Patsy Duffy Commemoration
The following is the main oration read by Martin Rafferty of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, at this years IRA Volunteer Patsy Duffy commemoration in Derry.
Standing here today paying our respect on the 47th anniversary of the assassination of volunteer Patsy Duffy, gives us not only the opportunity to remember and show our respect for Patsy and all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Irish freedom, but also for republicans of today to assess our own contribution to the struggle.
Today we find ourselves in the doldrums where the struggle seems to be going nowhere, stagnated and in a state of disarray, with too many good republicans leaving the stage seeing no way forward to achieve the goals Patsy and so many others gave their lives for.
In Palestine today they are in the eye of the storm. The Zionist state, like the brits, is using every tactic in the colonial handbook to try and break the will of the Palestinian people.
Brutal violence, divide and conquer tactics, bribery, starvation, displacement, clearing of the lands. This list reads like the pages from our own history here in Ireland under British occupation, not what is being inflicted on our brothers and sisters in Palestine today.
On top of this we have those who proclaim to be the peacemakers of the world, attempting to give moral and political cover to the Zionist state of Israel being totally complicit in the ongoing genocide.
Only last week we had the disgraceful decision of the United Nations to endorse Donald Trump's so-called 20-point peace plan for Gaza, this after Britain and other colonial states pledge to recognise a Palestinian state.
Don't be fooled, this is just another tactic the colonial powers use in trying to break the will of a nation.
Nowhere in Trump’s or Britain's plans does it mention a sovereign or independent Palestine state.
Just like in the border poll or the Good Friday agreement, it does not mention what kind of Ireland the British will ”allow” the Irish people to have if a border poll is successful here, and in Palestine the colonisers want to be the ones to decide on what kind of state the people of Palestine will have.
We here in Ireland understand how the Palestinian people keep going in their struggle under such violence and cruelty because our histories are intertwined.
When our ancestors refused to take the soup as they lay starving at the hands of the British, that was an act of resistance that planted the seeds for future generations of our people to carry on the struggle for our independence and sovereignty.
Today in Palestine, when it looks like there is no hope, the people are refusing to take the soup. They are planting the seeds for future generations to carry on the struggle. When all seems lost they, like our ancestors, are refusing to lose hope.
For our part as Republicans here today in Ireland we may not be facing the brutal tactics of previous generations but our responsibilities as Republicans are no less great .
We are tasked with the tremendous responsibility of laying the seeds for future generations to carry on the struggle for sovereignty and self-determination. What we say and do today will have profound ramifications for the future generations.
Too many former Republicans now speak like the coloniser, think like the coloniser and act like the coloniser.
I have a message to you, you'll never be accepted by your coloniser.
For our part we must decolonise our own minds. We need to look at ourselves and ask ourselves, what have I done as an individual to create the situation where we find the struggle in the doldrums? And how can I as a Republican decolonise my mind and be fit to be part of a movement that lays the seeds for future generations to carry on the struggle?
