Mary Lou McDonald’s address at Sinn Féin’s annual Easter Rising Commemoration in Carrickmore, Co Tyrone

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD this afternoon addressed the party’s annual Easter Rising commemoration in Carrickmore in Tyrone.

The full text of Ms McDonald’s address can be read below:

Introduction

Inniu, thar thríocha a dó contae na hÉireann, seasfaidh Poblachtánaigh ag suíomhanna beannaithe le comóradh a dhéanamh ar Éirí Amach na Cásca in 1916, agus le hómós a thabhairt do na glúnta ar fad a thug a mbeatha ar son saoirse agus náisiúntacht na hÉireann.

Cuimhnímid ar an stair agus féachaimid i dtreo na todhchaí, agus sinn tiomanta aisling laochra na Poblachta a fhíorú, le fís an fhorógra a bhaint amach, le hÉirinn Aontaithe a bhaint amach agus fíorPhoblacht a bhaint amach do chách.

A chairde, 

I am honoured to be in Carrickmore to commemorate the event that changed the course of Irish history – the Easter Rising of 1916.

When Irish men and women went out to overthrow Britain’s imperial grasp on this country and establish an independent Irish republic. 

Those brave volunteers struck a blow for Irish liberty that reverberated around the world and across the generations. 

Like the Fenians and the United Irishmen before them, they attested the right of our ancient nation to be free. 

Ordinary men and women who did the extraordinary because they believed in Ireland and her people.

The vision of the Irish Republic is captured powerfully in the Proclamation. An Ireland underpinned by civic liberty, economic justice, democracy, and equality.

The Proclamation is not a parchment from the past. It’s a clarion call to the future, the mission statement for this generation of Irish Republicans to fulfil the dream of 1916 and fulfil it we will.

Moore Street

Every nation that fought for independence has its sacred soil. A short walk from the GPO where Pádraig Pearse first read aloud the Proclamation you come to the Moore Street area, the final Battlefield site of the Rising.

Today, Taoiseach Michéal Martin and his government back a British property developer’s plan to forever destroy this historic area. Shame on them. He should instead back the Masterplan of the Moore Street Preservation Trust and the 1916 relatives. A plan that enhances our revolutionary history instead of tearing it down for profit. The Trust is fighting this obscenity through the courts. We stand with them. The fight to save the Easter Rising battlefield site is far from over.

This history belongs to us all. The aspiration of Easter week resounded across all of Ireland. The call was heard here in Carrickmore where sixty volunteers, assembled to take part in the rebellion, ready to fight for the Republic. The Rising was largely funded by the work of Joe McGarrity and Dr Pat McCartan in the US, proud sons of Carrickmore.

From the O’Neills, to Tom Clarke, to Martin Hurson, the revolutionary heritage of Tyrone inspires, and the soil of this proud county holds the grave of countless rebels who we honour today.

The Legacy of the Rising 

When the British executed the Leaders of the Rising, they believed they had extinguished the desire for freedom. 

They were wrong. 

The dream of the Proclamation inspired the Flying Columns of the IRA in the fight against the Black & Tans, galvanised those volunteers who stood by the Republic through the tragedy of the Civil War, and soared in the hearts of our gallant H-block hunger strikers.

The counter revolution ultimately saw Ireland partitioned and the establishment of two conservative states. 

Partition sowed division, kept the nationalist people down, saw their demand for civil rights ruthlessly suppressed and planted the seeds of a long conflict. 

Tyrone – the beating heart of Irish Nationhood 

This year marks one hundred years since the Boundary Commission that copper-fastened partition. A century ago, people in Tyrone and across the six counties woke up on their farmlands, in their towns and villages, cut off from the rest of Ireland, excluded and abandoned, annexed by Britain.

Treated as second class citizens, you faced prejudice, discrimination, and conflict but you carried on in hope of peace, unity, and freedom. Your resilience, your resolve to vindicate your rights as Irish people endured. 

If, as Liam Mellows said, ‘a nation is a living, breathing thing’ then the Irish nation has lived and breathed through the resilience of the people of Tyrone.

We see that same resilience and strength today in the families of Seán Brown and Pat Finucane, in their courageous fight for the truth. Justice delayed is justice denied. The British Government must accept the unequivocal ruling of the High Court and grant a full public inquiry into the murder of Seán Brown.

Time and again, the nationalist people have shown the tenacity to overcome, to build the peace, to reach for true reconciliation and a new future.

Maybe it was meant to be that the first Nationalist to lead the Executive is a woman from Tyrone. Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister for all who is determined to make politics work for everyone.

Twenty-seven years after the Good Friday Agreement, the North is a very different place.  Together, communities are building a future of hope and progress for everyone.

We see this new, inclusive future forming in the advances in Irish language rights. We see it too in the passion of northern Gael’s for our national games. Let me be clear. Casement Park must be built. Casement Park will be built.

Irish Unity 

Together, we have built peace. Now, we write the next chapter of our nation’s story – the reunification of Ireland. 

This is a time of great change. We are living in the end days of partition as a new generation looks to the possibilities of unity with fresh hearts. The conversation is live, happening in real time.

We must prepare for Unity referendums this decade. 

We have work to do. We must build alliances across all sections of society. We must drive positive, persuasive campaigns in every corner of this island. We must prepare to win these referendums and win them well.

