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

So 100 years on, let me put it very clearly: there is nothing stopping Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael from contesting elections in the North. They can go ahead, and as happened 100 years ago, let the people be the judges and have their say on that. Until then and beyond, Sinn Féin will represent our people on the basis of the mandate and their instruction.

The 1918 general election was unique in being the first election held on this island in which women could vote, although it was restricted to women over the age of 30. It was also the first election in which all men over the age of 21 could vote. That was defining. For the first time in history, a woman MP was returned. She was an abstentionist MP, Constance Markievicz, the most unmanageable of revolutionaries. As an Irish woman and the President of Sinn Féin, I pay a particular tribute to her today, and also to Winifred Carney, who contested the same election in the Victoria ward of east Belfast, but who sadly was not returned. Markievicz was a disrupter and a rebel of her time. She was a woman who stood on picket lines with workers. She stood with tenants against landlords and she stood on battle lines against the British. She was the scourge of the establishment and she still troubles those in power today. She remains an inspiration for all of those who hold to the principles of freedom and unity. I wonder what she would make of the Dáil today, where party-political self-interest pretends to be the national interest. I have no doubt she would berate those in power and stand for citizens' rights, for equality and for Irish unity, as we do still. One hundred years on, we are still about transforming Ireland and uniting our country. We are about building, shaping and leading the Republic. Our task, like the Sinn Féin MPs elected in 1918, is to realise the Republic of the 1916 Proclamation.

Today should not simply be about commemoration or remembrance. It is not good enough to bow our heads to the past. It is about lifting our faces to the future, delivering on the sacrifices of the past, and building a new united Ireland and a Republic worthy of the name. Today is an opportunity to reflect on the need to end the division of our country, definitively, and to bring about a united Ireland. That is Sinn Féin's central task. Unfortunately, there are people gathered in this place who take a different view. Every time Irish unity is raised, they bow the head and say, "Not now", that this is not the time. I say otherwise, because now is the time to build a united Ireland. Let us plan for a referendum on Irish unity. Let us give the people of this island their say, North and South, in accordance with provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. Let us not just look back in awe of the great men and women of 1918, but let us look forward and let us finish their work. That is the only fitting way to honour their legacy. An Phoblacht abú.

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