Easter 2024 Address

A very happy Easter to you all!

Today, as we commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising, let us take a moment to remember those who fought and died for our independence, our freedom, our self determination and our right to choose our own destiny as a people, one hundred and eight years ago.

They did the impossible and stood against the mightiest empire the world had ever seen, and brought that ravening lion to heel. Their resolution proved beyond doubt that evil's persistence, even through long centuries of persecution, does not change the nature of evil to righteousness nor grant its existence any justification. The heroes of 1916 demonstrated that however long and bitter the struggle, good can and will prevail against all odds.

An Piarsach cried "the fools, the fools, the fools! – they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace". How the enemy chuckled as they consigned his body to a graveless pit of lime in memoriam, but to no avail - he is enshrined forever in our hearts. Our victory over the enemy then and now shall be to answer their laughter with the laughter of our children.

And yet the glory of the accomplishments of the heroes of 1916 throws into stark contrast how far the nation they gave their lives for has strayed from their vision for an Irish Ireland, for a Gaelic Ireland.

Not for want of spirit or desire among the great majority of the people of Ireland, but for want of leadership and guidance, today our children stand in departure lines at the airport with tears in their eyes, driven from home, friend and family, watching strangers flood in from half the world to take their place and eat their bread. Where is the laughter of our children now?

The lion's roar has been taken up by the baying of a wolf pack, fanged with neither army nor fleet to march on our streets and blockade our ports, but with twisted words and inverted sentiments. Had John Bull only learned to shout "Anglophobia!" not a shot need have been fired in the British plantation and oppression of Ireland, and what's more, the Irish might have paid for it themselves, like birds feeding the cuckoo's offspring.

Today as we reflect on the heroes of 1916 and their sacrifices, let us no longer wave goodbye to our own children, but to the gall instead. A gentle but nonetheless firm farewell we bid them, to return to their own lands and in turn set right whatever wrongs drove them forth in the first place, as we had to do and will do again.

The time has come to look after our own people, take our own families, brothers and sisters, off the streets, provide homes, jobs and a vision for the future for our young people and for all the generations to come. As Michael Collins rightly put it, we must "fill our minds with Gaelic ideas, and our lives with Gaelic customs, until there is no room for any other." Our culture, heritage and traditions, our language and customs must be restored to their rightful place to the exclusion of all others.

Ireland must be Gaelicised from the centre to the sea, as her liberators fully intended. This will not be a burdensome task - the people of Ireland, like the people of all nations, have a great hunger to know of their own ways and will gladly embrace them given the opportunity.

We must shun the mistakes and failings of the past century, and even more so shun those who made them and who would smother our young nation, fix our sights on prevailing in the long struggle, and remember always the words of Pádraig Mac Piarais when he said:

"Ireland, from the centre to the zenith, belongs to the Irish.

Our forefathers believed this and fought for it: Hugh O’Donnell and Hugh O’Neill and Rory O’More and Owen Roe O’Neill: Tone and Emmet and Davis and Mitchel.

What was true in their time is still true.

Nothing that has happened or that can ever happen can alter the truth of it.

Ireland belongs to the Irish.

We believe, then, that it is the duty of Irishmen to struggle always, never giving in or growing weary, until they have won back their country again."