Martin Ferris North Kerry TD Irish Unity and the Peace Process
Published: 29 February, 2008
If Irish unity is going to be brought about then it is up to republicans to lead the way. That is not to say that it is a campaign that will be exclusive to republicans. Far from it. We need to mobilise the mass support that exists across the island in favour of unity and to draw in people and groups who are not connected to our movement.
That goodwill does exist but we also have to recognise that it will not be channelled politically and become effective unless our movement takes the lead. While certain other parties are now loud in their claims that they are republican, the reality is that for most of the history of this state the same people did nothing in relation to that issue.
In fact that is not the case either. They did lots of things. They locked up, harassed and censored republicans. And they ensured that for decades in this state that anyone who dared to question the ongoing British presence in this country and the complicity of the ruling parties in this state were silenced. There was a stage in the 1970s and 1980s when even ballads about earlier periods of the freedom struggle were banned and when even the most innocuous references to what happened in the 1920s were censored.
In recent years certain of these people have been happy to parade behind the bodies of dead IRA Volunteers forgetting the time when they stood over the banning of the singing of Kevin Barry on RTE. Just as they were happy to censor what happened to Aidan MacAnespie.
We recognise their hypocrisy but we also recognise that while the motives of those now seeking to wrap themselves in the green flag are questionable, the genuine identification which ordinary Irish people have with Kevin Barry and with the struggle for freedom is not.
Every official recognition of that struggle is to be welcomed. And it is in that spirit that Sinn Féin will be joining in the commemoration of 1916, the 100th Anniversary of which takes place in 2016. But in commemorating the past we will also be preparing for the future.
If republicans begin now to build a mass popular movement in support of the achievement of Irish unity then that goal will be brought a lot closer and a lot more quickly. We can use the preparations for the 100th anniversary as part of building a mass movement that will ensure that the objective of the men and women of Easter 1916 is made a reality.
We are the only party that is capable of single-mindedly pursuing that goal and providing the leadership for broad sections of the Irish people. Our work in Stormont and in building bridges with the northern Unionist population is also crucial in that.
Republicans throughout the island must be to the forefront of their communities building links with all who are supportive of Irish freedom and demonstrating to them the practical benefits of unity. Only through this and our practical work in improving peoples lives will the idea of the Republic become a living reality.
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