GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Two hundred years ago, Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism gave us the following principles upon which we base our position regarding the reunification of Ireland: to unite the whole people of Ireland regardless of religious conviction. to break the connection with England, the never ending source of all political evil The National Irish Freedom Committee views the 1798 uprising led by Tone as no mere rebellion, but the beginning of an ongoing struggle for Irish freedom and unity that continues to this day. The subsequent uprisings of 1803, 1867 and 1916, the 1916 Proclamation of an Irish Republic, and the War of Independence, all historic events, nevertheless, were part of the same struggle. In each succeeding generation Irish men and women remaining true to Tone's principles continued to struggle, and many gave their lives, as did the men who died on hunger strike in 1981. We believe that the determination of the Irish people to be free will eventually overcome Britain's insistence on maintaining their colonial rule in Ireland. The National Irish Freedom Committee considers the British presence in Ireland and their colonial policy of divide and rule to be the root cause of the never-ending source of political evil that continues to plague Ireland. The success of this policy is due to the greed of collaborators in Ireland and elsewhere who are rewarded with power and privilege for their cooperation. The establishment of the so-called "College Green Parliament" of Gratton and Parsons was a prime example of how this policy was implemented. This parliament, which was created and used by the British to legitimize the infamous Act of Union of 1803, left Ireland vulnerable, defenseless and deeper in the colonial web. During the War of Independence when freedom and sovereignty was within reach, the British once more used the divide and rule policy to frustrate the will of the Irish people. In concert with their collaborators in Ireland, the British government enacted the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and engineered the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, for the sole purpose of maintaining its control in Ireland. Instead of independence and freedom for Ireland, these infamous political maneuvers partitioned Ireland into two parts, the 26-county Irish Fee State and the 6-county Northern Ireland State. The southern 26-county southern state was controlled from Leinster House in Dublin and the 6-county northern state was controlled from Stormont in Belfast. These British initiated arrangements led to a civil war between pro-treaty collaborators and Irish republicans who opposed the treaty and in so doing remained true to Tone's principles After the collapse of the Northern Ireland State in 1972 caused by the renewed armed conflict, the British moved to impede any progress towards unification. This time they invoked the support of the authorities in Dublin, first through provisions of the failed Sunningdale Agreement of 1974 and subsequently through the Hillsborough Agreement of 1986, which also failed and finally through the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Apart from legitimizing British rule in Ireland, these agreements provided for coordinated British and Irish military and police actions, extradition of Irish citizens to Britain and the use of other draconian measures designed to defeat Republicans in their quest for Irish unity. The National Irish Freedom Committee in defining its position recognizes the mandate of the First Dail Eireann (1919) as its justification to pursue and promote a united and free Ireland. This all-Ireland parliament was convened as a result of the only all-Ireland general election in 1918, which was won by Republicans invoking the principles of Tone and the 1916 Declaration of an Irish Republic. For the stated reasons the National Irish Freedom Committee will direct its energies and resources to further the cause of Irish reunification in accordance with traditional Irish Republican values and principles as defined by Wolfe Tone in 1798.
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