4th July 2026
Speech Delivered at Bodenstown Commemoration
A Comrádaithe,
We are here today to honour the first martyrs of our movement and in commemoration of its founding father, Theobald Wolfe Tone. Our presence is a testament to the power of the class which alone can deliver the emancipation of our people. And it is here that the Republican movement renews its efforts and reviews the past years of struggle, in the footsteps of much greater men than ourselves.
It is first and foremost in understanding Tone's legacy, that we know this: Tone was a dissident, he was an enemy to the ruling class of his time, from Irish compradors to the Crown of England. He never contended that our political evils could be resolved in any manner other than the total expulsion of the British presence on this island. Yet to this day and on these very grounds, we see the defilement of Tone's own words and actions, by the Green Tories and Social-Fascists, and so as Costello said before me, it is essential that we examine, in depth, his ideals and what rendered him a dissident in the Ireland of his time.
Tone did not divorce the political from the economic realities of colonisation as so many do today, in the context of modern imperialism. Tone's objections were not rooted in mere romantic nationalism, but in the objective interests of an entire class, upon which he made no distinctions of race or creed. His objective was the same as that which we face today: to unite Catholics and Protestants into one cohesive Irish nation and above all, to break the connection with England.
It is important that we recognise the fact long ago discovered by Irish revolutionaries from Tone to Connolly, that if the men of property will not support us, then they must fall. Ireland's legacy must be entrusted to that class that knows no compromise: the men and women of no property. Our movement in the past has not heeded their advice and repeated the same mistakes in entrusting the fate of Irish workers to the vacillating classes, resulting in the litany of betrayals by Treatyites, Fianna Fáilers, Sticks, and Shinners.
Our struggle today is the same as that in 1798, in 1916, and in 1969. Let nobody fool you that the situation has fundamentally changed, no matter what treaty or agreement may have been signed by traitors and lackeys. Our right to national self-determination on an all-Ireland basis continues to be denied, and to enforce this, thousands of British troops are stationed across the occupied six counties as part of Operation Helvetic, estimated to cost £1 billion per year, while a highly-militarised colonial militia is regularly seen knocking down doors and dragging Republican activists out of their beds in front of their children, to be interned without trial and tortured in British jails. And yet, the RUC is happy to watch on, protecting state-backed loyalist death squads, as they burn migrant families out of their homes in the worst pogroms we have seen since 1969.
The task we face is one that can only be carried through to its successful conclusion under the leadership of the working class adhering to the principles of scientific socialism. However today, the worker's movement has almost totally severed with the movement for national liberation. We have no all-Ireland radical trade union and a long list of nominally communist organisations that have betrayed the national liberation struggle, as they are run by a small, bribed section of our class that will never confront the primary issues we face, all of which stem from the principal contradiction: the British presence in Ireland. We must sweep away the reformist parties, and establish new, disciplined revolutionary organisations that are prepared to do what is necessary to pursue the joint struggle of national and social liberation to its completion. To this end, our work must be integrated not just in communities, but in every workspace, from the shopfloor to the seashore, where every organised cell of workers becomes a cell for struggle. A struggle that is not just against the imperialists and compradors but the aristocracy of the trade unions who are themselves complicit in the exploitation of our class.
Our class's interest cannot be reconciled with private appropriaters, and a state that prioritises foreign financial interests cannot be reconciled with the national interest. We understand that socialism is unachievable, unless all resources produced and utilised by Irish labour are appropriated by Irish labour, and likewise, genuine national independence is impossible while foreign capital exerts a stranglehold on Irish society. As Connolly said, if you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic, your efforts would be in vain.
Our struggle must necessarily take on an international character, as Tone saw, and be situated amongst revolutionary struggles across the globe. It is the fight against global imperialism that should be at the forefront of the minds of Socialist-Republicans. We must be unrepentant in our support for all national liberation struggles as twins of our own. From Ireland to Palestine, from Lebanon to Iran, from India to thePhilipinnes, we all have the same enemy in common.
It is not enough to merely commemorate our heroes. Every one of you when you go home today must begin the patient, disciplined work of organising, in your workplaces, in your universities, in your streets, to prepare for that final confrontation with British imperialism that will sweep away the rule of capital from our land. Our task is not one that any organisation can carry out alone. It necessitates the reunification and reconstruction of a divided Republican movement, and the construction of a broad united front consisting of all Revolutionary Republican forces for the sole purpose of driving out the British forces of occupation.
Tiocfaidh ár lá!