Eddie Carmody Commemoration

Eddie Carmody Commemoration
Oration
Ballylongford 2010
Marion Price


A chairde, when Collins was negotiating the partition of our country Lloyd George told him that the Six County Statelet would be an economically unviable region. What a massive irony it is that we now see the Twenty Six County region falling under this description. The vindication of those who opposed the 1922 Treaty is complete. The vindication of those who opposed the creation of Fianna Fáil and its direction is also complete.

This State has betrayed its own people. It has betrayed the Irish nation. It has betrayed our patriot dead. And it has betrayed even those who once viewed this state as a stepping stone to independence. This state took the lives of Irish people in defence of what it called its sovereign legitimacy. It used British guns and British hangmen against Irish people to preserve its existence. It imprisoned thousands more who argued that self determination was a right for all the people of Ireland. And now, as a result of greed, corruption and incompetence it now cedes this so called sovereignty to the highest foreign bidder. Indeed even Westminster has placed a bid to buy back the treaty it imposed under threat of violence. The state is now under the control of foreign financiers.

It gives us no pleasure in standing at the grave of Eddie Carmody and reciting these facts. Even the graves of those who upheld the treaty are sullied by these actions. Every ideal, every principle, every act of resistance has been set aside to facilitate this grotesque state of affairs. They have lied in the face of overwhelming exposure to the truth. They have misled the people again and again to cover for their misdeeds. And now that their legacy is laid bare the task remains to undo the damage left in their wake.

Comrades, Irish sovereignty is not for sale. Irish sovereignty does not stop at the border. The restoration of Irish sovereignty is the only viable starting point in rebuilding the Irish nation. This is the argument republicans must bring to our people. The Free State is dead, 88 years too late.




We need to bring a new vision to our people. Only republicans working together can realise this effectively. This is not a time for self imposed isolation or factionalism. It is a time to grasp the nettles of reality as to the immensity of our task. Our arguments are solid. Our perspective is rational. The current calamity vindicates what we have being saying all along. The real problem we face is that our voice is not strong enough to be heard. We must change this.

At our recent Ard Fheis the issue of the republican goal and the labour movement was addressed. We are not asking labour to wait but we are asking labour to act in a concise manner. We are reminding them of Connolly’s assertion that the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland. This is even more evident today. We now call on the labour movement to address the issue of Irish national sovereignty and the ending of its violation. We put it to them that the interests of the workers you represent can only be fully realised in a 32 County Sovereign Ireland. That sovereignty represents the returning of ownership and control to the people.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will be organising a series of protests in the coming weeks. We welcome this. But we also state it clearly; if you do not protest for fundamental change you are protesting for nothing. You cannot say to the workers of Ireland, thus far and no further, leaving them enslaved as before. You cannot call on Irish workers to protest for a better arrangement with the financial elite. You must lead them against partition, against the mindsets that partition engendered, against the outside forces that care more for balance sheets than they do the welfare of people.

Every county in Ireland holds patriot graves. These should be the focal point of our protests. We should assemble at these hallowed spots and march in protest for what they gave their lives for. We need to bring their sacrifice into the heart of where this country now finds itself. These are the people we need to turn to for guidance and inspiration. It is from graves such as Eddie Carmody that a new national narrative must emerge.

The Proclamation and Declaration of Independence must now replace the failed treaties which kept this state on life support. These are the words that the labour movement must now embrace. No more double talk. No more seeking petty arrangements with the status quo. No more looking after sectional interests. It is time for national thinking. It is time to realise the republic Eddie Carmody gave his life for.