Full Speech – Diarmaid Ó Cadhla
The Independent Campaign for TRUTH & Proper Healthcare has called for discussion.
The following is a personal contribution to that discussion, it is the speech given by Diarmaid Ó Cadhla at the Rally for TRUTH & Civil Rights in Dublin on 19th March 2022
A Chairde,
I think the task before us today is that we must …
Build the Opposition!
We have reached the ending of a particular phase in the struggle for our rights, and I would like to offer some perspective, my own personal thinking, on how we might proceed.
Standing in front of the GPO invokes for every Irish man and woman the vision of those who proclaimed the Irish Republic, it was same the vision of the many generations of patriot men and women who, before the heroes of 1916, proclaimed the same ideal.
Pádraig Mac Piarais is often quoted here at this place, and rightly so, he earned that right.
Among many great things Pearse explained to us is a simple ideal, simple, but awe inspiring at the same time.
Pearse said on the 31st March 1916, on the very eve of the Easter Rising, in an easy entitled The Sovereign People, he said:
“Let no man be mistaken as to who will be lord in Ireland when Ireland is free.
The people will be lord and master”
That is what he said, that was their vision.
The truth is… we are not free, the people do not rule in our country, let alone in this state.
If the past two years has told us anything, it is that our sovereign rights are denied, in fact, our Taoiseach has even described our sovereignty as an old fashioned idea which he no longer supports.
Underlying all of the problems we face as a people is the simple fact that the citizens do not decide the policy of our state, we are a people who are ruled over, rather than ruling ourselves.
Therefore, this is where the solution lies, we, the citizens, must organise for our own empowerment.
We must remove all vested interests from positions of government, local and national.
If the past two years has told us another thing, it is that our national politics is dominated by what are, effectively, Private Member Clubs.
The Political Parties are, each of them, a vested interest in themselves, carrying out the wishes of their own backers, less that 2% of the population, as well as serving a mix of powerful foreign interests.
The overt restrictions against us have been withdrawn, but the powers allowing them remains in the hands of Government, and, as we have heard, such measures are being strengthened at an international level by both the EU and the World Health Organisation.
So, this crisis is far from over, but its form and nature has changed.
From the outset we said that the financial crisis was deepening, and that the people would be made to pay the bill… we can see this now.
We are entering a period of deep financial crisis, in Ireland and internationally.
We see this in the price inflation and in shortages, in the reduction of the real value of household incomes.
We are seeing huge increases in the levels of Quantitative Easing, that is where the banks effectively print money, create it on a computer screen, in the hope that more money in the economy will boost economic growth.
One financial commentator said recently that of the entire money supply in the world today, that 40% of it was only created over the last 2 years. If that it true, or even half-true, then this is a crisis like none other in the past 100 years.
This is the level of crisis where currencies collapse completely, and gives rise to war and hyper inflation, all of which we are seeing.
Be under no illusion, the elite who rule over us will hand over everything asked of them by their foreign masters, we face uncertainty, and we should prepare for that.
The best, and perhaps the only way we can prepare to face the coming crisis, is to be organised.
So, I say again …
We must Build the Opposition!
We have stood in this campaign, and together we have experience of many such campaigns.
We must build on this so that when the next flash point comes around we are stronger facing it.
We have called on people to discuss the situation, to see how best we can face it together.
To facilitate this we will be organising meetings here in Dublin, in Cork and elsewhere, we invite you to join in, contact any of the organisers here to get invitations.
If the past two years has told us something else, it is that there is currently no opposition in Irish politics, those who masquerade as ‘socialist’ or ‘left’ or as ‘republican’ have abandoned the people – they have shamed themselves.
James Connolly would be turning in his grave at the thought of who claims to represent the working classes in Ireland today.
This absence of opposition has cost us dearly, however, it has also opened up the path to allow us to advance.
Again I say, the issue for us now is to:
Build the Opposition!
A chairde,
Sular bhfágfaimid Ard Oifig an Phoist inniu, iarraim oraibh gealltanas a thabhairt, ‘sé sin, go leanfaimid ar aghaidh len ár bhfeachtas ar son cearta daonna agus cearta sibhialta.
Ach go gcaithimid é sin a dhéanamh i slite nua.
Beidh imeachtaí nua, de réir mar a eagraíonn daoine iad, bheinn féin á dhéanamh, i gCorcaigh agus ag tacú libhse i mBaile Atha Cliath nó in áiteanna eile ar fud na tíre.
Go raibh maith agaibh a chairde,
Beirigí bua!
