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éirígí 1916 Easter Commemoration Dublin

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Sunday April 17, 2011 14:50

by eirígí

éirígí Easter Commemoration
Sunday 24 April
Assemble 1pm Phibsboro SC and march to Glasnevin Cemetery

We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland

éirígí has announced the details of this year’s 1916 Easter commemoration in Dublin.

The commemoration will take place on Sunday, April 24, assembling at 1.30pm at the shopping centre in Phibsboro and marching to Glasnevin Cemetery. The commemoration will be addressed by republican ex-prisoner and former blanketman Pádraic Mac Coitir.

This year marks the 95th anniversary of that seminal event in Irish history. On the morning of April 24 1916, women and men of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers marched out from Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the ITGWU, to take on the might of the British Empire and strike a blow for the political and social freedom of Ireland. During that momentous week, against enormous odds, they displayed great courage and determination, which has inspired generations of Irish republicans ever since.

A century ago, the ruling class in Ireland hung out the Butcher’s Apron and, with great pomp and ceremony, paraded the English king, George V, through the streets of Dublin. This display of grandeur stood in stark contrast to the extreme poverty the Dublin working class was enduring in 1911, who literally struggled to put bread on the table and lived in the appalling squalor of the city’s slums. Almost a third of the population lived in those hell holes of human degradation, which were owned by the very ruling class that welcomed George V with such fanfare.

Ending imperial domination and the system of privilege in Ireland is what drove the vision set out in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. It declared “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible”, and committed republicans to pursuing “the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation… cherishing all the children of the nation equally”.

Ireland would no longer be dominated by foreign kings and soldiers, slum landlords and exploitative bosses – the people would be masters of their own destiny. The Proclamation remains a document of immense historic importance, but the political and social freedom that it demanded remains unfinished business.

A century after the visit of George V and at a time when working people across Ireland are being driven into poverty, the Twenty-Six County establishment is preparing to welcome his successor Elizabeth Windsor to Dublin. Windsor is the commander-in-chief of an army that continues to occupy the Six Counties and which, in recent years, has been engaged in further imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While working people are suffering savage cuts and communities are being starved of funding, over €10 million [£9 million] can be found to wine and dine a representative of privilege and imperial power.

Announcing the details of the commemoration, éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson encouraged republicans and socialists to join with éirígí in Dublin on Easter Sunday in honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of Irish freedom.

“As in 1911, when socialists and republicans like James Connolly, Constance Markievicz and Helena Molony led the opposition to the visit of a British monarch, this generation of socialists and republicans will not be found wanting,” Leeson said.

“The women and men of 1916 fought for an Ireland free of imperial power and social privilege. That struggle continues to this day.

“This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike, when Margaret Thatcher attempted to bury the republican struggle in the tomb of the H-Blocks. The republican prisoners refused to bend to the will of the British government and 10 brave young men gave up their lives in defence of the republican struggle.

“éirígí in Dublin is proud to have our Belfast comrade and former blanketman Pádraic Mac Coitir join us in Dublin on Easter Sunday. Both on the streets and in the prison, Pádraic has been to the forefront of this generation’s struggle for a socialist republic.”

Leeson added: “We are encouraging republicans and socialists from across Dublin and beyond to join us on Easter Sunday to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice and to commit to completing the unfinished business of overthrowing the rotten systems of imperialism and capitalism.”

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éirígí 1916 Easter Commemoration Dublin