29 March 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Jonathan O’Brien has stated that bringing about the republic envisaged in the 1916 proclamation remains unfinished business.
Deputy O’Brien was speaking at an event in the Metropole Hotel this week to mark the Cork City launch of Sinn Féin’s National 1916 Rising Centenary Commemorative Programme.
The launch involved a detailed presentation from Bartle D’arcy who is Sinn Féin’s Commemorative Events National Co-ordinator.
Deputy O’Brien said;
“We live in a time of frightening deprivation, inequality and poverty. Ireland remains a partitioned island. We have yet to realise the vision of the 1916 proclamation.
“The spirit of the Easter rising of 1916 and the courage of those who went out to fight for our independence stand in stark contrast to the self-serving nature of the political establishment today.
“Sinn Féin has always marked and recognised the sacrifices of those people who fought during that momentous period. We have always understood the significance of the rising as a watershed in the history of our struggle for freedom.
“The continuity of the republican struggle has not been broken by revisionists or the counter revolutionaries who benefited from partition and the establishment of two states on this island that have been characterised by embedded inequality and unfairness.”
“The signatories of the proclamation are comrades of Bobby Sands and his friends who died on hunger strike in 1981.
“Furthermore, they would be speaking out against the injustices of austerity and deprivation in the Ireland of they were alive today.
“The programme presented tonight is unique. impressive and honours the political and cultural importance of the rising.
“In the coming weeks, Sinn Féin in Cork will be establishing a committee which will oversee a programme of local events to mark 1916 in this city.
“I would encourage everybody to come out and attend the events. This is our history. The legacy of the 1916 rising belongs all the people of Ireland. We should claim that legacy as a united people in the run-up to the centenary.”
