A Democratic Programme For The New Irish Republic - Read It Here
Last October marked the 230th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast, an event which has long been considered as the start date for the Irish Republican struggle.
From the outset Irish Republicans have always understood that the battle for progress is fundamentally a battle of ideas — a battle between the ideas that underpin the injustices of the status quo and the ideas that will usher in a new age of equality, liberty, community, justice, democracy and sovereignty.
Wolfe Tone understood that an Irish Republic could only be established after first winning the hearts and minds of the Irish working class to the republican ideal.
Irish Republicans have also always understood that their ideas must be embraced by the very people who stand to gain the most from the radical change — the people that Wolfe Tone described as ‘that numerous and respectable class of the community, the men of no property’.
Every generation of Irish republicans since the time of Tone have thus put great effort into first developing, and then spreading their ideas through posters, leaflets, pamphlets, newspapers and proclamations. Those ideas, while anchored in timeless republican principles, have evolved over time, adapting to new discoveries and the changing conditions of struggle.
The 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic may be the most well-known of these documents, but the 1867 Proclamation that preceded it, and the 1919 Democratic Programme that followed it, are at least as important in their contribution to the advancement of the Irish republican ideal.
The 1916 Proclamation, incorporating many core republican ideals, became a rallying point for the Irish nation in the years that followed the 1916 Rising.
Understanding the ongoing importance of the battle of ideas and inspired by the 1919 Democratic Programme of the First Dáil Éireann, Éirígí has developed and published a modern-day Democratic Programme For The New Republic.
While anchored in core republican principles and building on the ideas of previous generations, A Democratic Programme For The New Republic is most definitely a document for today — an analysis and a manifesto for the 2020s and the new republican movement that will be needed to establish the New Republic.
A Democratic Programme For The New Republic addresses topics which might be considered traditional republican topics, such as Irish re-unification and control of Ireland’s natural resources, as well as topics which modern republicanism must now embrace as core areas of struggle, such as women’s rights and environmental protection.
Cover image of Éirígí’s Democratic Programme For The New Republic
The struggle to end partition and establish a new all-Ireland Republic must be fought at both the theoretical and practical levels. Neither theory without activism or activism without theory, will deliver the meaningful and sustained change that Ireland needs.
A Democratic Programme For The New Republic marks an important advance for contemporary Irish republicanism. It provides a broad vision of the Republic that Éirígí wants to see established in the aftermath of a British withdrawal from the occupied Six Counties.
A Democratic Programme For The New Republic, which was first adopted by Éirígí activists in 2018, is an evolving manifesto for a future Ireland. It’s a living document that can be expanded and amended by Éirígí activists through the party’s internal democratic processes.
We ask you to read A Democratic Progamme For A New Republic here. And if you find yourself in general agreement with our analysis and our ideas, then we ask you to give serious consideration to joining Éirigí and the 230-year-old struggle to establish an Irish Republic. Join us here.
An extract from Éirígí’s Democratic Programme For The New Republic