The theme of Irish Unity was front and centre in the fringe meeting at this year’s Ard Fheis that focused on the life and activism of our friend and comrade Rita O’Hare who died last year. Several hundred people packed into the room where a panel discussed Rita’s contribution to the struggle for freedom and self-determination and then listened as people in the audience reminisced about their personal memories of Rita.
I chaired the event and was joined by Rita’s husband Brendan Brownlee, Dawn Doyle and Danny Morrison. Rita correctly believed that Irish Unity is at the heart of the politics of change. It is at the core of our republican politics, our anti-colonial, anti-sectarian, desire for social justice, and for equality. All the speakers touched on this. On the need for planning and cohesion and the obligation on United Irelanders to harmonise the national and the local.
I read an extract from the speech Rita gave at Bodenstown in 1996 which for me sums up her republicanism and is as much a manifesto for change today as it was almost 30 years ago when she spoke at the graveside of Wolfe Tone. Rita said: “The future we seek is for a transformation of Irish society. We seek constitutional change which places in the hands of the Irish people the sovereign power to determine our own future.”
“We seek reconciliation among Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, people of every religious belief and none, leading to unity in the common name of Irishmen and Irishwomen. We seek equality and respect for the rights of all in place of discrimination, sectarianism, and second class citizenship.”
“We seek employment in place of unemployment, prosperity at home in place of emigration. We seek a society which measures economic well being in terms of the proper education of our children, the provision of a free and comprehensive health service for all, jobs and facilities in our communities for our young people, freedom from the scourge of drug abuse and the crime it brings, and a secure old age for senior citizens.”
“We seek a place for Ireland in the world which accords with our history of anti-colonial struggle. The development of our natural resources and the fostering of industry with respect for the environment. This is the vision which unites us as republicans”.
If Rita’s long life in struggle teaches us anything it is about the power of activism – the ability of a single person to make a difference, to make a stand and by their example to encourage others to make a stand and to ask ‘what can I do to advance Irish unity.’
Richard McAuley was the last speaker at the Rita gig. He told us, as she was close to dying, how she answered that question for him. As he and I were leaving her he went in for a last word and she looked at him defiantly, lifted her clenched fist and gave him his orders – ‘Win’.
That was the message which summed up the spirit and energy of the Ard Fheis.
Gerry Adams, Brendan Brownlee, Dawn Doyle & Danny Morrison
