Reclaiming the Republic in West Belfast

[RisenBelfast]

Reclaiming the Republic in West Belfast

20/06/08

Hundreds of homes in the Lenadoon area received 1916 Proclamations on Thursday evening (June 19) as part of an effort to promote the political ideas that led to the Easter Rising.

More than a dozen éirígí activists and supporters, many of them local residents, took part in the initiative and were encouraged by the response they met on the doorsteps.

The Proclamation distribution is part of éirígí’s ‘Reclaim the Republic’ campaign that has so far seen thousands of the famous documents delivered throughout Ireland, free of charge.

In Dublin alone, nearly 70,000 Proclamations have been given out in the last two years.

In Belfast every home in the St James’s and Short Strand areas had a Proclamation of the Irish Republic delivered through their letter-box at the end of April while the homes in Lenadoon received a copy on Thursday.

http://eirigi.org/images/procdrop_lenadoon03.jpg

Belfast chairperson of éirígí, Rab Jackson, said it was the aim of the party to ensure every republican home in Belfast receives a Proclamation.

“I think this is a very exciting initiative. While nearly everybody in Ireland will have heard about the Easter Rising, it is vitally important to promote an understanding of what the Rising was about and there is no better way to do this than to encourage people to study afresh, or for the first time, the content of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

“The reaction in the areas where we have delivered Proclamations so far – St James’s, the Short Strand and Lenadoon – has been unanimously positive.’

“In the time ahead we intend to make sure every republican in Belfast has the opportunity to receive one.”

Rab continued: “Bernadette McAliskey once said that ‘There is nothing more dangerous than an oppressed people who acquire the weapons of education and organisation.’

“That is exactly what the Reclaim the Republic campaign is all about. We must collectively re-educate ourselves through the politics of the Proclamation and recommit ourselves to achieving the goals contained in it.

“We in éirígí intend to play our part in the time ahead in organising against the ills that continue to confront the people of west Belfast and working class communities across this country.”

If you would like to receive a free-copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, send an email to eirigibealfeirste@googlemail.com.





http://eirigi.org/latest/latest200608(03)print.html

But good news for the begrudgers, the eirigi activists got soaked.

[RisenBelfast]

Text of leaflet distributed with Proclamations:

A Chara,
In April 1916, hundreds of Irish men and women – young and old – took armed control of our capital city, proclaimed the Republic and read aloud a document that would change the course of Irish history forever.
The Proclamation they drafted and the sacrifice they made has been the benchmark by which the Irish people have been able to check the progress of our society in the decades since. It remains the litmus test of Irish republicanism and the checklist of liberty in Ireland.
Belfast has a proud and long standing revolutionary history and the Proclamation is as much about Belfast as it is about every other community in Ireland.
However, the Belfast of today, like the Ireland of today, is rife with the very conditions the martyrs of 1916 died trying to change – poverty, inequality, exploitation, violence and occupation. The aspirations of the Proclamation remain unachieved.
One in three children live in poverty, our hospitals are run on the basis of profit and not need and our schools, particularly our gaelscoileanna, are criminally under-funded. Every working class family in the city struggles daily with the grind of crippling mortgages, rents and rates, ruthless employers, and sub standard community conditions.
Meanwhile, the British occupation, of which the RUC-PSNI is a vital part, has been modernised and streamlined.
British spies housed in the enormous new MI5 base on the fringes of our city watch over and control our society. The RUC has changed its name to the PSNI, yet has retained all of the lethal weaponry and the personnel responsible for the deaths of so many, along with its pro-British ethos. The misnamed British justice system continues to fail the victims of their brutal regime and the RUC-PSNI relish in the downward spiral of our once strong community ethos. To add insult to an already massive injury, the British army has 5,000 troops stationed in 10 bases across the northeast of Ireland, to be used at will.
What peace is this?
The British government and their wealthy backers currently sleep safe in the knowledge that opposition to their presence and policies in Ireland has been stifled.
And the vulnerable working class nationalist communities who endured years of struggle to build a new society continue to be discriminated against in employment and housing, and are now ringed by so called peace-lines, which open every year to facilitate the march of Orange Order bands and their bigoted cohorts through our districts.
We in éirígí want to change all of that.
We believe that peace, happiness and prosperity for the Irish people can only be secured by the implementation of the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation and the removal of the British presence in all its forms. We believe that a unionist veto over part of our island is anti- democratic and unjust. We believe that the people of Belfast deserve to live free from exploitation by employers, landlords and the unionist bully boys of the British maintained Stormont government.
No one organisation can hope to do this alone. It is up to every woman and man in this country to build the Republic and a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. For the Proclamation to be realised, it will take the participation of the communities, who have fought against oppression for decades.
éirígí believes that everyone needs to read the Proclamation afresh and recommit ourselves in whatever way we can to realising the dream for which generation after generation of Irish people have struggled and died – Freedom!
“Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.” – Bobby Sands

[Seán1798]

Yes hooray for the foreign kings beloved by the Pope, King Charles and King James, and any other eejits that Irish tyrants made us fight for in "the last 300 years"

Get a grip on history ffs and stop speading out lies to the people.

