Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

"L'État, c'est moi", the motto of Louis XIV, is the real motto of the Provisionals. What is a state? It is a group of people forming a sovereign entity; it usually includes a head of state, a parliament, a government or executive and a judicial wing. The Provos have sought, in perpetuity, to assign to themselves the role of our State. They claim that the Provisional IRA is the army of the State and that they also supply the Government, the Parliament and the courts: quite literally they are the judge, jury and executioner.

We might pause to consider the definition of the word "bigot". It means "a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own". Is this a term that describes the typical philosophy of the Provisionals? I believe it is. It is the hallmark of the Provos.

We might also consider what the term "infallible" means. It means "incapable of failure or error". The Provos have created for themselves an illusionary state built on their claimed incapacity for wrongdoing or criminality. The then IRA, or one of its breakaway wings, refused to recognise the third Dáil, to which the Minister referred, when it met in September 1922 and its claimed successors have continued the myth that the current Dáil is not a legitimate successor to the first and second Dála, claiming that the oath was required before a Deputy could take his seat and that the third Dáil therefore derived its authority from the Treaty and not from the Irish people.

An interesting point is that the second Dáil was mostly nominated, not elected. With the exception of a handful of mainly Unionist seats the rest were uncontested. Michael Collins and Harry Boland largely carved up the second Dáil between them by agreeing the nominated and uncontested candidates. A Dáil elected unopposed is supposed to be the legitimate Dáil in perpetuity.

It might be noted for the purposes of this debate and for the record when it is read later that on 20 August 1921 Cathal Brugha, President of the first Ministry of the first Dáil, proposed a motion that every Deputy, officer, Clerk of the Dáil and each member of the Irish Volunteers would swear allegiance to the Dáil of the Irish Republic. The text of the oath, which was approved, was:

I, [name], do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I do not support and shall not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government, authority or power within Ireland hostile and inimical thereto, and I do further swear [or affirm] that to the best of my knowledge and ability I will support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Éireann against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me God.

The effect of this oath was that the Volunteers became the Army of the Irish Republic or, as they were known, the Irish Republican Army.

It might be noted for the purposes of debate that Article V of the Constitution of Dáil Éireann noted that "this Constitution is provisional and liable to alteration". If P. O'Neill and his or her friends here on the benches of the 29th Dáil do not recognise this Dáil, to which Dáil Éireann do they lend their allegiance? How do a sovereign people dismiss that alleged "Dáil Éireann" and when will that "Dáil Éireann" to which they claim to give this allegiance seek a renewed mandate for its role? The answer is never, for a mythical parliament cannot be dissolved.

Whatever semantics are involved in that argument, nobody can doubt that for the first time since December 1918, and in a real sense for the very first time in a common vote on a common issue because in December 1918 some people were voting to elect people to the British House of Commons and others were voting to elect people to what they thought was the Irish Parliament, the Irish people, North and South, in a free act of determination approved the Good Friday Agreement almost seven years ago.

Nor is it semantics to ask, did the Provos when they broke away from what was known as the Official IRA take with them the sole right to declare themselves the real state, the real Dáil Éireann. If so, did the Real IRA or the Continuity IRA wrest that from them, or could some other self-appointed group do so? The reality is they could and it would have as much authenticity as the alleged inherited role of the other claimants.

I listened carefully to what Deputy Ó Caoláin said in his latest terminological inexactitude. He said Sinn Féin accepts the validity of the institutions of the State. Then who is P. O'Neill? For what Óglaigh na hÉireann does he purport to speak? He certainly is not a PR consultant with the Irish Defence Forces.

The real issue before us this evening is that we are dealing with deluded people who have assigned to themselves, in a bigoted manner, an alleged infallible doctrine and they continue to sell this cult of myth and mayhem to gullible people who then carry out the dirty deeds of armchair generals.

The name of Bobby Sands was dragged into this issue on "Questions & Answers" recently by a prominent Provisional spokesman. I regret the death of Bobby Sands and I hope his soul rests in peace. Those who sent him to his death, as they have many others in the prime of their lives, have much to answer for. The same great leaders sent their army to murder a widowed mother of ten young children because she showed humanity to a dying soldier. In the annals of conflict there is hardly a more heinous or less virtuous act on record——

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