HISTORIC SINN FÉIN DECLARATION Ruairi O"Bradaigh - Nov. 2, 1986 Poblacht na hÉireann Irish Republic Whereas a majority of the delegates to the 82nd Ard-Fheis of Sinn Féin have today voted to allow their elected representatives to recognize the26-County Parliament at Leinster House and take part in its administration: and, Whereas such a decision conflicts with the two fundamental principles on which the organization is based and which are enshrined in the Constitution of Sinn Féin, viz."(a) That the allegiance of Irishmen and Irishwomen is due to the Sovereign Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916. (b) That the sovereignty and unity of the Republic are inalienable and non-judicable": and, Whereas the experience of six decades of attempts to win full Irish freedom through the Leinster House partitionist assembly has shown such efforts to be a total failure, culminating in recent years in full collaboration with the London Government, including extradition of political prisoners and the spending of one million pounds per day of Irish taxpayers' money in protecting the border for England: and, Whereas, no group, minority or majority, claiming to serve the historic cause of national freedom and sovereignty, can grant recognition to the British-created institutions of Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster. We, Irish Republicans who wish to uphold the basic Republican position enshrined in the Sinn Féin Constitution until today and meeting in public session declare as follows: We renew our allegiance to the Sovereign Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 and which was endorsed by the majority of the people of Ireland, acting as a unit, in 1918. We uphold the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in national Parliament, Dáil Éireann, on January 21st, 1919 and heroically defended in arms by succeeding generations of Irish Republicans. We will pursue the Republican objectives by continuing the organization of Republican Sinn Féin whose object will be to organize the Irish people, at home and abroad, in opposition to British interference in the affairs of the historic Irish Nation: to defend the interests of the Irish people against all forms of colonialism and exploitation and exploitation, political, social, economic and cultural: and to devise policies for the emancipation of all the Irish people, including a system of government which will cherish all the children of the Nation equally and give all a truly democratic voice in the government of their community, by the establishment of a Democratic Socialist Republic. We salute the memory of our patriot dead who shall always inspire us and we express our solidarity with the families of those who died in the cause of Irish freedom in recent years. To all our Republican prisoners we pledge ourselves to carry on the struggle for which they are now suffering so much. We uphold the historic right of the Irish people to use whatever degree of controlled and disciplined force is necessary in resisting English aggression and bringing about an English withdrawal from our country forever. We confidently ask all the Irish people for their support in our endeavors to make the Irish Republic a living reality. Our exiled men and women and all others who have helped us so far are invited to continue their support, which has always been appreciated. Tuigimid go maith go mbeidh deacrachtaí romhainn ins an obair seo ar fad agus glacaimid na cúraimí seo orainn le dóchas go mbeidh muintir na hÉireann fial lena gcúnamh mar a bhí i gcónaí. Seasaimid le Poblacht 1916 2nd November 1986 (to top of page)
General Election Manifesto to the Irish PeopleThe coming General Election is fraught with vital possibilities for the future of our nation. Ireland is faced with the question whether this generation wills it that she is to march out into the full sunlight of freedom, or is to remain in the shadow of a base imperialism that has brought and ever will bring in its train naught but evil for our race. Sinn Féin gives Ireland the opportunity of vindicating her honour and pursuing with renewed confidence the path of national salvation by rallying to the flag of the Irish Republic. Sinn Féin aims at securing the establishment of that Republic. Sinn Féin stands less for a political party than for the Nation; it represents the old tradition of nationhood handed on from dead generations; it stands by the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of Easter, 1916, reasserting the inalienable right of the Irish Nation to sovereign independence, reaffirming the determination of the Irish people to achieve it, and guaranteeing within the independent Nation equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens. Believing that the time has arrived when Ireland's voice for the principle of untrammelled National self-determination should be heard above every interest of party or class, Sinn Féin will oppose at the Polls every individual candidate who does not accept this principle. The policy of our opponents stands condemned on any test, whether of principle or expediency. The right of a nation to sovereign independence rests upon immutable natural law and cannot be made the subject of a compromise. Any attempt to barter away the sacred and inviolate rights of nationhood begins in dishonour and is bound to end in disaster. The enforced exodus of millions of our people, the decay of our industrial life, the ever-increasing financial plunder of our country, the whittling down of the demand for the ‘Repeal of the Union’, voiced by the first Irish Leader to plead in the Hall of the Conqueror to that of Home Rule on the Statute Book, and finally the contemplated mutilation of our country by partition, are some of the ghastly results of a policy that leads to national ruin. Those who have endeavoured to harness the people of Ireland to England's war-chariot, ignoring the fact that only a freely-elected Government in a free Ireland has power to decide for Ireland the question of peace and war, have forfeited the right to speak for the Irish people. The Green Flag turned red in the hands of the Leaders, but that shame is not to be laid at the doors of the Irish people unless they continue a policy of sending their representatives to an alien and hostile assembly, whose powerful influence has been sufficient to destroy the integrity and sap the independence of their representatives. Ireland must repudiate the men who, in a supreme crisis for the nation, attempted to sell her birthright for the vague promises of English Ministers, and who showed their incompetence by failing to have even these promises fulfilled. The present Irish members of the English Parliament constitute an obstacle to be removed from the path that leads to the Peace Conference. By declaring their will to accept the status of a province instead of boldly taking their stand upon the right of the nation they supply England with the only subterfuge at her disposal for obscuring the issue in the eyes of the world. By their persistent endeavours to induce the young manhood of Ireland to don the uniform of our seven-century old oppressor, and place their lives at the disposal of the military machine that holds our Nation in bondage, they endeavour to barter away and even to use against itself the one great asset still left to our Nation after the havoc of centuries. Sinn Féin goes to the polls handicapped by all the arts and contrivances that a powerful and unscrupulous enemy can use against us. Conscious of the power of Sinn Féin to secure the freedom of Ireland the British Government would destroy it. Sinn Féin, however, goes to the polls confident that the people (sic) of this ancient nation will be true to the old cause and will vote for the men who stand by the principles of Tone, Emmet, Mitchel, Pearse and Connolly, the men who disdain to whine to the enemy for favours, the men who hold that Ireland must be as free as England or Holland, or Switzerland or France, and whose demand is that the only status befitting this ancient realm is the status of a free nation. Issued by the standing committee of Sinn Féin. (top of page)
PROCLAMATION OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC
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