We are gathered today to commemorate Volunteer Denis Spriggs, a member of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA who was murdered by British forces 90 years ago this month.
Denis Spriggs joined the IRA aged only 16. He played an active part in the Tan War and, as result of his activities was forced to go on the run. On the 9th July 1921 he had returned home briefly to visit his mother. His presence in the house was betrayed by a neighbour. That night the house was raided by Crown Forces. Denis Spriggs was seized, taken 100 yards from his home to the top of Blarney Street and shot dead. Only two days later, a truce came into effect between the British forces and the IRA.
It is important that we remember the sacrifices made by Denis Spriggs and those like him. Nobody forced him to step forward and join the struggle for Irish independence – indeed, he lied about his age in order to join the IRA. He saw the oppression of the Irish people under British rule, dreamed of a better future, and took action to make it happen. He knew from the start that by doing so he was putting his life on the line, but he did not let this stop him. Like thousands more Irishmen and women of his time, he believed in a better future for his country and as willing to sacrifice himself in order to make that dream a reality.
As an IRA volunteer, Denis Spriggs took up arms in order to establish the Irish Republic declared in 1916. The basis of that republic is set out in the Proclamation: “We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.” This is the core republican demand: that the Irish people have the right to control their own country, the freedom to decide their own future.
That is a freedom they have never been allowed to exercise. In the 1918 elections the Irish people declared their desire for independence, only to have the British suppress the First Dáil and impose martial law on the country. It was against this denial of the Irish people’s right to self-determination that young IRA volunteers like Denis Spriggs took up arms. The continuance of partition since 1921 has meant a further denial of Irish freedom. However the limited independence achieved by the 26 counties meant that for many people the struggle for independence appeared to be over. Freedom became something that was taken for granted. For some, talk of national sovereignty even came to sound old-fashioned. They forgot that freedom is not something that is just handed to us; it needs to be fought for and it needs to be defended.
Today, however, maybe we can see once again why national freedom, the sovereignty that Volunteers like Denis Spriggs fought for, really matters. Misgovernment by our political elite and the economic crisis have led to the loss of our economic sovereignty and our dependence on the EU and IMF. This means that the basic decisions about what happens in this country now require the permission of foreign agencies. Only this week their representatives were in Dublin to compile a quarterly report on the country’s progress. Irish government ministers were reduced to the position of schoolboys having their copybooks checked. As a result, economic decisions in this country are now being taken, not on the basis of what is good for the Irish people, but what serves the EU, the IMF, and the international banks and bondholders whose interests they represent.
For ordinary people, this means cutbacks in public services, reductions in social welfare, the unfair Universal Social Charge, new water charges and property taxes – and when they protest the answer of the government is to shrug and say “it’s not our decision”. People’s standard of living is being driven down and families who are struggling to make ends meet are being punished to pay for the sins of bankers and financial regulators, but there seems to be no one to whom they can appeal. This is what happens when you lose your freedom; decisions that affect your livelihood are made for you by others, without any regard for your interests. Today, with the centenary of the 1916 rising less than five years away, it seems the ownership of Ireland lies with international bondholders, and control of Irish destinies in the European Central Bank. This is where a political system stained by corruption and cronyism, and crippled by a lack of vision, has brought us.
The ideal of a sovereign Irish republic that Denis Spriggs gave his life for has never been more relevant than it is today. The demand of James Connolly for the “reconquest of Ireland by the Irish people” has never been more timely. If we are to rise above this crisis, we need to do more than rebuild our economy – we need to remake our politics. We need to create a new republic. Today we again have urgent need of men and women who, like Denis Spriggs, have a vision of a better Ireland and the courage and dedication to make it a reality.
The vision for a new republic can be discovered in the founding documents of an independent Ireland. In 1919, the First Dáil Eireann agreed a “Democratic Programme” which set out the principles that should govern an Irish Republic. It states: “We declare that the Nation's sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation,…we reaffirm that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare.”
Imagine what Ireland would look like today if those principles had been implemented, if the republic those words imagined had been established. We would not be burdened with taxes and spending cuts to pay off the debts of private bankers. We would not have seen our natural resources sold off from under our feet.
These are the principles on which republican politics are based. These are the principles of Sinn Fein. Today there are more republicans on the island of Ireland than at any time since 1921. The recent general election was a massive breakthrough for Sinn Féin, with our representation in Leinster House increasing from 4 to 14. We are now the real leaders of the opposition in the Dáil. Here in Cork City Jonathan O’Brien was elected as our first Sinn Féin TD in over 80 years. The 6-county elections saw further advances for Sinn Féin in that part of our country. And further testament to the growing level of popular support for republicanism was the recent Uniting Ireland conference in Cork, where we attracted nearly 600 people and filled City Hall.
Our task now is to build on that support, not just to make further electoral advances but to increase public support for a 32 county socialist republic. The growing political strength of republicanism means that goal is closer now than at any time since partition. But there is still much work to be done before it can be achieved. It is the duty of every one of us to aid in that work. A sovereign 32 county republic is not just the best memorial we can raise to men and women like Denis Spriggs, it is the only way in which the Irish people can achieve freedom, equality and prosperity.
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