redflag32
02-04-2008, 04:46 PM
25 years on, we are no closer to achieving the goals of a 32 County Workers’ Republic. The world in which Neil lived is long gone and the political landscape has changed significantly. But some things remain the same; the role of British imperialism in Ireland has not changed. Sean McGowan deliveres oration at a commemoration in Derry on the 25th Anniversary of INLA Volunteer Neil McMonagle's murder by the SAS.
Friends and comrades,
It’s an honour to have been asked to speak here today on behalf of the youth movement on this, the 25th Anniversary of Neil McMonagle’s murder.
25 years on, we are no closer to achieving the goals of a 32 County Workers’ Republic. The world in which Neil lived is long gone and the political landscape has changed significantly. But some things remain the same; the role of British imperialism in Ireland has not changed. It continues to play the same active role in the usurpation of the Irish peoples’ democratic rights and is aided by the Irish middle and ruling classes. As James Connolly wrote in 1914, “Ruling by fooling is a great British art—with great Irish fools to practice on.”
The most conservative of observers can see that British imperialist history in Ireland is peppered with revolutionaries like Neil McMonagle, cut down in their prime for resisting a cruel and murderous system that is driven by the pursuit of profit rife with exploitation.
Britain has yet to come clean on the shoot to kill policy and if Britain truly was and continues to be an impartial observer to a sectarian, tribal conflict keeping the peace between warring sectarian factions, then why would the armed wing of the British ruling class, namely the SAS gun down a 23 year old man in this city?
But not just INLA Volunteer Neil McMonagle, PIRA Volunteer’s William Fleming and Danny Docherty, 14 Civilians on Bloody Sunday and countless others. British imperialism is far from impartial; it is far from fair or just. We just need to look at other parts of the world to see the profit led agenda of the British ruling class, in Iraq in particular. Again, they try to assert themselves as peace keepers keeping sectarian factions apart. No doubt sectarianism is rife in Iraq, but the tensions boiled over when the British and Americans carved up sectarian interests between those willing to collaborate with them. This is not a million miles from what we see closer to home at Stormont.
I’d like to appeal to the people assembled here today, especially the younger people. I’d encourage them to do what Neil did, to take a stand, get active and to help pave the road ahead for the Irish working class.
I’d just like to finish by quoting the oration given on the day of Neil’s funeral, “Neil McMonagle had never understood the meaning of cowardice, and that the Kitsonian tactic of eliminating Republican activists would prove as useless as internment, brutal interrogations, H-Blocks, non-jury courts, rubber bullets and supergrasses. For in the end the will of the people will be revealed, for that will is embodied in the minds and hearts of people like Neil McMonagle."
Friends and comrades,
It’s an honour to have been asked to speak here today on behalf of the youth movement on this, the 25th Anniversary of Neil McMonagle’s murder.
25 years on, we are no closer to achieving the goals of a 32 County Workers’ Republic. The world in which Neil lived is long gone and the political landscape has changed significantly. But some things remain the same; the role of British imperialism in Ireland has not changed. It continues to play the same active role in the usurpation of the Irish peoples’ democratic rights and is aided by the Irish middle and ruling classes. As James Connolly wrote in 1914, “Ruling by fooling is a great British art—with great Irish fools to practice on.”
The most conservative of observers can see that British imperialist history in Ireland is peppered with revolutionaries like Neil McMonagle, cut down in their prime for resisting a cruel and murderous system that is driven by the pursuit of profit rife with exploitation.
Britain has yet to come clean on the shoot to kill policy and if Britain truly was and continues to be an impartial observer to a sectarian, tribal conflict keeping the peace between warring sectarian factions, then why would the armed wing of the British ruling class, namely the SAS gun down a 23 year old man in this city?
But not just INLA Volunteer Neil McMonagle, PIRA Volunteer’s William Fleming and Danny Docherty, 14 Civilians on Bloody Sunday and countless others. British imperialism is far from impartial; it is far from fair or just. We just need to look at other parts of the world to see the profit led agenda of the British ruling class, in Iraq in particular. Again, they try to assert themselves as peace keepers keeping sectarian factions apart. No doubt sectarianism is rife in Iraq, but the tensions boiled over when the British and Americans carved up sectarian interests between those willing to collaborate with them. This is not a million miles from what we see closer to home at Stormont.
I’d like to appeal to the people assembled here today, especially the younger people. I’d encourage them to do what Neil did, to take a stand, get active and to help pave the road ahead for the Irish working class.
I’d just like to finish by quoting the oration given on the day of Neil’s funeral, “Neil McMonagle had never understood the meaning of cowardice, and that the Kitsonian tactic of eliminating Republican activists would prove as useless as internment, brutal interrogations, H-Blocks, non-jury courts, rubber bullets and supergrasses. For in the end the will of the people will be revealed, for that will is embodied in the minds and hearts of people like Neil McMonagle."