Comhdháil Bliantúil / Annual Convention 2014

By AM Wednesday, January 29, 2014

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Press Release:
Comhdháil Bliantúil / Annual Convention 2014

The 1916 Societies held our fourth and highly successful Comhdháil Bliantúil / Annual Convention on Saturday afternoon, 25th January, in the Pillar Room in the historic Rotunda complex just off O'Connell Street in Dublin. Over 100 delegates, representing 32 Cumainn from across Ireland, gathered to accept the resignation of the outgoing National Executive, to elect its successor and to hear of the remarkable growth and progress our fledgling political movement has borne witness to in recent months. Although our name is a tribute to the past our vision is one that looks to the future - as a movement we hope to deliver progressive, practical political results rather than restricting ourselves to commemorating past events and achievements alone.

With Societies springing up from Derry and Armagh in the north to Cork and Kerry in the south, even as far afield as San Diego on the west coast of the United States, then to describe the expansion of the 1916 Societies as evidence of a rapidly emerging political dynamic from within Irish republicanism committed to developing new strategies for the reunification of Ireland is not an exaggeration.

Contributions from the outgoing Chair and National Organiser focused on the requirement to maintain the momentum of recent months, on the pressing need to educate and involve the wider Irish public in terms of our flagship campaign for an all-Ireland constitutional referendum, to re-position the republican analysis in the wider body politic of Ireland in 2014, and to continue expanding and bringing our core message of 'One Ireland - One Vote' to every corner of the country and further, making it a viable, credible option for republicans to pursue their legitimate aim of true self-determination for the Irish people.




Taking the stage to thunderous applause newly elected Chair Dwayne Tierney in concluding the day's events described his confidence of advancing real democratic progress in the time ahead, promoting our vision of an independent, democratic Ireland at peace with itself and capable of meeting the needs of all of its peoples and communities as envisioned almost a century ago by the framers of the Proclamation and the fore-bearers of our movement. The delegates and invited guests, among them the Friends of Brendan Hughes Committee, Dublin socialist-republican organiser Tom Stokes, and representatives of former D-Company, Lower Falls, Belfast, left the hall with a keen sense of optimism that the task bequeathed to us by those who sacrificed so much over the hard years in the struggle for Irish freedom might yet achieve a noble end for the Irish people.

The 1916 Societies take this opportunity to thank all who've assisted and supported our endeavors in the past year to build and to offer a credible political strategy based on sound principle, a coherent analysis and critique of the current political dispensation, and practical republican solutions capable of addressing the position the republican movement and indeed Irish society itself find themselves in at this time. We look forward to continued expansion and consolidation in the period ahead and to working with all and any parties, organisations and communities who share our aim of re-establishing the free, independent, democratic and all-Ireland sovereign republic declared by the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

• "We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward. For if we don't, the martyrs that died for you, for me - for this country - will haunt us forever" - Maire Drumm