“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
By Seán MacBradaigh (Community activist,
Belfast)
I believe that The Proclamation was both a unification of a cross section of
revolutionary activists and an agreement on what they saw as a blueprint for
a truly liberated Irish society. It wasn’t the definitive document on the
creation of a New Ireland, rather a very progressive starting point and
outline for the creation of that New Ireland. The tragedy of the
Proclamation is that 90 years after it having been written I feel that the
signatories would despair at the lack of delivery upon its ideals.
In terms of the unfettered control of our own destinies; we are still
occupied by a foreign nation and corporations who control us culturally,
socially and economically. In terms of cherishing all of the children of the
nation equally; the vast majority do not benefit from the wealth of the
nation and a glance at Irish society will show inequality, multi depravation
and daily struggle as commonplace. In terms of exaltation among the nations;
the Irish nation exists as a bit part in a greedy global machine that is
destroying the environment, exhausting global resources, slaughtering
innocent peoples and generally quickening the end of the human species in
every way possible.
The further tragedy is that for most victims of this society in which we
live the vast majority won’t realize or challenge the system that shackles
them. Those who do are dispersed into a litany of different social
movements, community movements, and other organizations whose challenge to
the status quo is limited by their isolation. We have had in Ireland a long
and heroic history of political activism in all forms. Various different
movements have struggled for independence and liberty. Various different
movements have struggled for equality and human rights. There has been
continual struggle against oppression using multiple and diverse methods for
centuries, yet what activists and the signatories of the proclamation sought
to change ultimately has not.
The protagonists have changed today but the situation has not. We still have
rulers who benefit themselves, we still have masses who are oppressed and
asleep, we still have activists who are dispersed and isolated. What was
appealed for in the proclamation was unity; a unification of the
overwhelming section of Irish society who are used by and not cherished by
the system under which they live. A unification in favour of change to
ensure the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its
parts. What the proclamation means to me and what I think it should mean to
us all is that we must unify if we are to challenge the causes of our
problems. We must unify in opposition to the common and growing enemy of neo
colonialism, global capitalism and its domestic manifestations. We must
awaken the victims of the current system to the root cause of their
problems. And together, united and strengthened, we must take what is
rightfully ours; the world and everything in it for the betterment of
humanity.
Beir Bua.
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