that the vision of those who took part in that Rising, or the vision of those in the IRB who created the fertile ground which made the Rising inevitable, has yet to be realised.
Ireland remains partitioned, British troops remain in the North, and the two partitionist administrations have created an Ireland that fosters inequality, greed and exploitation of our people and our natural resources for selfish and corporate gain rather an Ireland that cherishes all the children of the nation equally.
Indeed, those who participate in the two partitionist administrations appear to have more in common with the politics of William Martin Murphy than with James Connolly, or with John Redmond rather than Seán Mac Diarmada.
Those who founded the IRB were guided by the words of Fintan Lalor when he implored that “somewhere and somehow, and by somebody, a beginning must be made”. Those who founded éirígí have been similarly guided. That beginning has been made and the journey commenced in Dublin in 1858 has been re-embarked upon once more. I would ask that you actively join with éirígí on that journey as they follow in the footsteps of the Fenians.
28/05/08
The following is the text of speech given by Breandán Mac Cionnaith at a commemorative event for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, held by éirígí in Dublin, on March 15, 2008.
It outlines how and why the IRB formed and organised for one of the most revolutionary periods in Irish history, and how the activism of its volunteers encompassed the social, economic, political and cultural strands of struggle to the greatest effect.
After the great hunger of the 1840s, An Gorta Mór, Ireland found itself socially, economically and psychologically drained. The country had two overwhelming concerns: the struggle of its people to secure whatever little livelihood they had and the struggle for national independence from Britain.
These two struggles were to be played out, at times separately and at times jointly, during the rest of the 19th Century and into the 20th century with varying degrees of success. And intimately involved throughout the development and execution of those struggles was to be one organisation: The Irish Republican Brotherhood – The Fenians.
By St Patrick’s Day 1858, when James Stephens, Thomas Clarke Luby, Joseph Denieffe, Garret O’Shaughnessy and Peter Langan met together to form the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Lombard Street in Dublin, the Registrar General’s Office recorded that in the previous five decades almost three million people had emigrated from this country to escape persecution and repression, famine and poverty. The Irish diaspora were already scattered so far around the globe that they reached into both hemispheres.
It is little wonder that, as that meeting took place in Dublin, similar moves were afoot in America under the leadership of a close associate of those men, James O’ Mahoney.
The immediate origins of the IRB can be traced to the Young Ireland insurrection of 1848 in which Stephens, O’Mahony and others had actively participated. In its aftermath, they had escaped to France. There, the exiles came into contact with other European socialist and revolutionary movements and developed the notion of creating a pledge-bound, hand-picked, disciplined elite, a revived and improved version of the United Irishmen’s organisation which would act as the shock-troops of revolution in Ireland.
The Fenian organisation developed rapidly in both Ireland and overseas and O’Donovan Rossa was appointed the main organiser. A planned insurrection in 1867 had little chance of success. But despite its failure, the politics of the IRB, as exemplified by its 1867 proclamation, was basically radical and democratic, with a strong labour-movement content, including an appeal to the English working class for support. It was this radical trend which excluded no options in progressing their struggle that ensured an IRB influence upon all major events in the coming years.
Although the IRB did not openly declare they were socialist the public statements and the politics of their widely distributed newspaper The Irish People were most definitely inclined that way as they urged people to rally to Irish republicanism, to social justice, opposition to landlordism and end Catholic church domination in political affairs. Because of this, because of the largely working class and agrarian background of its membership, and their seeking of some form of common good, the I.R.B. were often labelled as Communist by their detractors. Indeed, Bishop Moriarity of Kerry declared that hell wasn’t hot enough, nor eternity long enough for them.
The following years saw popular movements demanding the release of Fenian prisoners in Ireland and abroad including support from the First International. The reorganisation of the IRB took place in Ireland and America. The rescue of Fenian prisoners from Australia occurred in 1876 in the Catalpa escape and a military campaign was conducted in England in the 1880’s. One of those arrested and imprisoned during that campaign was Tom Clarke, signatory of the 1916 Proclamation.
With its organisational and resource capabilities stretching from Ireland and around the world to the US and Australia and right into Britain itself, the IRB was viewed by the British state as al-Qaeda-esque in its day. Special legislation was introduced to try to deal with it, and the British Government formed what was known as the Counter-Revolutionary Secret Service Department while, in Scotland Yard, the Special Irish Branch, or Section D, later to become known as just the Special Branch, was established in attempts to counter the threat posed by the IRB.
There was also a major IRB influence in the development of the popular movement on land agitation and the campaign led by Michael Davitt. Davitt had suffered long term imprisonment for his Fenian activities and later returned to Ireland to found the Land League. Four of the 6 officers elected with him onto the Land League’s executive were active in the IRB.
The founding of the GAA was another IRB project and IRB members played a major role in developing the GAA in every one of the thirty two counties to assist the growth of national cultural reawakening.
Conradh na Gaelige, too, came under IRB influence. The revival of the concept of pride in language, culture and national identity was essential in the IRB’s strategy for strengthening separatist aspirations. The centenary commemorations of 1898 remembering the United Irishmen were controlled and organised by the IRB as another means of increasing the political consciousness of the Irish people and resisting the normalisation of the continued British presence.
The formation of Fianna Éireann provided an ideal recruiting ground for the IRB and finally, the Irish Volunteers, Óglaigh na hÉireann, provided the decisive link in the IRB’s long chain of organisational activities undertaken in preparation for the struggle for national independence.
PS O'Hegarty, who was a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB, traced the rise of all these associations to one and the same source, the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
He Said:
"It helped and guided the others, it co-ordinated and organized, and at the supreme moment it acted. . . . It had members everywhere, its tentacles went into everything, it maintained a footing in every organization and movement in Ireland which could be supported without doing violence to separatist principles. Everywhere it pushed separatist principles. . . . Strange and transient Committees and Societies were constantly cropping up, doing this and that specific national work. The IRB formed them. The IRB ran them. The IRB provided the money. The IRB dissolved them when their work was done."
There are lessons to be learned from the IRB, lessons which I know that éirígi have taken on board. éirígí, like the IRB, believes that electoral and parliamentary politics alone cannot deliver the type of change required in Irish society. The lessons of history indicate that the social, economic and political transformation of society in Ireland cannot be achieved without the active support and participation of the people.
The IRB recognised that various campaigns and initiatives had the potential to empower, to politicise and to mobilise the Irish people, to provide the dynamic needed for such a transformation. By similar campaigning today on political, social, economic and cultural issues, éirígí aims to help create a modern–day dynamic.
éirígí was formed during the ninetieth anniversary year of the 1916 Rising. Even the most cursory examination of Ireland today would confirm that the vision of those who took part in that Rising, or the vision of those in the IRB who created the fertile ground which made the Rising inevitable, has yet to be realised.
Ireland remains partitioned, British troops remain in the North, and the two partitionist administrations have created an Ireland that fosters inequality, greed and exploitation of our people and our natural resources for selfish and corporate gain rather an Ireland that cherishes all the children of the nation equally.
Indeed, those who participate in the two partitionist administrations appear to have more in common with the politics of William Martin Murphy than with James Connolly, or with John Redmond rather than Seán Mac Diarmada.
Those who founded the IRB were guided by the words of Fintan Lalor when he implored that “somewhere and somehow, and by somebody, a beginning must be made”. Those who founded éirígí have been similarly guided. That beginning has been made and the journey commenced in Dublin in 1858 has been re-embarked upon once more. I would ask that you actively join with éirígí on that journey as they follow in the footsteps of the Fenians.