Post by RedFlag32 on Apr 29, 2007 7:58:29 GMT
The Irish Resistance
Nasser Mashadi - 07/03/2007 - 22:53 | Hits: 319
And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns!
"Resistance(1) to a foreign force’s violations of a country’s sovereignty has always been a religious and moral right intimately related to the human right to life, dignity and freedom."
Alia Youseff’s statement is well illustrated by the history of Ireland and its people. Having been a centre of European Christian civilisation (2) for several centuries, the Irish found themselves marginalized and threatened by the Roman Church and the newly evolving feudal system. The Norman conquerors of England and Wales brought this alien system to the doorstep of Ireland.
The invasion of Ireland by the Norman king of England Henry II in 1169, started centuries of conflict between England, [and its political successor the United Kingdom] and the Irish people for the control of Ireland. The Norman led armies from England and Wales and the subsequent invaders upholding the English monarch’s rule in Ireland, found a vigorous indigenous culture, with its own legal system, the Brehon Law, which was a subtle as anything created by the English, Normans or any other people.
The emphasis of Brehon Law on the collective ownership of natural resources, and the payment of taxes to support the welfare of the poor (3), is both Christian and Islamic. The feudal concept of absolute ownership of land was never fully accepted by the Irish whose indigenous system gave the clan leaders a trusteeship over land on behalf of the whole clan.
The legitimate right to resist England’s rule in Ireland has been a constant theme of Irish rebels, be it by constitutional or military means (4). Often the right of the overwhelming majority of Irish people, who lived by agriculture, to the land of Ireland itself, was the origin of these resistance movements.
Irish resistance was expressed through a network of secret societies, carrying out violent reprisals against oppressive landlords and their exploitative agents and middlemen. These societies such as the “White boys “, so-called because of the long white shirts they wore (5), reflected the rage of the peasant farmers and labourers at their situation.
If the land wars were a bitter stream running through Irish history, no less was religious discrimination. As the Norman rulers of England had enforced the feudal Latin Church on the clannish Irish Christians, the later British rulers made the established Protestant Anglican Church the official religion of Ireland as it was in England. This was the religion of a minority of settlers, who had been planted in Ireland by the English rulers. The great mass of the Irish by staying within the Catholic Church found themselves without political or civil rights. Those who preferred unofficial Protestant churches, such as the Presbyterian sect favoured by most of the Scottish settlers in the northern province of Ulster, were similarly subject to discrimination.
The discontent of the oppressed peasants and disenfranchised urban artisans and merchants, made fertile ground for republicanism, the revolutionary doctrine being articulated by the American Founding Fathers, in the last decades of the 18th century (6) The stage was set for the United Irishmen the first of a succession of revolutionary republican movements, whose courageous but unsuccessful attempts at military over throw of the British rulers, inspired new generations to carry on resisting (7).
Theobold Wolf Tone the most prominent leader of the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishman had a clear view of how democracy and religion complimented one another:
“The rights of man in Ireland (8). The greatest happiness of the greatest number. The rights of man are the rights of God and to vindicate one is to maintain the other. We must be free in order to serve Him whose service is perfect freedom”
These political ideas were more dangerous to the British Empire than the abortive risings of the ill trained and poorly equipped “United men”. The United Irishmen had a political vision, which linked them to revolutionaries in France and America and oppressed people in England, Scotland and beyond. Of more immediate danger to British rule was that supporters of the United Irishmen came from all the Christian sects. The British were determined to encourage religious divisions amongst Irish people, to weaken the appeal of republicanism. The anti-Catholic Orange Order (9) became an important factor in helping the British divide and rule in Ireland.
With the defeat of the United Irishmen and the suppression of the secret societies, some turned to constitutional methods. Wealthy but disenfranchised Catholics successfully won the right to be MPs [Members of Parliament]. They formed a succession of Irish Parties within the British Parliament. Some of these Irish MP’s merely defended the interests of the wealthy minority, others like Charles Stewart Parnell, although a wealthy Protestant landlord himself, stood up for the rights of the tenant farmers.
Many wanted to shoot those who evicted tenants, or moved onto their land. Parnell said ostracising them was more Christian. One of first to be defeated by this tactic was a ruthless land agent Captain Boycott, who evicted poor tenants from the lands of Lord Erne. Captain Boycott, even with the support of pro-British Orangeman and the British Army its self, failed to overcome the servants, labourers, tradesmen and shop keepers who refused to work for him, or trade with him. Thus the tactic of “boycotting” was born, and has been a vital weapon in the armoury of resistance movements ever since.
