• Proclaiming the “Republican Party” credentials at Arbour Hill
ALLOW THE PEOPLE TO HAVE THEIR SAY
Micheál Martin in his quest to be Taoiseach has set aside pre-election promises and pre-conditions under the guise of the “National Interest”. All except two. He continued to refuse to talk to Sinn Féin and he continued to oppose an Irish unity referendum. Both these actions are about retaining power and opposing fundamental change. In a recent interview, the Taoiseach doubled down on this claiming that a “unity referendum” would be “divisive”. The Programme for Government makes no mention of planning for Irish unity and when Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald raised the question, the Taoiseach squirmed for five minutes to avoid even uttering the words, “United Ireland”. We live in Orwellian times with “Unity is Divisive”, “Partition in the National Interest” and a Taoiseach who dare not use the words, “United Ireland”. So, what is going on with the Fianna Fáil leader, the Taoiseach who proclaims his credentials annually as the leader of the “Republican Party” at Arbour Hill and Bodentown. We have a clear and achievable pathway to unity and Fianna Fáil moving in the opposite direction. The answer is in the question. Unity is now clearly achievable. It is real and achievable in a relatively short timescale. A new and united Ireland is doable. That is a fundamental challenge to the 26-County establishment and to Fianna Fáil. Since entering the Dáil in 1927, Fianna Fáil have claimed to oppose Partition, but in 93 years have failed to come up
with a strategy to overcome it. They prospered in the Dáil and grew in power and influence in the South. This counter-revolution worked for generations of Fianna Fáil leaders who believed that being Taoiseach was their entitlement. De Valera’s rhetoric on the North gave way to building the 26-County state to the point of executing and imprisoning republicans. Fianna Fáil under Seán Lemass went further. Speaking in the Oxford Union in 1959, Lemass led out the new strategy to ending Partition. It would be a policy of “good neighbourliness”. He said that the reunification strategy would be to, “build goodwill and to strive for concerted action in particular fields where early practical advantages can be obtained, hoping to process step by step to a new situation in which a reappraisal of the whole problem can be undertaken, unhampered by prejudice”. This was at best a naive understanding of political unionism and at worst a cover for accepting the sectarian single party state of the Six Counties that was held together by coercive legislation and official discrimination against Irish citizens. Ten years later, the Orange state would collapse under the demand for basic civil rights and popular resistance, while the Fianna Fáil Government of Jack Lynch stood idly by. The “Good Neighbourliness” policy of Lemass was more about consolidating power in the 26 Counties than a workable strategy to end Partition. It is premised on the concept that
BY CIARAN QUINN
anphoblacht UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2020 - ISSUE NUMBER 3
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