Our job now is to keep the momentum going, to expand the conversation, to convince even more people. 

We must build that momentum here at home, in Britain, North America and in Europe. The Presidential Election will take place in November. The President is President for all the people of Ireland, so we again call for the extension of voting rights in the Presidential Election to Irish citizens in the north and to the diaspora overseas.

Building a new and united Ireland is the most important task for a generation. It’s not good enough for Taoiseach Micheál Martin to stick his head in the sand and stand against the momentum for unity.

To the Irish and the British governments, we say – the days of treading water are over. It’s time to plan and prepare for constitutional change and for reunification. 
The next step must be for the Irish government to establish a Citizen’s Assembly on Irish Unity.

Our message to Unionists is clear – the United Ireland we seek belongs every bit as much to the families of Dungannon as it does to the families of Carrickmore, every bit as much to the families of Tyrone as the families of Dublin, Cork, and Galway.

A United Ireland is about everyone. 

A United Ireland is for everyone.

So, let’s plan and prepare for that future. One island, one Ireland, one people united, moving forward together.

Neutrality

Our goal is to see a United Ireland take its rightful place amongst the nations of the world. A nation true to the values of the Irish people -opposition to the mantra that might is right, to war, to imperialism, upholding the ideals of international justice and peace, principles illuminated by the motto of James Connolly’s Irish Citizens Army – ‘We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland’.

Ireland’s military neutrality is now under attack from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We will fight back against this at every turn.

Neutrality is the foundation upon which Ireland champions engagement, dialogue, and the primacy of human rights in the world. 

If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are so confident that their plan to dismantle Ireland’s cherished neutrality has the support of the public, then they should put it to the people. They will get their answer.

Palestine/Gaza 

Our struggle for nationhood is the struggle of a people longing for the freedom of our homeland. That is the dream of the Palestinians too. Today, they endure genocide at the hands of Israel’s war machine.

Children slaughtered, entire families wiped-out, a nation being annihilated before the eyes of the world.

This atrocity is backed and funded by the US, the EU and Britain. It’s the result of the carte blanche of impunity gifted to Israel by the international community. 

The Irish people know well the damaging legacy of colonialization, dispossession, and oppression. 

What Irish man or woman worthy of the name could do anything but stand with the Palestinians?

In the cries of Palestinian children, in the heartbreak of Palestinian mothers and fathers, we hear the call of humanity itself – for justice, for peace, for freedom.

Israel will not stop until it’s made to stop – so the international Community must act. Israel must be sanctioned.

The Irish people will never stop raising our voices for a permanent ceasefire, for an end to the slaughter, for an end to apartheid, for an end to the occupation. Palestine will endure. Palestine will live on. Palestine will be free.

Recharging Republican activism – building Sinn Féin

Friends, our journey to a new, united Ireland, to a thirty-two county Republic, is a journey we walk together. Political struggle has its breakthroughs and its setbacks. Following the General Election in the South, we didn’t end up where we hoped to be, but we returned the biggest group of Sinn Féin TDs since the historic election of 1918.

So many people depend on us.

The grubby deal done between Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and Michael Lowry shows what we’re up against. It proves the words of Liam Mellows prophetic.

“Men will get into positions, men will hold power, and men who get into positions and hold power will desire to remain undisturbed and will not want to be removed…”

But we will hold this do-nothing government to account, we’ll fight the corner of ordinary workers and young people – for housing, for healthcare, for a secure, affordable life and for a decent future in their own country.

Here in the north, there is a strengthening realisation – growing beyond the national community – that the British government doesn’t care about those who live here. Their decision to pump billions into weapons of war while stripping back vital public services shows again that the future lies in a United Ireland.

And we can do it. We can make it happen.

Just look at how much we’ve already achieved together. We’ve ended the decades old Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael monopoly, becoming the largest Opposition in the Dáil. We’re the largest party in the Assembly and in local government in the North. For the first time ever, we’ve a Republican First Minister in a state designed to ensure this would never happen.

All of this has been achieved by Irish republican activists who never gave up, never gave in, and kept their eyes on the prize.

So, now is the time to recharge republican activism for the road ahead. We must put our energy into building our capacity, building republican politics, convincing even more people to play their part.

I invite everyone here today to join Sinn Féin. Come on board, bring who you are to the table. Become a Republican activist. Help us to unite Ireland. Help us achieve the Republic.

Conclusion – Here we stand for the Republic 

A chairde, the patriots we honour today gave their all for the freedom of Ireland, for unity, for justice, for equality. 

It falls to this generation to take up their mantle and fulfil their legacy. 

To stand in the bhearna bhaoil and with courage reach for a United Ireland.

Speaking in a British military court following the Rising, Thomas McDonagh declared that the Proclamation cannot die.

It lives today in every effort we make to realise its noble ideals.

And so here we stand together.

Here we stand intent to finish the business of 1916.

Here we stand for the day when we will commemorate our patriots in a United and free Ireland.

So, let’s work day and night to fulfil the dream of Connolly and Pearse, of Hurson and Farrell, of McGuinness and O’Hare. 

Hold tightly to your hopes, to your beliefs, to your determination. Never, ever give up. We will see the rising of the moon. We will unite Ireland, we will build a society where workers and families come first, and together we will achieve the Republic of 1916.