Óglach Ronán MacLochlainn 28th Anniversary
Yesterday, Sunday May 3rd, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement held the 28th anniversary commemoration for IRA Volunteer Ronán MacLochlainn.
The event was chaired by Francie Mackey, national chairman of the 32CSM, and the main oration read by Anto Davidson of the Belfast Tone/McCracken cumann. A laurel wreath was laid on behalf of the sovereignty movement by veteran Republican, and president of the 32CSM, Phil O’Donoghue.
A new stone was commissioned after the original weathered over the years, becoming illegible. The new stone was officially unveiled by Dermot Ryan.
The following is the main oration read on the day.
IRA Volunteer Ronan McLoughlin gave his life in the pursuit of a democratic sovereign republic for the people of the 32 Counties of Ireland. His military activism was predicated on the same legitimacy as those who fought in 1798, 1803, 1848, 1866, 1916, 1919, 1939, 1956, 1969, 1997 and those who continue, and will continue, until the violation of our national sovereignty by the Westminster Parliament is ended.
The revolutionary ideas which preceded these armed expressions of national sovereignty served as a direct counterpoint to political arrangements made between the British occupier and indigenous Irish elements which solidified the occupation.
We often speak of the physical force tradition in terms of resistance to British rule but we must also evaluate armed struggle as a direct consequence of the actions of establishment nationalists who continue in their own tradition of sanitising that rule.
Those who lay the charge at our door that Irish republicans have no strategy to achieve our aims must be met with the counter argument that we are the very embodiment of their failure, as were all those who inevitably evolved in history before us, as definitive proof of this salient fact. In essence the physical force tradition is an imposition on the Irish people by those who most vehemently oppose it, be the British or Irish.
And just as establishment nationalists will continue to seek the normalisation of British rule in our country it is now the task of Irish republicans to rationalise to the Irish people why that rule must end. The issue of national sovereignty must now be articulated in its totality so that our people fully realise how fundamentally important it is for them and our country.
Our right to a sovereign democracy has been clearly articulated throughout the generations. That right has been carried forward as the bedrock of revolutionary ideas and acts prosecuted by those generations. But it is only the right which is necessarily carried forward, each generation is entitled to adopt its own tactics relevant to the political circumstances of their time. Our efforts must be focussed on what we can do rather than on what others have previously done.
The Republican Movement cannot secure its primary objective on its own. It can never be the function of Irish republicanism to simply exist, nor is it the purview of any group or set of individuals to claim that they are the Republican Movement. We must make strategic alliances with those who equally seek national change albeit for different priorities that are relevant to them.
A sovereign democracy belongs to all, politically active or not, and it is incumbent on the Republican Movement to engage with these resources and to convince them that the republic we envisage encompasses the solutions for the issues and rights most concerning to them.
There exists within republicanism an irrational distrust of politics and political activity evidently sourced from the various betrayals and departures that it has suffered. It’s irrational because republicanism is about politics and it’s irrational because republicanism is confronted by politics. It was the lack of political acumen within republicanism which permitted both the betrayals and ideological departures to take place.
The republican objective needs to be expressed politically and republicans need to fully understand it if we wish to both effectively promote and defend it. Defining this expression in a clear and concise manner has proved problematic for republicans. Invariably definitions were applied to unsuccessfully prevent further betrayal and compromise thus reducing republican politics to a set of do’s and don’ts, obsessed with betrayal, as opposed to a dynamic ideology attractive to people and capable of securing its objective.
Equally, in giving republican politics a poor definition the scope of activity to pursue it was greatly narrowed leading to further marginalisation and disagreement amongst republicans as how best to move forward. Irish republicanism was beginning to be defined by shouting aloud what it wasn’t as opposed to implementing what it represents in as broad a field as possible. Republicanism cannot move forward armed with a list of negatives. Republican unity cannot be achieved with insular thinking.
Beir Bua!
