Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim lán-sásta labhairt ar an ócáid stairiúil seo.

The 1918 general election remains a seminal moment in our country’s history. A defining point when poets, visionaries and soldiers came together with the mass of our nation to build a republic. They voted for equality and independence. They voted to break the link with Britain.

They voted to make good the promises of the Proclamation, and they voted for Sinn Féin. The election in 1918 was described as the "Sinn Féin election". The Sinn Féin manifesto of 1918 stated unequivocally that Sinn Féin would achieve its aims by withdrawing Irish representation from the British Parliament and by denying the right and opposing the will of the British Government, or any other foreign Government, to legislate for Ireland.

As we meet almost 100 years to the day, it is, therefore, telling and ironic that there are those in this Dáil today who would espouse otherwise. Some of them might well be very comfortable on the benches of the House of Commons or even in the House of Lords. They might be very much at home in the Palace of Westminster. They might cross their fingers and swear an oath to the British crown in exchange for privilege and the pretence of power. That is nothing new and achieves nothing. That might be their way but it is not our way. It is not the Sinn Féin way. We stand by the people who vote today for Sinn Féin MPs and who look to Dublin and not London for leadership.

Some people who come here today laud the achievement of those who refused to take their seats in the British Parliament in 1918 on the basis of a mandate from the people, and yet they espouse the utter nonsense and hypocrisy of urging the Sinn Féin of today to go against that very mandate.

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