[RisenBelfast]

Yes hooray for the foreign kings beloved by the Pope, King Charles and King James, and any other eejits that Irish tyrants made us fight for in "the last 300 years"

Get a grip on history ffs and stop speading out lies to the people.

http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/images/2006/02/Troll.jpg

:slap:

[conghaileach]

Yes hooray for the foreign kings beloved by the Pope, King Charles and King James, and any other eejits that Irish tyrants made us fight for in "the last 300 years"

Get a grip on history ffs and stop speading out lies to the people.

Is there any part in particular that you object to?

[Seán1798]

Is there any part in particular that you object to?

Yeah the bit that claims the efforts of the 1600's as an Irish National liberation struggle. It was nothing of the sort, hence the mention of the two overseas Kings in my last post. Them feudal bastards were utter cvnts and our Pope loving Geraldine and Gaelic owners backing them up brought Cromwell and King Billy down our heads and all that went with that.

I don't see why they should be whitewashed as if they were Irish Republican patriots they were the very opposite. If people were going to be given a proclamation of the Republic to read then the second one is far better than the third one IMO

[RisenBelfast]

Yeah the bit that claims the efforts of the 1600's as an Irish National liberation struggle. It was nothing of the sort, hence the mention of the two overseas Kings in my last post. Them feudal bastards were utter cvnts and our Pope loving Geraldine and Gaelic owners backing them up brought Cromwell and King Billy down our heads and all that went with that.

I don't see why they should be whitewashed as if they were Irish Republican patriots they were the very opposite. If people were going to be given a proclamation of the Republic to read then the second one is far better than the third one IMO

wtf are you on about. That section of the Proclamation only states fact:

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms.

It's a statement of fact and not support of monarchy or popery as your biased mind is trying to spin it.

Your trolling is getting tedious. You are just a pointless contrarian.

[Seán1798]

wtf are you on about. That section of the Proclamation only states fact:

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms.

It's a statement of fact and not support of monarchy or popery as your biased mind is trying to spin it.

Your trolling is getting tedious. You are just a pointless contrarian.

But it wasn't the Irish people and nor was it for National Freedom it was for foreign Kings. So it isn't a statement of fact it's a pure myth.

[RisenBelfast]

Excuse me, I've given the text you are attempting to spin as support for popery and monarchy, the exact words:

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms.

Your contrarian spin doesn't work against the facts.

[Seán1798]

Excuse me, I've given the text you are attempting to spin as support for popery and monarchy, the exact words:

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms.

Your contrarian spin doesn't work against the facts.

I'm pointing it out as an indication of a very poor and lacking understanding of Irish history and the cause of the common man in this land. I am not saying that it shows a support for monarchy or popery. (Although tbh there were plenty of catholics and royalists involved in the drafting of it)

Anyone who thinks that the cause of the Catholic Confederacy or the Jacobite cause stood for either the Irish people or National freedom wants their heads examined. It's pure mythology to try and portray the feckers responsible as Irish heroes of the people. That's all I'm saying about it.

[neilhere]

This is a great initative being undertaken by Eirigi! What exactly is that you are doing Sean1798 that gives you a right to continually find faults with what others are doing?

[RisenBelfast]

Sean,

You said:

Yes hooray for the foreign kings beloved by the Pope, King Charles and King James, and any other eejits that Irish tyrants made us fight for in "the last 300 years"

Get a grip on history ffs and stop speading out lies to the people.

You are stepping back from that. Fine.

But it was just contrarian manipulation of fact. No one endorsed monarchy or papist imperialism through the proclamation. It recognised the historical nature of the liberation struggle in Ireland.

[RisenBelfast]

This is a great initative being undertaken by Eirigi! What exactly is that you are doing Sean1798 that gives you a right to continually find faults with what others are doing?

He's a contrarian. Finding fault is what they do. Its better known as trolling.

[Seán1798]

Sean,

You said:



You are stepping back from that. Fine.

But it was just contrarian manipulation of fact. No one endorsed monarchy or papist imperialism through the proclamation. It recognised the historical nature of the liberation struggle in Ireland.

No it's crossed wires lol My first post was sarcastic cheering for the Jacobites and Catholic Confederacy. I think those people were utter feudal cvnts, I don't like seeing them respected. Worse than or as bad as King Billy or Cromwell IMO. I was pointing out that the 1916 proclamation gives a false view of history. I prefer the one from 1867 by a long shot. The liberation struggle can only be claimed by Tone and the United Irishmen and those who have followed and none who came before.

[RisenBelfast]

What do you mean by the 1867 one? The three points? Nothing inspiring there.

[Seán1798]

This is a great initative being undertaken by Eirigi! What exactly is that you are doing Sean1798 that gives you a right to continually find faults with what others are doing?

