'We ordain that the elected Representatives of the Irish People alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which that people will give its allegiance:
'We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate...
'We claim for our national independence the recognition and support of every free nation in the world, and we proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to international peace hereafter...'
And
'IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom...
We declare 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. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.
The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences...
... In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.'
Signed
Thomas J. Clarke,
Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh,
P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt,
James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett
(The seven signatories of the Irish Proclamation: Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph Plunkett, and Eamonn Ceannt were executed by the British Government for their efforts to secure a free Ireland.)
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6 comments:
Spot on! And very well put. Also Padraig Peare's oration at O'Donovan Rossa's funeral 'Ireland unfree shall never be at peace'. Every Irishman & woman must make their own personal choice as to how they vote on the Lisbon Treaty. I would merely ask them to consider the years of struggle that brought us freedom & then decide if they want to cast it aside again.
Quite. How can a nation struggle for independence and shed so much blood only to cede that very thing to unelected mandarins in Brussels?
Barmy.
Nation states interacting through trade and by treaty under international law seem ideal ways of organising peoples and producing responsive and responsible governments; democratic governments that have their people's interests at heart.
Anyone who has lived in a foreign country in continental Europe for any length of time will have experience of how different are priorities, imposed and aspired to, in divers places.
A large, intrusive, multicultural state, with permanent administrative, authoritarian governance is precisely what the peoples of Europe, not just the English, regularly reject. This imposition of the Lisbon constitution is not acceptable to the majority throughout Europe. The suppression of the expression of that rejection through the vote merely means it will express itself otherwise.
As the Irish say, "...we proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to international peace hereafter...'.
Excellent post, well done.
A shame that the whole thing will continue regardless of whatever the Irish do or say, but these things have to be said.
The snake will be killed eventually, but perhaps not in our lifetimes.
Madam,
I'm a portuguese citizen. I'm only one of the 450 million europeans that will not be asked about the constitutional treaty. The portuguese prime-minister has not kept the promise that he would make a referendum, as the portuguese were NEVER asked about Europe's issues. So, I decided to take some action:
http://notolisbontreaty.blogsome.com
I ask you only to disseminate this blog among your friends, readers and fellow-bloggers.
I'm not anti-europeist, but I strongly believe Europe must be built with the peoples approval and participation, not in their back.
Thank you for your time and attention,
OM
Certainly OM. I had not realised the Portuguese were promised and then denied a referendum.
Most people are explicit that they regard their European neighbours with respect and often with affection; but the European Union is an attempt to subjugate the nations of Europe into a quasi colonial empire, right down to the arbitrary regional boundaries deliberately cutting across cultural, historical, economic unities.
Goodness knows what the people in eastern Europe feel as they go from the fying pan into the fire.
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