[Clann]

POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND




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.

Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

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 past three hundred years they have asserted it in 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 Irish woman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities of 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 in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provision Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. 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 on behalf of the Provisional Government,


THOMAS J. CLARKE
SEAN MAC DIERMADA
THOMAS MACDONAGH
P.H.PEARSE
EAMONN CEANNT
JAMES CONNOLLY
JOSEPH PLUNKETT

Easter week sees the time when Republicans remember the rising of 1916 when a handful of revolutionaries took on the most powerful empire in the world. They surrendered to halt any further civilian casualties due to indiscriminate British shelling of Dublin. Their sacrifice awakened and the following conscription crisis awakened the revolutionary spirit in Ireland and sparked the Tan war which led to the foundation of the Irish Free State, later the Republic of Ireland.

http://www.users.bigpond.com/kirwilli/1916/



I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

W.B Yeats - Easter 1916

Tiocfaidh Ár Lá!

[Comrade Ogilvy]

The British reaction to the Easter uprising was very dimwitted. Had they simply given the instigators long jail sentences, and had they not shelled Dublin, they never would've faced the Tan War, and there might not be an independent Ireland today.

[Batko]

Had they... Had they...

Though they hadn't.

Poor arguments, really.

[Irish_Lefty]

Well at the time most people in Dublin hated the rebels for the uprising and saw it as trechary when many of there sons where of fighting the Germans. If they had shot the rebels there and then it would of sovled the problem instead of waiting until the people started to feel sorry for them. Of course there was always going to be an independent Ireland and giving them long sentences was not the answer for those that where only spread their ideals in prison and made the matter worse.

[Clann]

You would support the troops fighting Germany in the first world war then?

[Irish_Lefty]

I didnt say I supported the war im against most wars and that war was just an imperialist war which Britian should of played no part in. Im just saying for the British government to accomplise there goals they should of just shoot them there and then do I think that would be right no.

[Comrade Ogilvy]

Brittain used to be cunts, luckily they discarded their social-darwinistic belifs.

Go Ireland!

[Irish_Lefty]

Go Northern Ireland

[Mac]

Brittain used to be cunts

Wow. An excellent summation of British history.


Futhermore, the rising was hardly representative of all strands of republicanism or constitutionalism. Redmond and the Irish Nationalist Party for instance, were deeply distressed by the rising.

[Irish_Lefty]

That is ture , there where men in the IVF and UVF that serve together in the 38th Ulster Division in the Battle of the Somme and Redmond himself encouraged nationalists to sign up.

[Clann]

And for that reason Redmond was for want of a better word, a twat. Besides it wasn't the rising that had the great effect it was supposed to. It was a mixture of the rising, Brit reaction and the conscription crisis (most importantly) that produced the conditions for a war of Independence.

[Spin]

That is ture , there where men in the IVF and UVF that serve together in the 38th Ulster Division

The 36th Ulster Division consisted of Prods, there was the 17th, which saw action at Gallopoli and another, whos name I can't remember.

The risin itself acheived nothing but condemnation, the Brit reaction was what saved its spirit. Their heavy handedness caused the problems.

[Mac]

And for that reason Redmond was for want of a better word, a twat.

For attempting to achieve Home Rule through constitutional means as opposed to political violence? Traditionally that's called diplomacy, rationality or common political sense.

Little can be said in defence of the British reaction, but the resentment felt in it's aftermath was not present prior to the rising.

[Clann]

For attempting to achieve Home Rule through constitutional means as opposed to political violence? Traditionally that's called diplomacy, rationality or common political sense

Yes, he was a fool for making the Irish people beg for freedom when they should simply take it. The British don't have any right in Ireland why do we need to be diplomatic?

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed".

[Stygian]

To agree with your statement would imply that the "Irish" dont have any right to ireland either would it not? as they are simply just another ethnic group occupying a landmass.

[Clann]

Does anyone have any right to a piece of land? That is debatable. However, as things go the Irish or the celts or the gaels or whatever you want to call them were there first and Ireland was invaded.

[Stygian]

But who did they kill to get the island?, no doubt someone. Much as the angles and saxons killed to get contol of britain. The whole concept of 'rights' seems absurd to me, in the end Britain wasent strong enough (or didnt have the will power to engage in total war ala pre bc) to hold on to it, so they lost. If they had been strong enough they would still be in contol of it. The victor write's the history.

[Clann]

Cessair & Fintan
Partholan
Nemed
Fomorians
Fir-Bolg
Tuatha De Danann
Milesians
Celts

There are alot of legends but this is a rough chronology of the people who have settled in Ireland.

[Irish_Lefty]

Forgot

Hugenouts
English
Scots
Welsh

[The Immortal Goon]

I disagree with saying Redmond was a twat. That avenue, even if it didn't work, needed to be explored so - if nothing else - it could be said that the Irish had done everything in their power.

And that's more or less how it happened. Had the north not been babies about the Home Rule deal and listened to the vast majority of the parliment in England, not to mention the vast majority of people in England and Ireland, not to mention the Western World, then all of this could have been avoided.

Instead they were babies. Even when Redmond, populorly supported by all of Ireland at the time, Asquith, and Churchill got together and said, "Look. In six years there'll the north will join the rest of Irleand and get special status and extra representation. Also, there will be two elections in that time that can even stop them from joining if the people vote for that." Even with that compromise, the Orangemen had to be a bunch of babies and whined about that deal with the following logic, "That's too good of a deal. You're only making such a good deal so that we'll look unreasonable rejecting it."

No, the whole thing is that they were babies, and they were inbred aristocratic bastards who wanted to stop Home Rule so as to ruin the Parliment Act and put the feudal aristocracy back in control. When it didn't work out, they cried and threatened to throw a tempertantrum.

The Irish went off to fight and die for the above deal that, even the Orangemen admitted was a good deal for them. Then, the War Office who was in control of the government at the time, got put in to power as well as the Tories who were sworn enemeis of Redmond and homerule. They demanded more Irish to the fronts (where they were treated very poorly I might add) and on top of that, they started to deman conscription for the Irish - and, signing deals with Carson saying that the north actually will never go to Ireland - but not telling the Irish of this so they'd keep going to war.

The Irish had no choice but to rise. Redmond kept trying to be diplomatic about it, but his role was over. People still sided with Redmond for a little while after that, but after more bodybags kept coming in, and everyone was executed day after day, secret trials, the unlawful and secret execution of Sheely-Skeffington and other pacifists by the British was exposed by Dillon and other events - after the facade came off the whole thing - the public stood behind the Republicans. Enough was enough.

-TIG