09/22/2025
What is Irish Republicanism?
TO the Republican Movement which maintains
direct organisational continuity from Fenian times,
through the Irish Republican Brotherhood, past 1916
and the First Dáil to the present day, Republicanism
in Ireland has a very strict, yet extremely
comprehensive meaning.
paper and parchment . . . Let
laws and customs say what they
will, these truths are stronger
than any law; those who control
your lands will make your laws
and control your liberties and
laws.
” The restoration to the
Irish people of their social,
In the strict sense, an Irish
Republican was one who gave
allegiance to the 32-County
Republic of Easter 1916 and
who denied the right of the
British Government to rule
here. With the establishment of
the first Dáil Éireann in 1919 as
the Government of that
Republic its supporters were
Republicans, just as were those
who opposed the setting up
here of two partition States —
Six County and 26 County — in
1921 and 1922.
The “Treaty” States, both
North and South subservient
economically to Britain,
suppressed the All-Ireland Dáil
which was the embodiment of
the Republic. For the
Republican Movement then, a
Republican today is one who
rejects the Partition Statelets in
Ireland and gives his allegiance
to and seeks to restore the 32-
County Republic of Easter
Week.
But what happened in 1922
is deserving of a deeper
analysis. North of the Border
life went on just as it had for
hundreds of years, except that
now the local Ascendancy class
had a private powerbloc called
Stormont, a private army
named the B-Special
Constabulary and the full
backing both militarily and
financially of the British
Government. This power they
have used unashamedly to
divide Protestant and Catholic
working people to their mutual
disadvantage, exploiting them
both.
In the 26 Counties all the
symbols and trappings of
freedom were gradually won,
but despite limited efforts in the
1930s and 1940s, the new State
remains a new colony, an
example of unfinished and
interrupted revolution,
territorially, economically,
culturally — a model of “Neo-
colonialism”.
So then a Republican in
1970 is one who seeks a great
deal more than just physical
control of the 32 counties for
the Irish people. He stands in a
line of succession going back
beyond Wolfe Tone to the
Gaelic leaders of resistance to
the Norman invasion. But it was
Tone “the father of Irish
Republicanism” who articulated
clearly the objective: “The
rights of man in Ireland. The
greatest happiness of the
greatest number.
“The rights of man are the
rights of God and to vindicate
one is to maintain the other. We
must be free in order to serve
Him whose service is perfect
freedom.”
Fintan Lalor likewise sought
something more than mere
political freedom. He spoke of
“constitutions and characters
and enactments of freedom,”
saying “these things are only
cultural and economic heritage
was his aim.”
James Connolly maintained
that “the whole age-long fight
of the Irish people against their
oppressors resolves itself in the
last analysis into a fight for the
mastery of the means of life,
the sources of production in
Ireland.”
To give depth and meaning
to Republicanism — beyond
just the right to fly the Irish
Tricolour or to paint letter
boxes greed — is to see the
Republican objective as one
with political, social, economic
and cultural dimensions. The
Democratic Programme of the
First Dáil in 1919 which fulfilled
this role has since been
carefully left to one side in
certain quarters.
There are many calling
themselves Republicans who
would be perfectly satisfied
with the name of a Republic for
all 32 Counties while leaving the
present social, economic and
cultural system unchanged —
or worse still, integrating it with
the rampant capitalism of the
EU. They are deluding
themselves and deluding
others.
For the Republican
Movement only a struggle on
many fronts will achieve the
Republican objective of
restoring the “ownership of
Ireland to the people of Ireland”
(1916 Proclamation). Such a
struggle inevitably gets bogged
down in parliament, be it
Westminster, Stormont or
Leinster House, and those
attempting it get absorbed into
the Imperial system.
Have we not seen the
alienation of large sections of
the Labour party from some of
its parliamentary
representatives recently, while
the “Civil Rights” MPs in the Six
Counties were at loggerheads
with the Fermanagh Civil Rights
Association over the Enniskillen
march?
All necessary means must
be used to restore Ireland and
her resources to the Irish
people, not precluding as a last
resort the use of physical force
against the British Army of
Occupation. The means are, of
course, only secondary — the
objective and its interpretation
are paramount. For the
Republican Movement the
definition of Republicanism
rests mainly on the nature of
the ultimate goal and the
condition of allegiance to the
Republic of Easter Week.
We have outlined clearly in
policy statements and through
our official monthly, An
Phoblacht, the nature of the
social and economic system —
based on the right of worker
ownership and the native Irish
tradition of Comhar na
gComharsan — which we seek
to establish in a free Ireland.
— Ruairí Ó Brádaigh,
President Sinn Féin, First
published in the Irish
Independent, December
9, 1970.
Sinn Féin Poblachtach
are recruiting across
the country
Apply online at:
https://republicansinnfein.org/membership
or contact [email protected]
Republican SINN FÉIN Poblachtach has direct
and unbroken continuity with the original Sinn
Féin organisation founded in 1905.
In 1969 following the
reformist/revolutionary split in
the organisation Sinn Féin re-
organised and in doing so upheld
the Revolutionary Republican
Constitution loyal to the All-
Ireland Republic proclaimed in
1916.
In 1986 the leadership of
Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness manipulated
members and supporters to take
seats in the British-imposed counter-revolutionary
parliament Leinster House in the 26 Counties.
This decision caused a split in the Republican
Movement and in Sinn Féin resulting in a walk-out at the
1986 Ard- Fheis.
Revolutionary Republicans re-organised once again
out of that walkout. Entering Leinster House as predicted
led to a larger erosion of Republican principles, to the
acceptance of entering Stormont and an acceptance of
British Partition.
We continue to uphold the right of the Irish people
to oppose the British occupation of Ireland using any
level of controlled and disciplined force. We will never
accept foreign rule over the historic Irish nation.
Membership
ONLINE APPLICATION IS FOR IRELAND ONLY. APPLICATIONS OUTSIDE OF IRELAND WILL BE IGNORED. If you are living in Scotland, England, Wales, Cornwall or the Isle of Mann email your details to sfp1916@gm…