SOUTH DERRY EASTER COMMEMORATION: BELLAGHY

The 1916 Societies held a commemoration in Bellaghy on Easter Sunday. The South Derry Easter Commemoration was jointly organised by the Sean Larkin Society, South Derry, the Patrick Loughran Society, Cookstown and the Thomas Ashe Society, Dungiven. The parade began at Bellaghy Bawn and made its way up through Bellaghy to the graveyard to the final resting place of Francis Hughes and Thomas McElwee. During the event the 1916 Proclamation was read out, the South Derry Roll of Honour and a poem dedicated to Francis Hughes. Wreaths were laid on the two Volunteers graves and also the graves of Dominic and Mary McGlinchey. Tommy McKearney gave the main oration:

“For Irish Republicans, Easter is a time when we gather to commemorate our fallen comrades and to pay tribute to their courage, to their valour and to the sacrifice they have made in the cause of an independent, sovereign, all Ireland Republic. Today we stand here at the gravesides of Volunteers Francis Hughes, Thomas McIlwee and Dominic McGlinchy in recognition of and acknowledgement of their dedication, their awesome bravery and heroism.”

“It is important also that we recognise the enormous debt we owe these heroes, and all the other countless martyrs and not just those of the most recent struggle but also over the decades and indeed centuries of our people’s resistance to occupation, oppression and tyranny.”

“Resistance has ever been a feature of our history and as we know only too well as we stand here by the graveside of Francis Hughes and Thomas McIlwee so often this resistance emanated from the fortitude of the imprisoned as they denied the oppressor the ability to criminalise the struggle for liberation. The iron will of the Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa or the enduring strength of Tom Clarke who wrote in a memoire that would resonate in many a prison cell throughout the century. It is appropriate to quote some lines”

“Humiliation might be heaped upon me with an unsparing hand and punishments, diabolically brutal, measured out for years, but never for one minute did I forget that I was an Irish political prisoner and, in spite of it all, never felt any degradation. The struggle has gone on for centuries and, in the course of it, a well trodden path has been made that leads to the scaffold and to the prison.”

“Words written, mind you, shortly before he organised the first of the now annual pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown, Co. Kildare, and done so as a counter to a royal visit of the new king of England, George V.”

“Easter is also a time for reflection. A time to consider, in light of the enormity of the contribution, of the scale of the sacrifice made by our heroic volunteers, that this is a time to think deeply about the vision that inspired them and the principles that motivated them. To do so is especially important at times like this when opportunistic tactics are employed in certain quarters in order to discredit our heroes and uncertainty prevails among others seeking to be accepted by their rulers.”

“First, look south of the border where re-unification is being fiercely resisted by the Free State ruling class.”

“Consider for a moment the absurdity of the newly installed leader of Fine Gael shouting about reclaiming the flag of the Republic. This, let us never forget, coming from a party that implemented the Treaty that overthrew the Republic in exchange for Dominion status within the British Empire. Perhaps it would be more appropriate if he were asked to take it down from the mast.”

“Then again there is the slanderous accusation of barbarism emanating from a reactionary former minister who seemingly has no awareness of atrocities carried out by his Free State in order to impose the treaty by force. Atrocities such as Ballyseedy Cross or closer to home for him, the executions on 8th December 1922 of Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett, Rory O’Connor and Joe McKelvey.”

“And while many might well ask, what else would you expect from that quarter, there are those closer to home who would care to claim the mantle of our heroes … But only when it suits their greater ambitions. Those who are ambivalent about which line to take, a group of people with principles so flexible that they appear to believe in the possibility of walking both sides of the road at the same time.”

• Would-be Republicans embracing and pandering in London to his newly crowned Britannic Majesty.
• So-called anti-imperialists yet who cannot be advised against wining and dining with the Imperial Emperor in his lair.
• Wannabe socialists cosying up to and giving solid reassurances to big business.

“Not so much a party for all, as a party of all things to all people. As an American comedian once said; those are my principles and if you don’t like I have plenty others.”

“How starkly stands the contrast between the disingenuousness of long-term reactionaries joined now by ambivalent reformists with the unbending and unbreakable heart of our fallen comrades, the gallant patriots, Francis, Thomas and Dominic.”

“Let me be abundantly clear. No one can speak for the dead and I do not presume to do so. But what we can say unequivocally is the position they held and the ground they stood upon while alive. As the poet wrote;”

“We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead”

“What we can say without contradiction is that Oglaigh Francis Hughes, Thomas McIlwee and Dominic McGlinchy had one objective and it was that set out clearly at that time by the Irish Republican Army and INLA in which they were proud to serve and which they so nobly served. And that objective was an independent, sovereign, all Ireland democratic socialist republic. And it was in pursuit of this very clear and noble objective for which the noble three buried in this cemetery laid down their lives.”

These heroes had pledged their allegiance to a cause from which they would not deviate, echoing the immortal words of General Liam Lynch;

‘ … we have declared for an Irish Republic and will not live under any other law…’

“And just as with General Lynch, they were to make the supreme sacrifice because of their loyalty to the Republic as proclaimed by Pádraig Mac Piarais from the GPO steps on Easter Monday 1916.”

“Before we leave this sacred spot where lies the mortal remains of our comrades, let us pay them the only and properly fitting tribute for the sacrifice they made and did so, never forget, for us and the generations to come. That tribute is to pledge ourselves to see the realisation of the vision they held. No halfway house, no damned good bargain, no steppingstone, no 32-County Free State.”

“Nothing less than the establishment of an independent, sovereign, all Ireland democratic socialist republic. It was for this our patriots laid down their lives and until that is achieved, we shall not rest.”

“Is i measc na laochra ullig a mbeidh siad go deo.”