Republican Struggle Traded Into the Pawnshop

Gerard Hodgins' tribute to republican hunger strikers at the inaugural 1916 Societies National Hunger strike commemoration at Glasnevin Cemetery last Saturday.

Ireland has a long, sad but noble history of prison struggles where men and women of the republic often embarked upon that ultimate weapon of last resistance: the hunger strike. 22 of our comrades died this horrible death between 1917 and 1981 from Thomas Ashe to Michael Devine and the memories of these deaths will never leave us.
Hunger strike has always been a weapon of passive resistance to British or Free State intransigence and brutality while held captive in the belly of the beast; and our hunger strikers’ graves stand as permanent monuments of shame to a discredited Empire which spread death and misery to every corner of the globe it has blighted. We in Ireland, and especially Dublin, have the pleasure of knowing that at the beginning of the 20th century we fired the opening shots at the British Empire in 1916 which echoed around the world and motivated anti-colonial freedom fighters to throw off the yoke of colonialism and exploitation.

Connolly once said: apostles of freedom are crucified when alive but deified when dead. If ever these words were true it was when Kevin Barry and his nine comrades were given the full state honours in 2001 through Dublin’s streets by their crucifiers; while we their heirs and comrades were locked out off Glassnevin while the body-snatchers of Frank Stagg, one of the noble 22 of the 20th century prison battles in our republican history, stood hypocritically inside with their crocodile tears and served the necessities of good imaging for the corporate media.

Our detractors allege us to have no rational thoughts, no opinions, no memories; instead we are labelled as suffering some sort of pathology. We are the mentally unsound, the unbelievable; while the official Sinn Fein narrative has an unbeaten army still marching courageously and unconquered on into whatever la-la land they are heading to. We are not dissidents we are unrepentant republicans as proud of our faith today as we have been throughout most of our lives of struggle for the republic.

We are where we are, far from the vision envisaged by the hunger strike martyrs who died for the freedom of Ireland. These men did not die for the ignoble job of poacher turned game keeper. We did not fight over thirty years of guerrilla warfare against the most powerful counter-insurgency force in the world to become caretakers of partition and a neo-liberal economic model which punishes the working class for the irresponsible actions of bankers, capitalists and the politicians in their pockets.

We remember our history not through green varnished lens but as it really was and how it turned out. We did not win, we lost. Had we won John Paul Wotton and Brendan Mc Conville would not be miscarriages of justice of the 21st century.

Had we won we would not be economically and socially enslaved to nameless international financiers and bankers. We as a nation are divided more so than at any time, partition remains a reality and the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund control every decision the gombeen class can make about our lives, from the health service we can have to the number of taxes they can inflict upon us, directly or indirectly. The sovereignty of the Irish nation has been traded into a pawn-shop for a few bob for the select few.

But, we are not defeated in spirit, the republic Tom Ashe died for through to the republic Mickey Devine died for still lives in our hearts and still flows through our rebel veins. Republicanism has had lean times before, from the Tragedies of Kerry to the depression of this wonderful victory of the undefeated army today where former republican prisoners now Stormont ministers visit Maghaberry prison like the prison Board of Visitors of old, listen to complaints make a statement and do absolutely nothing about the conditions of the prisoners. You cannot be a revolutionary committed to the ideals and realities of the republic and a gaoler of republicans pursuing that republic simultaneously. Bobby Sands did not die for us to become Screws in the British penal system!

We stand here in memory of the H-Block martyrs of 1981; we pay tribute to their painful and heroic sacrifice and extend our respect and sympathy to the families who remember as families do........in the quietness of their own hearts

And we also stand here as unrepentant fenians who are always there through the lean times and the good. To our brothers and sisters worldwide, be they in The Gaza Ghetto, the famine lands of South Sudan to the killing fields of Iraq and Syria we extend solidarity to our fellow wretched of the earth, fellow victims of colonialism and the sectarian passions colonialism exploits.

We reiterate our commitment to the republic for which our friends and comrades fought and died. We are proud of our history, we are proud of our participation in the struggle for Ireland’s freedom and the emancipation of the Irish working class. An Phoblacht abú!


4 comments:

  1. Was there in Glasnevin for Gerard's inspiring speech, he spoke of and stands for everything I still believe in... Maith thu Hodgies, maith thu and thank you from the bottom of my heart. Unrepentent to the end and that's how it should be, tiocfaidh ar la

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  2. How closely are the 1916 societies watching the Scottish vote on independence? Do the societies have any plans to produce a document in how they see Ireland after a successful 'One Ireland, one vote campaign'.

    Would they advocate going back to the punt, pulling out of Europe, having federal/regional gov's. as talked about with Eire Nua?

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  3. Gerald

    A fine speech, an phoblacht abú indeed

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