No Irish jubilee celebrations for an imperial monarch

By Lasair Dhearg

Irish Republicans, and indeed Republicans throughout the world, will never celebrate the lives of any monarch and especially one who resides in massive palaces in England.

105th Anniversary of the Irish Rebellion, 1916: We Only Want the Earth

– Poem by James Connolly, 1907 –

105th anniversary of the Irish Rebellion, 1916

Glorious uprising of the Irish people | Dougal MacDonald

Mural, Falls Road, Ireland, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016

The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed uprising in Ireland during Easter Week in 1916, from April 24-29. The Rising was part of the centuries-long ongoing struggle of the Irish people for independence from England, which began in 1169 with Henry II’s annexation of Ireland. The Rising was no isolated incident or “putsch” as some labeled it at the time to denigrate it. The Irish people have always resisted British rule without letup. Prior to the Rising, at least 20 other separate rebellions had taken place since the 16th century, including within Canada. The single-minded aim of the Irish people has always been to fight to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny. Today they are fighting to reunify Ireland. “A United Ireland Is an Idea Whose Time Has Come,” the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald said in 2021.

105th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Ireland

Republican organisations are issuing statements and making speeches to mark the 105th anniversary of the heroic Easter Rising in Dublin of 1916, affirming their commitment to the unification of Ireland.

Signs of Change in Ireland

By TONY SEED

Citizen’s committees are removing or renaming British imperialist figures and institutions throughout the United Kingdom as part of taking a stand against British colonialism.

This day. Last Statement of James Connolly

To the Field General Court Martial, held at Dublin Castle, on May 9th, 1916:

I do not wish to make any defence except against charges of wanton cruelty to prisoners. These trifling allegations that have been made, if they record facts that really happened deal only with the almost unavoidable incidents of a hurried uprising against long established authority, and nowhere show evidence of set purpose to wantonly injure unarmed persons.

We went out to break the connection between this country and the British Empire, and to establish an Irish Republic. We believed that the call we then issued to the people of Ireland, was a nobler call, in a holier cause, than any call issued to them during this war, having any connection with the war. We succeeded in proving that Irishmen are ready to die endeavouring to win for Ireland those national rights which the British Government has been asking them to die to win for Belgium. As long as that remains the case, the cause of Irish freedom is safe.

Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland, the presence, in any one generation of Irishmen, of even a respectable minority, ready to die to affirm that truth, makes that Government for ever a usurpation and a crime against human progress.

I personally thank God that I have lived to see the day when thousands of Irish men and boys, and hundreds of Irish women and girls, were ready to affirm that truth, and to attest it with their lives if need be.

JAMES CONNOLLY,
Commandant-General,
Dublin Division,
Army of the Irish Republic

(given to daughter Nora Connolly on eve of Connolly’s execution by the British)

The signatories of the Irish Proclamation of Independence 1916

Signatories of the Proclamation

Short biographies of the seven patriots who signed Ireland’s historic declaration of independence in 1916.

We Only Want the Earth

James Connolly, 1907

Some men, faint-hearted, ever seek

Our programme to retouch,

And will insist, whene’er they speak

That we demand too much.

‘Tis passing strange, yet I declare

Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most modest are,
We only want the earth.

“Be moderate,” the trimmers cry,
Who dread the tyrants’ thunder.
“You ask too much and people fly
From you aghast in wonder.”
‘Tis passing strange, for I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.Our masters all a godly crew,
Whose hearts throb for the poor,
Their sympathies assure us, too,
If our demands were fewer.
Most generous souls! But please observe,
What they enjoy from birth
Is all we ever had the nerve
To ask, that is, the earth.

The “labour fakir” full of guile,
Base doctrine ever preaches,
And whilst he bleeds the rank and file
Tame moderation teaches.
Yet, in despite, we’ll see the day
When, with sword in its girth,
Labour shall march in war array
To realize its own, the earth.

For labour long, with sighs and tears,
To its oppressors knelt.
But never yet, to aught save fears,
Did the heart of tyrant melt.
We need not kneel, our cause no dearth
Of loyal soldiers’ needs
And our victorious rallying cry
Shall be we want the earth!

 

Reproduced from TML Weekly, April 23, 2016 – No. 17

Youtube: 

We Only Want the Earth – Cornelius Cardew

 

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: Our duty in this crisis

By James Connolly, Irish Worker, August 8, 1914

Soviet painting depicting an injured James Connolly during the Irish Rising

What should be the attitude to the working-class democracy of Ireland in face of the present crisis? I wish to emphasise the fact that the question is addressed to the ‘working-class democracy’ because I believe that it would be worse than foolish — it would be a crime against all our hopes and aspirations — to take counsel in this matter from any other source.

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: Celebrate the glorious uprising of the Irish people!

1991 mural in Belfast marking the 75th anniversary of the Irish Rebellion. In foreground are the Republicans who signed the proclamation of independence.

By Dougal MacDonald

The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed uprising in Ireland during Easter Week in 1916, from April 24-29. The Rising was part of the centuries-long ongoing struggle of the Irish people for independence from England, which began in 1169 with Henry II’s annexation of Ireland. The Rising was no isolated incident or “putsch” as some labeled it at the time to denigrate it. The Irish people have always resisted British rule without letup. Prior to the Rising, at least 20 other separate rebellions had taken place since the 16th century, including within Canada. The single-minded aim of the Irish people has always been to fight to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny.

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: Turning point in the history of the Irish nation

Proclamation of the Irish Republic, signed on April 24, 1916 by seven leaders of the uprising, Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Pádraig Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett. All were executed by the British after the rising was crushed.

April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland, an armed uprising of the Irish people to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny. The 1916 Rising was the first major revolt against British rule in Ireland since the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. The rebellion lasted until April 29 when it was brutally crushed by the forces of the British Empire, after thousands of reinforcements were brought in from England and other parts of Ireland. It became the first stage in a war of independence that resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and, ultimately, the formal declaration of an Irish Republic in 1949. Britain still maintain a military presence in the north of Ireland, even if troops have been withdrawn from the streets for some years now – mainly to free them for other criminal interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere.

25/90 & An Ghaeilge: Honouring Bobby Sands and James Connolly

A REFLECTION BY TONY SEED

Mac-Talla, annual Gaelic supplement of Shunpiking Magazine, May 2006

THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY of the Easter Rising in Dublin and 25th anniversary of the H-Block hunger strikes in Belfast have become times of great celebration for the Irish people and are being commemorated throughout the world, including Canada. Activities include marches, seminars, public meetings, plays, films and exhibitions. The actions of those who stood up and fought for independence in 1916 and the courageous sacrifice of the ten hunger strikers who gave their lives in 1981 represent the best of Ireland. They typify a valiant spirit that has endured much suffering over the centuries of armed British colonial occupation.