Some Form Of Resistance

Tony Mc Philips with his take on the legitimacy of partition.

Having outlined my belief as above I should also expand on that by stating that I have come to the conclusion that armed actions, sporadic in nature, as they are at this moment in time, are in my opinion counter productive to attempts to rebuild a meaningful and relevant Irish Republican platform and that they only feed the prejudices of those who oppose Irish Republicanism. There has always periods in our history where armed insurrection against the occupying power have being both appropriate and necessary but the present circumstances dictate and indeed are conducive to building a political republican campaign to end British rule on the island and to seek to build an Ireland completely different than the one that we have now.

It is important to remember that what we have at the moment are two British imposed statelets, as of 1921, on this island, neither of which command real democratic legitimacy.

I outline all of the above as a premise to what I now have to say about questions on Brexit. I might initially state that as an Irish republican who believes in the sovereignty of a nation and its people I welcome the decision of any nation to remove themselves from what is nothing more than an undemocratic, bureaucratic, Franco/German power grab that seeks to build a United States of Europe where sovereign nations would no longer exist and where the people would have their lives dictated to by demagogues who are only interested in world domination to the detriment of a nation and its people.

The question of a hard border or soft border here in Ireland is in my opinion an irrelevance because the border imposed by partition in 1921 is still in existence and in all of this debate that is the "elephant in the room". I have outlined to you before that in terms of an effective and a strategic armed campaign to be resurrected here like in the past it requires a clearly identified catalysis as in the denial of Civil Rights in the late 60s or Bloody Sunday etc. Now some would suggest that the continued existence of British rule here is in itself a catalysis, however I don't believe that it is seen as a sufficient catalysis to engender what would be required to prosecute that effective and strategic armed campaign.

Having said all that, this is where it gets interesting, if the British sought to impose a more public manifestation of their occupation by the imposition of a visible militarised border on the island then I believe that this in itself could indeed be the catalyst required to embolden an armed republican campaign. Regarding your question as to whether there are people or groups capable of engaging in this, well you have only to look at our history for the answer to that.

In conclusion it is worth pointing out that when Britain and the Freestate joined what was then the EEC in 1973, they were joining a trading bloc, which is a far cry from what it has evolved into today. I am opposed to all forms of imperialism and unlike former republicans I am not seeking to replace British imperialism on our island with European imperialism.

Note: I am 54 year old I have being involved in the promotion of Irish republicanism from I was 18 years of age, in various ways. I was an independent republican councillor on FDC and I opposed the GFA in 1998, addressing public meetings and press conferences throughout Ireland on the matter. I subscribe to the ideals contained within "Eire Nua", presented by the late Ruairí Ó Bradáigh and the late Dáithí O Conaill as the way forward for our island.
Follow Tony Mc Philips on Twitter @dixie1916