The right of free fvcken speech that's what gives me the right.

What Eirigi did with the flag and locking the embassy was top notch. On account of that I'm surprised to see them doing this and so I'm saying so.

[Seán1798]

What do you mean by the 1867 one? The three points? Nothing inspiring there.

The Irish People of the World

We have suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to loss of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers.

Our mildest remonstrance's were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful.

Today, having no honourable alternative left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue an existence of utter serfdom.

All men are born with equal rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it.

We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour.

The soil of Ireland, at present in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored.

We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State.

We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs.

Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. Let your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty.

Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.

The Provisional Government.


It's way better IMO, it's fully secular, internationalist and labour related and furthermore it recognises the oligarchy and the Irish locusts that persist to this day. It also gives a better account of history than the 1916 one.

[on the one road]

pha emmets proclomation was the best.

[Seán1798]

pha emmets proclomation was the best.

I'm ashamed I didn't know Emmet had even proclaimed The Republic tbh, do you have it handy by any chance?

[FTA69]

Emmet also had a programme including land re-distribution and the seperation of church and state. Although the education system ususally preferred to concentrate on his last speech (containing no real politics) while ignoring the revolutionary message he proclaimed.

The 1916 Proclamation is a great document, it asserts all the ideal for which we should be striving; Irish independence, an end to sectarian division and an equal society for all. The fact it mentions God in it or whatever does not negate these facts; dismissing the document out of hand because of that reason is simply nit-picking and as RB said, contrarianism.

[on the one road]

I'm ashamed I didn't know Emmet had even proclaimed The Republic tbh, do you have it handy by any chance?

enjoy

http://www.wsm.ie/news_viewer/1810

[inchicore_republican]

Not matter what people do there is always some one giving out.Fair play to the lads who gave out the proclamations in West Belfast.

[Seán1798]

Not matter what people do there is always some one giving out.Fair play to the lads who gave out the proclamations in West Belfast.

The reason I gave out about the faulty reading of history enshrined in the 1916 proclamation is that it is not only historically wrong it is divisive.

It's no more likely to Unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman than an Orange Parade. I don't really expect Catholics to see that but I'd have thought Eirigi had an eye to Unity and would box more clever. That is all.

[Seán1798]

enjoy

http://www.wsm.ie/news_viewer/1810

Thanks one road, it's some plan of action he had, I'd seen it before and not actually realised it was the Republic proclaimed.

[on the one road]

it's good all right. but on your previous posts does one historical inaccrucy take away from the general flow of liberty equality and fraternaty you get in the 1916 proclamation and the others as well? i agree with you that distributing the 1916 proclamation will not unite catholic protestant and disenter but what one act will? a collection of acts might(dfferent argument) but how and ever

[focail amhain]

At the time when the United Irishmen were formed Presbyterians in Ireland were discriminated against which was precisely the reason why Tone could identify with the native catholic population. He recognized the potential for a political alliance encompassing Catholics and Presbyterians in a mass struggle to overthrow the monarchy in favour of a republic. Unfortunately, this all changed after the Act of Union in 1800 and the onset of the industrial revolution, which was confined largely to those parts of the north where the protestant population enjoyed more favourable terms of land tenure, and where they were not subject to the anti-catholic strictures of the Penal Laws. The political repositioning of the Presbyterians, who were the leaders of the United Irishmen, can be dated from the time of the Union onwards.

By the time of the Easter Rising most protestants in Ireland were opposed to independence because it was no longer in their interests. The Proclamation, whilst true to the spirit of Tone, appealed to the vast majority of the Irish people who wanted to break the connection with Britain.

[Seán1798]

it's good all right. but on your previous posts does one historical inaccrucy take away from the general flow of liberty equality and fraternaty you get in the 1916 proclamation and the others as well?

Well the 1916 Proclamation is just fine but for the second paragraph. It makes a claim on a faulty understanding of history and a myth that the desire for nationhood pre-dated the 18th c. and the United Irish. Such an understanding, if it is widely accepted, encourages the notion that the Catholic Cause is the Irish Cause.

Also that paragraph, in citing support from the Irish People, ignores the fact that perhaps the equal oppressors and betrayers of the Irish people have been Irish people. It is a paragraph that embraces the Irish landlords and 'aristocratic locusts' as much as it embraces the common man. As we know from what happened in the wake of 1916 these Irish People were the very ones who betrayed the common man.

If we're going to encourage people to examine Republican history and embrace it, and I think that is what Eirigi were quite rightly attempting, then it seems there are better examples to offer than the 1916 proclamation and the sectarianism that is implicit in its reading of history.

i agree with you that distributing the 1916 proclamation will not unite catholic protestant and disenter but what one act will? a collection of acts might(dfferent argument) but how and ever

I agree and don't think any one act will create United Irishmen but acts that pull in the opposite direction should be discouraged IMO