Republican Sinn Féin Cork City and County

Report and Oration Seán Sabhat Commemoration On Sunday, January 1st, the annual Sean South commemoration was held at the Republican plot Mount St. Lawrence cemetery Limerick which is the burial place of volunteer Sean South who gave his live 55 years ago in the cause of Irish freedom. The event was organised by the Munster executive of Republican Sinn Fein. Members and supporters marched from Mulgrave St to Mount st Lawrence cemetery led by a colour party. The commemoration was chaired by Geraldine McNamara national PRO. In her opening address she said ?Sean South was a scholar, a fluent Irish speaker and a freedom fighter and we honour him today by continuing that struggle in the same honourable way that he and his comrades did. It is an honour to be here amongst respectable members of Republican Sinn Fein who have had to endure a great deal in the past for the cause for Irish freedom? Wreaths were laid on behalf of the republican prisoners by Adrian O?Hare, on behalf of Republican Sinn Fein by Joan Kennedy and on behalf of the Republican Movement by Donal Malone. A decade of the rosary was recited by John Mangan which was followed by a minutes silence and the last post. Thomás Ó Curráin read the New Year statement from the Leadership of Republican Sinn Fein. The main oration was then given by Dan Hoban, who said, ?Friends and fellow Republicans, I feel deeply honored to be asked here today to pay tribute to Sean South a soldier of the Irish Republican Army who gave his life in the fight for Irish freedom fifty five years ago on New Years eve 1956, in doing so he was continuing a tradition of the Irish people who never accepted British rule in Ireland. For 800 years the Irish people have resisted British rule. Sean South was part of that resistance movement, he gave his life on New Years eve 1956 and handed on the tradition of resistance to those who came after him. We have a long history of battle to liberate ourselves from British rule in this country in every generation. We haven't been successful so far in achieving our goal, but Irish men and women have come out at different times when all the forces that were against us thought they had Republicans defeated. Right up to the proclamation of 1916 when Padraig Pearse and his comrades so gallantly fought in Easter week and were executed by firing squad. At that time they gave us the Proclamation, the Proclamation which Republicans still true to today and who believe we will achieve that ultimate goal. Many have fallen by the wayside along the way but Republicans have stuck together and eventually will achieve that goal. Recently the patron of Republican Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó'Brádaigh when asked in an interview, "Is this it, have we gone into politics now? and are the McGuinnesses and the Adams and all those going to take over?". His answer was, "while British rule remains in Ireland there will always be some form of an IRA, somebody will take on the powers that be". We had that glorious fight in 1916, then the treaty of surrender in 1922 when Irish men were divided over what course we should take. At that particular time people were compromised when they went over to London and they signed a deal. But others, true Republicans said we will not have this deal we will fight on. Further on down the road we had people who stood with the Republican cause decide they had enough, which lead to the formation of Fianna Fail. De Valera and his cohorts said put your guns away, they will be needed another time. But the next time they were needed was to execute men in the 30s and the 40s. We have a long history, a long memory and we don't forget. Those men who were executed during that period by Eamon De Valera and his government, men who knew so much about the IRA, that they said they were going to defeat them for all times. The men of the 1940s we owe a huge deal of respect to for keeping things together during those lean years. Men who lay in English jails, men who lay in the Curragh, who lay in Portlaoise and the sacrifice made by men like Charlie Kerins, Maurice O'Neill and so on and so forth. McNeela and Darcy who died on hunger strike and all the suffering. Women in jail in England who fought on and said we will have the Irish Republic or nothing. At the end of that period when the people were released from the Curragh concentration camp and others came out of English jails, De Valera and his cohorts said we have the IRA put down for all time, they were making a sad mistake. But I can tell you one thing, they were the nearest people came to defeating the IRA and they failed and where they failed nobody else will succeed. We then had the1950s campaign in which Sean South paid the supreme sacrifice along with Fergal O'Hanlon in the Border campaign. The Wexford men, Michael Watters and all those people kept going and when the campaign fizzled out they thought the IRA were gone again. When in 1969 Bernadette Devlin and her comrades came to Burntollett bridge a new generation of Irishmen were on the march again. Then we had a glorious campaign that was fought for over 30 years. With victory in sight we had men who got greedy, men who wanted power, who wanted to take part of the apple and not the whole apple. What they did do was their Good Friday Agreement and everything that went with it. They then turned around and said the fight was over now we will go back to politics. The politics that our former friends, De Valera and Cosgrave and all others before them said was going to free Ireland. But there was only one type of politics that the British understood and that was the politics that came from the point of a gun, that was the only message that they had ever answered. McGuinness, Adams and their friends are lying, they are in Leinster House and in Stormont and over in London taking big salaries. They have forgotten about the men who died in the H-Blocks, they have forgotten about the men who have fought and struggled for the last 30 years. But there are still people who haven't forgotten and those people will come back, they will reorganize the Republican Movement. If it wasnt achieved by a generation in the past it will be achieved by a generation in the future. There will always be men who are prepared to fight and to die to liberate their country. While the last generation was a great generation there will come a greater one, we have to struggle on to achieve what hasn't come to fruition. We have all types of propaganda now from the British, from this side, that side from former comrades and in the last few days British state papers released on something that happened over 30 years ago. The papers and what the British version is of what happened on the 1981 Hunger Strike. When ten men paid the supreme sacrifice once more, and Maggie Thatcher was embarrassed by what the outside world would think about her. Now they are saying that she wanted to end it, that they were attempts made to end it, that Bobby Sands was prepared when he was near to death to compromise and talk. In the previous Hunger Strike that they give up, there was compromise and talk and what was agreed was never given. So it was organised during the second H-Block hunger strike in which they died, there would be no compromise. Let them not try to besmirch the name of Bobby Sands or Patsy O'Hara or anyone else and say when they were on their death bed they were prepared to take food. There was nothing on offer and they cannot take away what those men stood up and fought for. They fought for political status for Irish Republican prisoners, they fought for the liberation of their country. These people talking from one to the other, the British agent who was supposed to be an expert talking to a man in Belfast and Martin McGuinness involved in it, all clapping one another on the backs and they are all getting big salaries. We are standing here today as the true standard bearers of Irish Republicanism. We will continue on to encourage and support everybody who opposes British rule in Ireland, who use whatever means is at their disposal to get rid of it, that there be no peace in Ireland until the last brit is gone out of it. Finally, I won't hold you much longer but, in coming back to Sean South and Fergal O'Hanlon. Sean South was a very inspirational figure, not alone to those who fought side by side with him, but to those who came after him. Many of the Volunteers who died in the struggle over the last twenty years I am very sure that a lot of them were inspired by Sean South. I would like to say that he is an inspiration to us all in the struggle for Irish independence. I will conclude by referring back to the opening lines in the introduction of that famous balled that has been sung by Irish people all over the world 'Sean South of Garryowen', in the version of the song it said "sad are the homes around Garryowen, since they lost their joy and pride and the banshees cries over every vale along the Shannonside the city of the ancient walls and broken treaty stone undying fame surrounds your name Sean South from Garryowen". An Phoblacht abu.

Posted by RSF Cork City & County on January 3, 2012 at 2:46 PM

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