Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom tacaíocht a thabhairt don Bille seo. The Minister of State raised a number of issues with the timing of the proposed Lá na Poblachta. The point of Deputy Ó Snodaigh's Bill is to separate the celebration from the Easter weekend, which is a religious time for many people. Celebrating 1916 in a chronological fashion is logical. If the Minister of State sticks to his own dates, it will be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which changes every year, whereas commemorating it on the date that it actually happened makes sense.

It is also bizarre for the Government to claim that there will be Government commemorations and no others. The Government has a poor record in terms of these celebrations. It created a video that was full of celebrities but sanitised of the Easter Rising participants. It created a website in the Irish language that used Google Translate to populate the screen. Given the fact that the people of 1916 were also cultural revolutionaries, that was sickening from my point of view as a Gaeilgeoir. If we are to wait for the Government to be the only people in town as regards the development of anniversary events, we will end up with the lowest common denominator. Instead, the Government should empower all community organisations, be they political parties or elements of civic society, to organise celebrations. Sinn Féin encourages people to get involved in the State commemorations also.

In recent times, many members of the Government have stated that no one owns 1916 or republicanism. That is true, as 1916 belongs to the Irish people and no one has a right to commandeer it. In the same way, no one owns republicanism. Republicanism and 1916 are about three simple ideas: full Irish independence, equality and justice. If these are the Minister of State's objectives and what he strives for, he can claim to be an Irish republican. Sinn Féin has a clearly defined strategy for achieving these. If others have realistic strategies, they should by all means get a move on. God speed and get to work. Many of the utterances about 1916 and commandeering republicanism have usually been made by Deputies who are increasingly defensive about the centenary celebration. The truth is that they want to cash in on the political kudos of Irish republicanism without having made the investment to further their ideals. The men and women who fought in 1916 did so for a thirty-two county Irish Republic. They did not die for partition. They did not die for the Minister of State opposite to claim that a product made in the North should not be allowed to call itself Irish.

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