A new Ireland – Is Anything To Be Said for the Republic?

A new Ireland – Is Anything To Be Said for the Republic?

We are hearing a lot of different slogans, words and descriptions around the Irish Unity conversations. A New Ireland, a Shared Ireland, a Compromised Ireland, A shared island.

Yet.. One key and important phrase we are not hearing from the “new Ireland society”; The Irish Republic.

I wont bore you all with history, but The Irish Republic was declared on the steps of the GPO in 1916, democratically ratified in 1918 by the Irish people and then denied by the British government in 1921 by an undemocratic threat of violence which resulted in the partition of the Irish nation.

The Irish Republic promises the shared Ireland, it promises the new Ireland, it promises civil liberties and equality, so why is it being erased from the current constitutional conversations, alarmingly by those who label themselves as Irish Republicans?

The Irish Republic that was undemocratically denied to us by the British State should be pushed at every opportunity, it should form the unapologetic bedrock of the United Ireland conversations.

Before I go on any more, there is no better way than to leave you with words from the proclamation of the Irish Republic itself.

“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 of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.”

Sinead Costello