Attempts to alleviate the oppression of tenant farmers were partially successful, when the British parliament conceded certain rights to them, including the right and means to buy their own farms. Republicans still wanted the land and natural resources to belong to people, and the country to be an independent republic. A more modest demand for Ireland to have a measure of Home Rule while staying within the British Empire, was continually undermined by the Conservative Party and their political allies in the Orange Order and the British Army.
A small band of men including the secret military Irish Republican Brotherhood and the revolutionary socialists of the Citizens Army carried out a series of risings in Easter 1916. The crass brutality of the British government’s subsequent suppression turned the rebels from an unpopular band of hotheads into national heroes. Although the rebels political front Sinn Fein won the vast majority of Irish seats in the 1919 parliamentary election, the new national assembly they created was not recognised by the British or their Irish allies. The first meeting of this Assembly called the Dail Eireann passed a Declaration of Independence.
A bloody and exhausting revolutionary war, followed by a civil war between hard line republicans and “Free Staters” failed resolve Irelands problems, and led to a typical imperial solution, the partition of the land into two states reflecting narrow sectarian traditions rather than broad republican virtues. The six counties of “Northern Ireland” remained part of the United Kingdom, a Protestant/ Unionist dominated canton run in contradiction to the principles of proportional representation agreed between the British and the republicans.
The recent unsuccessful attempt by republicans to drive the British out of the six counties of Northern Ireland, has led most republicans to put aside their weapons and try to pursue a purely political campaign. While Northern Ireland’s Unionist leaders refuse to sit around the table with the republicans of Sinn Fein, the success of this political phase of the struggle is far from sure.
The history of Irish resistance and its use of legal and constitutional methods, as well military campaigns, is rich source of instruction and inspiration for all those struggling for liberation. Irish republicans certainly reciprocate by showing solidarity with all those in struggle against imperialism. Wall murals in Republican areas of
Northern Ireland depict international fighters such as Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X as well as Irish revolutionaries and martyrs.
Mural of Malcolm X (10)
Quote from Al Hajj Malik al Shabbaz [Malcolm X] on the Republican mural.
“We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”
Patrick Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, August 1st, 1915
"Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have pacified half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but 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."
Lyrics to the song Joe Mc Donnell [an Irish Republican who died while on hunger strike in 1981] by the Wolf Tones (11):
"And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns,
When I think of all the deeds that you have done.
You have plundered many nations, divided many lands,
You have terrorised our people, you ruled with your iron hand,
And you brought this reign of terror to my land. "
english.wa3ad.org/index.php?show=news&action=article&id=1134
Nasser Mashadi - 07/03/2007 - 22:53 | Hits: 319
And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns!
"Resistance(1) to a foreign force’s violations of a country’s sovereignty has always been a religious and moral right intimately related to the human right to life, dignity and freedom."
Alia Youseff’s statement is well illustrated by the history of Ireland and its people. Having been a centre of European Christian civilisation (2) for several centuries, the Irish found themselves marginalized and threatened by the Roman Church and the newly evolving feudal system. The Norman conquerors of England and Wales brought this alien system to the doorstep of Ireland.
The invasion of Ireland by the Norman king of England Henry II in 1169, started centuries of conflict between England, [and its political successor the United Kingdom] and the Irish people for the control of Ireland. The Norman led armies from England and Wales and the subsequent invaders upholding the English monarch’s rule in Ireland, found a vigorous indigenous culture, with its own legal system, the Brehon Law, which was a subtle as anything created by the English, Normans or any other people.
The emphasis of Brehon Law on the collective ownership of natural resources, and the payment of taxes to support the welfare of the poor (3), is both Christian and Islamic. The feudal concept of absolute ownership of land was never fully accepted by the Irish whose indigenous system gave the clan leaders a trusteeship over land on behalf of the whole clan.
The legitimate right to resist England’s rule in Ireland has been a constant theme of Irish rebels, be it by constitutional or military means (4). Often the right of the overwhelming majority of Irish people, who lived by agriculture, to the land of Ireland itself, was the origin of these resistance movements.
Irish resistance was expressed through a network of secret societies, carrying out violent reprisals against oppressive landlords and their exploitative agents and middlemen. These societies such as the “White boys “, so-called because of the long white shirts they wore (5), reflected the rage of the peasant farmers and labourers at their situation.
If the land wars were a bitter stream running through Irish history, no less was religious discrimination. As the Norman rulers of England had enforced the feudal Latin Church on the clannish Irish Christians, the later British rulers made the established Protestant Anglican Church the official religion of Ireland as it was in England. This was the religion of a minority of settlers, who had been planted in Ireland by the English rulers. The great mass of the Irish by staying within the Catholic Church found themselves without political or civil rights. Those who preferred unofficial Protestant churches, such as the Presbyterian sect favoured by most of the Scottish settlers in the northern province of Ulster, were similarly subject to discrimination.
