Unfinished Revolution on Vinegar Hill
BY Mícheál MacDonncha
Over five thousand people climbed Vinegar Hill - Cnoc
Fiodh na gCaor, the Hill of the Tree of the Sheep - in
County Wexford on an unusually bright February Sunday
to hear Gerry Adams speak at Sinn Féin's commemoration
of the 200th anniversary of the Rising of 1798.
As they surveyed the breathtaking scene with the
Wicklow Mountains, Mount Leinster and the fertile
valleys of Wexford in view, many must have thought of
the day in May 1798 when another huge assembly gathered
on Vinegar Hill. Poet Seamus Heaney, in words quoted by
Gerry Adams, called it a ``fatal conclave''.
Fatal it was with 20,000 Irish insurgents, armed mostly
with pikes, crammed together on the exposed hillside
facing 10,000 heavily armed British troops with the
most modern muskets and field guns.
``At Vinegar Hill o'er the pleasant Slaney, our heroes
vainly stood back to back...''
From the banks of the Slaney in Enniscorthy the biggest
march that the town has seen in decades wound its way
through the narrow streets. Many houses had the
National and County Flags waving proudly from their
windows. A Wexford colour party and the
VolunteersSmith/Harford/Doherty Band led the march and
a banner with the words `172,535 voters excluded'
proclaimed the issue of the day.
Rebel Cork and Rebel Wexford united as the newly
established Ahern/Crowley Band from Cork marched with
the Wexford Pikemen. A contingent commemorating the
Roslea Martyrs reminded us of Ulster's part in the
Rising. The Cole/Colley Sinn Féin cumann from Dublin
North East, part of a large contingent from the
capital, had its own piper who led them across the old
Slaney bridge to meet the main parade. While people
travelled from all over Ireland, at least half of the
attendance was made up of the people of Wexford.
Ray Keogh of Enniscorthy Sinn Féin welcomed the crowds
on Vinegar Hill. He said they were there not just to
remember but to play their part in the ``unfinished
revolution''. Musicians Martin Bolger and Tom Roche
played Boolavogue on flute and guitar.
``At Boolavogue as the sun was setting, o'er the bright
May meadows of Shelmalier
A rebel hand set the heather blazing and brought the
neighbours from far and near...''
When he finished his speech Gerry Adams was presented
with a Wexford pike by Bill Murray of the Wexford
Pikemen. ``Is there one for everyone in the audience?''
asked Gerry, but the question one croppy asked was what
the RUC's reaction would be if the Sinn Féin leader was
stopped on the border carrying this weapon.
With the crowds on the summit silhouetted against the
lowering sun and flags waving in the breeze, the event
ended with Amhrán na bhFiann, sung by thousands at what
must surely be one of the most beautiful and historic
sites in the land.
Below we carry extracts from Gerry Adams's speech at
Vinegar Hill last Sunday
The legacy of the United Irish Movement is the sense of
bringing about Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality. The
sense of freedom. The sense of an Irish Republic. The
sense of an ending of the connection with Britain and a
bringing together of a new union of Catholic,
Protestant and Dissenter is today as relevant and as
necessary as it was when your countrymen and county men
and women fought here at Viniger Hill.
The United Irish Movement was influenced by what was
happening throughout the world, and it is interesting
that the Irish Tricolour which means peace between
orange and green was taken from Paris by Francis
Meagher and brought to Enniscorthy, so the legacy which
you have here is a real one, a real sense of what is
required, a real sense of what has passed.
A number of journalists have drawn attention to the
fact that Volunteer Eddie O Brien's name and his
photograph has been shown by the organisers in a poster
which includes images of Bobby Sands, Wolfe Tone and
Countess Markievicz. And let me say today that they and
I make no apologies whatsoever for the picture of
Volunteer Eddie O Brien being used in this way. It is a
sign of the failure of those in power, of those who pay
lip service to the ideal of national freedom that young
men like that and young women - of young men like Eddie
O Brien (because we're in his hometown) or Diarmuid O
Neill - should die in the way they died and should feel
moved to take up armed action.
d the responsibility on responsible politicians - and
may I say, on responsible republicans - is to make sure
that no more of our young men and women die in the
service of the freedom of our country. And that puts a
huge onus on the so-called constitutional nationalists
and the constitutional partitionists - those in high
places who engage in the rhetoric of freedom - to
actually build a freedom struggle, an unarmed, peaceful
freedom struggle to bring about an end of the British
connection and a new future for all the people of this
island.
Let there be no doubt anywhere that our party exists -
and will continue to exist and to develop - essentially
to bring an end to the British connection, to bring an
end to partition and to build along with others a new
Ireland for all the people of the island.
In county Antrim and in county Down most of the people
who fought [in 1798] were Presbyterians. And it's part
of the great tragedy of modern Irish history that in
the convulsion of that time the Orange Order was
founded by the English government in our country to
build a bulwark of reaction against the rising tide of
radicalism that was sweeping the country. And there's
no doubt when you see what's happening in the Garvaghy
Road and in other places that the same sense of trying
to subvert progress, of trying to subvert the search
for equality and trying in many ways to maintain the
status quo, that we look back on this period in our
history.
d one of the great tragedies is that many of those
whose predecesors fought in counties Antrim and Down is
that, unlike yourselves, they don't know their history.
But I think when we all have a sense on the island of
Ireland of where we're from, of what's been happening
for the last thirty years and further back, then we'll
have a sense of being able to come together regardless
of religion, regardless of being Catholic, Protestant
or Dissenter. Because what will join us together is our
common humanity that we happen to live on the island of
Ireland.
As we meet today at a time of serious crisis in the
peace process I want to assure you of a number of
things. Sinn Fein is totally wedded to our peace
strategy. Secondly, Sinn Fein is totally wedded to our
republician objectives. And it is transparently clear
that you cannot have a democratic peace settlement
without equality. It's impossible. The foundation will
not stand unless its based upon equality.
d people like yourselves who have come here in such
large numbers should not ever allow the peace process
or the process for change on this island to be reduced
to the big battalions, to those polititians who do not
want to see change. You people have to seize the peace
process. We cannot bring about freedom or justice, we
cannot bring about a peace settlement unless people
throught the entire island take responsibility for it.
But the Dublin government also has to take
responsibility. And the first responsibility for an
Irish government is to stand up for the rights of the
people of the island of Ireland.
When you leave here I want you all to realise that
every single person here has both a responsibility and
an ability to take part in this struggle. What the big
parties do, what the establishment does, what the
British government does is to give people a sense of
low esteem, of no confidence. But you people here can
make a difference. And let me tell you it is my
conviction that we will get a United Ireland, that we
will break the connection with England.
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