For hundreds of years the Irish people have been bystander, witness and victim to crimes against them. Crimes against their liberty. Crimes against their property. Crimes against their beliefs and even crimes against their very existence.
From the invasion of their island, the destruction of their land, their starvation, the scattering of their kin across the globe, the removal of their sovereignty by an empire, the suppression of a rising, the reinstatement of themselves as subjects to a king, their subservience to predation through their fear of God, the trading of their independence to be part of a new European empire, the insidious manipulation of their innocence by a political class driven by arrogance and greed, the betrayal of their dreams by a financial system and today the opportunist exploitation of the docile acceptance of their fate by a new corporate monarchy.
We have not just been asleep for all that time. To our shame we believed we were impotent.
If we were it is because we were taught to be. We were controlled, conditioned.
For generations we were taught to lower our heads before those we were told were better than us. We were told to respect the important people, to respect authority.
In every city and town in the country we were taught to respect the local Parish Priest, respect the local Bank Manager, respect the local TD,respect the Garda.
Today we know what the Church has done to us. We know what the banks have done to us. We know what our politicians have done to us. And we know what our Garda force and our judiciary are doing to us.
We are not children any more. We have grown up. And we have learnt that what we are taught was wrong.
I don’t respect these people any more.
Respect is something that should be taught to children. But after childhood Respect is something that must be earned.
Maurice McCabe and John Wilson have earned my respect … for their honour and integrity.
I respect Margaretta Darcy for fighting against the use of our island as a US military airbase.
I respect the people of Rossport for what they have had to endure at the hands of a PROSTITUTED Garda Siochana.
I respect the turf cutters for fighting to save their heritage.
I respect the Occupy protesters who camped outside the Central Bank for months with little public support.
I respect Diarmuid O’Flynn and the people of Ballyhea for their crusade… tirelessly entering the ring against the odds when Michael Noonan is too cowardly to fight.
I respect people like Marcus Howard and Steve Kerr and Derek Byrne who are documenting this historic struggle and recording a new chapter in our while the media ignore it.
I respect the people of The Hub and the Land League fighting to stop Irish families being evicted from their homes.
I respect the people of Togher and Watermill Drive and Edenmore for their strength and courage and leadership.
These people are giants among us.
All of these people have one thing in common. They are not doing it for fame or glory of rmoney or votes. They’re doing it out of love for their children and pride in their country.
When you realise that people you respect are the ones who are ridiculed,discredited, bullied, dismissed, ignored, beaten, jailed, betrayed and abandoned by the same authorities we were told to bow down to then you know ...
the time of Respect for Authority is over
Now is the time to respect yourselves. But even your self respect has to be earned.
First you have to WAKE UP to what is happening all around you.
When you’re awake and can see the truth you will be outraged and you will STAND UP.
And when you’re on your feet you will find the courage to SPEAK UP.
And when you have found your voice then you will be ready to RISE UP.
We can all be giants.
In Bolivia in the year 2000, a 45 year old shoemaker led his people in a revolution that brought down a corporate empire that was destroying his country and enslaving the people in poverty.
The revolution was over the private ownership of the country’s water. The threw one of the world's biggest engineering companies and the World Bank out of their country even in the face of massive military opposition.
In a speech after he said: The only force capable of transforming the world, capable of transforming society,is that capacity of unity, organisation and mobilisation of the people in front of any power.
When IW is defeated we will only have won one small victory in a long war. And if we end our struggle there,then we will have achieved nothing.
We can achieve so much more from this point. We can go back and address the other symptoms we ignored: Our oil, our fishing rights, our turf rights, mortgage write downs,the odious debt we are paying now and in the future, and the money we have already given to bondholders.
We can even decide to take back control of our lives by returning to our own currency, our own political independence from the failed EU project, and by designing – for the first time! - our own political system.
I have no message for the parasites in Leinster House. Why would I address someone for whom I have no respect. My message is to the people.
From the pain come the dream
From the dream come the vision
From the vision come the people
From the people come the power
From this power come the change
WAKE UP – STAND UP – SPEAK UP – RISE UP
Almost 100 years after Padraig Pearse’s dream that we would be the risen people, we are ready to fulfil his dream and to make our own dreams reality.
We have found our self respect.
We must not lose it again.
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