TPQ features a short address from Dominic McGlinchey read at the 2014 IRSP Ard Fheis by his brother Declan. The address is also available on the Republican Socialist News website.
We have spent our whole lives aspiring to what some might call a pipe dream, the establishing of a 32 county socialist republic. We have watched the generation of men and women much older than I go from young adults to middle age and in other cases leave this earth as they came into it under the heal of the oppressor.
Do we really think its a pipe dream that we have nothing better to be doing? I for one don’t as do many other of us out there. What I do think is how we approach the building of a movement of people who will set about establishing a 32 county socialist republic will have to change. Different times demand different tactics. What have we learned from our past? That the answer lays in the future, no more glorious failures. We cannot afford to burden the next generation with the baggage and ghosts of our collective past.
As we move forward it is not good enough to pay lip service to the struggle to hide behind a particular hat on a particular day this movement must be led by the party the revolutionary van guard of the struggle. It has to be accepted that fatigue has set in; some have a lot of miles on clock along the road of political struggle many years spent in gaol it is hard to keep dusting yourself down keep getting up again and continuing on.
We must challenge ourselves once again get out of our comfort zones, educate our youth agitate on the ground in the towns and cities across this country. In rural Ireland we need to see where we can be effective on the on the ground this can become a breeding ground for new activists. We must make new policies that relate to those that live in these areas and then act upon these. It is a battle for the hearts and minds and this must start in the parishes and town lands across our country house by house family by family we must make ourselves relevant in daily lives of the people who live there.
How do we do this, we help were we can, we cannot fix all the worlds ills straight away but a start must be made. Taking into account this movement has limited resources. We must challenge ourselves to get out there to find new ways of getting our message across and listen to what is happening on the ground.
We will have to piggy back on other bodies to expand our movement it will bring us at times to places that might make us uncomfortable but the expansion of our movement is paramount .In every facet of society we must make our presence felt , it is our absence that will be our weakness, we will not be defined by a tricolour a red flag or a starry plough it is our actions and our politics that will define the men and women of this movement and that will leave a lasting positive legacy for future generations.
Our strength is that our cause is a noble and just and we must do everything in our power to protect that. At times we must take risks but these must be calculated, a path must be forged and a plan must be made. The IRSP needs to be re-established right across the island, this could be done in many ways first and foremost more Cumman. This could quite easily be expanded right across the globe to other likeminded activists reaping massive rewards for the movement. As said earlier our action shall define us and if we bring discipline into everything we do the working class will gravitate towards us.
A new beginning, a new start ,a republic must be built from the ground up everyone one of us must leave our mark on it, Connolly told us the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour and the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland. I come to this movement late enough in life many might say to late I say better late than never but I feel I have came home to my spiritual home where I belong. I am as determined now as I have ever been I have an inner belief passed down to me through my mother and father and theirs before them that we can win and that we must. I like to wish you all the best and I look forward to working with you all to turn our dreams into reality.
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