The discontent of the oppressed peasants and disenfranchised urban artisans and merchants, made fertile ground for republicanism, the revolutionary doctrine being articulated by the American Founding Fathers, in the last decades of the 18th century (6) The stage was set for the United Irishmen the first of a succession of revolutionary republican movements, whose courageous but unsuccessful attempts at military over throw of the British rulers, inspired new generations to carry on resisting (7).
Theobold Wolf Tone the most prominent leader of the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishman had a clear view of how democracy and religion complimented one another:
“The rights of man in Ireland (8). The greatest happiness of the greatest number. The rights of man are the rights of God and to vindicate one is to maintain the other. We must be free in order to serve Him whose service is perfect freedom”
These political ideas were more dangerous to the British Empire than the abortive risings of the ill trained and poorly equipped “United men”. The United Irishmen had a political vision, which linked them to revolutionaries in France and America and oppressed people in England, Scotland and beyond. Of more immediate danger to British rule was that supporters of the United Irishmen came from all the Christian sects. The British were determined to encourage religious divisions amongst Irish people, to weaken the appeal of republicanism. The anti-Catholic Orange Order (9) became an important factor in helping the British divide and rule in Ireland.
With the defeat of the United Irishmen and the suppression of the secret societies, some turned to constitutional methods. Wealthy but disenfranchised Catholics successfully won the right to be MPs [Members of Parliament]. They formed a succession of Irish Parties within the British Parliament. Some of these Irish MP’s merely defended the interests of the wealthy minority, others like Charles Stewart Parnell, although a wealthy Protestant landlord himself, stood up for the rights of the tenant farmers.
Many wanted to shoot those who evicted tenants, or moved onto their land. Parnell said ostracising them was more Christian. One of first to be defeated by this tactic was a ruthless land agent Captain Boycott, who evicted poor tenants from the lands of Lord Erne. Captain Boycott, even with the support of pro-British Orangeman and the British Army its self, failed to overcome the servants, labourers, tradesmen and shop keepers who refused to work for him, or trade with him. Thus the tactic of “boycotting” was born, and has been a vital weapon in the armoury of resistance movements ever since.
Attempts to alleviate the oppression of tenant farmers were partially successful, when the British parliament conceded certain rights to them, including the right and means to buy their own farms. Republicans still wanted the land and natural resources to belong to people, and the country to be an independent republic. A more modest demand for Ireland to have a measure of Home Rule while staying within the British Empire, was continually undermined by the Conservative Party and their political allies in the Orange Order and the British Army.
A small band of men including the secret military Irish Republican Brotherhood and the revolutionary socialists of the Citizens Army carried out a series of risings in Easter 1916. The crass brutality of the British government’s subsequent suppression turned the rebels from an unpopular band of hotheads into national heroes. Although the rebels political front Sinn Fein won the vast majority of Irish seats in the 1919 parliamentary election, the new national assembly they created was not recognised by the British or their Irish allies. The first meeting of this Assembly called the Dail Eireann passed a Declaration of Independence.
A bloody and exhausting revolutionary war, followed by a civil war between hard line republicans and “Free Staters” failed resolve Irelands problems, and led to a typical imperial solution, the partition of the land into two states reflecting narrow sectarian traditions rather than broad republican virtues. The six counties of “Northern Ireland” remained part of the United Kingdom, a Protestant/ Unionist dominated canton run in contradiction to the principles of proportional representation agreed between the British and the republicans.
The recent unsuccessful attempt by republicans to drive the British out of the six counties of Northern Ireland, has led most republicans to put aside their weapons and try to pursue a purely political campaign. While Northern Ireland’s Unionist leaders refuse to sit around the table with the republicans of Sinn Fein, the success of this political phase of the struggle is far from sure.
The history of Irish resistance and its use of legal and constitutional methods, as well military campaigns, is rich source of instruction and inspiration for all those struggling for liberation. Irish republicans certainly reciprocate by showing solidarity with all those in struggle against imperialism. Wall murals in Republican areas of
Northern Ireland depict international fighters such as Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X as well as Irish revolutionaries and martyrs.
Mural of Malcolm X (10)
Quote from Al Hajj Malik al Shabbaz [Malcolm X] on the Republican mural.
“We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”
Patrick Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, August 1st, 1915
"Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have pacified half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but 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."
Lyrics to the song Joe Mc Donnell [an Irish Republican who died while on hunger strike in 1981] by the Wolf Tones (11):
"And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns,
When I think of all the deeds that you have done.
You have plundered many nations, divided many lands,
You have terrorised our people, you ruled with your iron hand,
And you brought this reign of terror to my land. "
english.wa3ad.org/index.php?show=news&action=article&id=1134