New Year Message 22/23

Firstly we would like to send new year greetings to our republican and socialist comrades throughout Ireland and further afield. We send fraternal greetings to all the peoples seeking liberation around the world. Lastly we send our best wishes to Republican prisoners held in british and free state gaols and offer our continued solidarity.

We reiterate our position outlined in Derry recently that the electoral momentum on the island needs to run its course so that the false narrative of the so-called end days of partition can be exposed as the vapid rhetoric that it is.

It is incumbent on all republicans to challenge Sinn Féin careerists as to how any partitionist assembly will be used by them to secure British withdrawal from Ireland.

Will Sinn Féin, seeking election to government, coalition or otherwise, put before the Irish people a manifesto outlining in precise terms how they intend to use their office to restore Irish national sovereignty?

Will this manifesto outline, again in precise terms, how the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement can afford Irish republicanism any advantage in pursuit of its goals over and above the goals of its other adherents that seek to maintain the constitutional status quo?

We also urge the continuous and unified efforts of Irish republicans to undermine at every opportunity the insidious concept that a Border Poll represents a democratic route to the restoration of Irish sovereignty. The very premise of such a poll is a counter-democratic bulwark against any true expression of our people’s sovereignty.

This coming year will mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. It has not been a productive period for Irish republicanism. We have corrected the historical narrative which has brought us to this point but that is no substitute for taking Irish republicanism forward.

As it stands the dilemma facing Irish republicanism is as follows: forge a united message which can resonate with our people or provoke change in the hope that we can direct it. If neither can done, we must leave the field to the next generation.

Beir bua.