Today Republican Sinn Fein remember those brave men during a wreath laying ceremony.

Address by John Joe McCusker, Fermanagh Ard Chomhairle member Sinn Féin Poblachtach at commemoration to Edentubber Martyrs on the Louth Border, November 12, 2023

It is usual for to look back at our history. We seek answers from our past experiences and from what we have read or heard. Nowadays the young people of Ireland receive most of their historical education from the mobile phone and the internet.

When I was growing up, the world was quite different from today. Most of our history came from the history book or from the older generation. Topics often spoken of would have been the partition of Ireland, or of Sean Sabhat, Fearghal Ó hAnluain and the Edentubber Martyrs:

Paul Smith from Bessbrook, Oliver Craven, Newry,
Patrick Parle, Wexford town, George Keegan, Enniscorthy and
Michael Watters from Edentubber, Co Louth.

Many winters have passed across the graves of these our patriot dead and across the graves of patriot men and women, boys, and girls from the generations before and sadly from the generations after the Edentubber 1957.

Historical events and the steady onward march of a Nation is as sure and certain as the seasons, be they good or bad. The Irish people will, I’m sure, continue to strive, in all seasons, for the Republic envisioned by P H Pearse and his comrades in the Proclamation of 1916.

There have been many upheavals and splits in the Republican Movement.

One sometimes ponders to think, where we might have found these men and the many others, men and women, boys, and girls, who have fallen in the fight for Irish Freedom since that fateful night of November 10-11, 1957, had they been alive today.

If you are a young man or woman considering what contribution you can make to the cause of Ireland’s freedom, remember this, the Republican Movement has remained steadfast and has not engaged in any horse-trading with the English.

It is the constitution, upheld by this movement that our enemies must destroy and it was this constitution which John Hume, had in mind, when he stated on the night of the Belfast Agreement, ‘..the two referendum are necessary to reverse the 1918 election’, the election which democratically underpinned the 32 County Republic. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Workers’ Party and Provisional Sinn Féin have all abandoned the 32 County Republic.
While we know that these constitutional and reformed politicians would like to take our country to a different place be mindful that it shall be the place England has prepared for them.

The English Imperialists are waiting for the right moment to move on their next ‘best position to adapt’, which shall secure the union for another 25 years. They will then have another ‘best position to adapt’ each time frustrating the will of the people of Ireland, each time frustrating any democratic effort which allows the Irish people their rights as a Nation. It has been so since the Treaty of Limerick; the Act of Union 1801 was to be accompanied by Catholic Emancipation. However, it took another twenty-eight years for Catholic Emancipation 1829.

The first Home Rule Bill 1886 to Partition 1921 took 35 years, and the ‘Best position to adapt’ was partition. All these times served out by the Irish people in anticipation of English redress. Look at the ‘turnaround times’ involved. Civil Rights 1969 to the Belfast Agreement 1998. Belfast Agreement to the Fall of Stormont 2022. Judging from all of this it is apparent that the English are not in any hurry out of Ireland.

The ‘next best position to adapt’, shall soon emerge and a soft-centred Irish body politic shall probably see it as yet another advance on the road to Freedom, another slippery stepping stone. While all the time England hold a firm grip, and yes, another 25 years to witness the ‘next best position’, to hold the union. Throughout all this time the Unionist people are being used as a tether around their own neck and ours, in order to hold union with a people who are foreign to us, they are, the English. We are for the most part Ulster Scot and Irish. The children of the union shackled by an occupation they would be better to throw off.

Irish Republicanism has maintained and is watchful, there is a great need to be mindful of the past and especially of the last 50 years. We should be mindful of those who have given their lives for Irish Freedom. We should also remember, considering the experiences gained these last 50 years that it is not those who can inflict the most who are victorious but those who can endure the most. We must endure and struggle, for our lot is not an easy one. The enemy is at the door all the time and indeed as we are all too aware the enemy can be inside the door. Creating menaces and division.

Remember that it was from the son of a Church of Ireland Minister, Theobald Wolfe Tone, that our republicanism stems from. It is important not to be sectarian or exclusive of any of the people of our Nation, Protestant, Catholic or Dissenter. It was with this thought that Theobald Wolfe Tone moved to drive the English from our shores. It was with this thought that the Edentubber Martyrs, Paul Smyth, Oliver Craven, Patrick Parle, George Keegan and Michael Watters gathered on that fateful night November 10-11, 1957.

It might be a good thought and hope that all Irishmen and Irishwomen from this forward should only recognise the Imperial English Government as the Enemy General.

It is noteworthy that all has failed to secure the Irish people with the English overlords, over these last 850 years, there shall be no change in the attitude of the Irish people to the continuing occupation, economic manipulation, and international strangulation of our Nation People. There shall be no change in the attitude of the Irish Republican Movement and the targeting of the Enemy General as we proceed into 2024.

An Phoblacht Abú.

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