Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Taoiseach's Dáil mandate is to demand autumn election

Cavan patriot remembered in Killnaleck

Speaking in Killnaleck, Co Cavan, at the unveiling of a monument to IRA Captain Edward Boylan, who was killed in the Civil War, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the Taoiseach's clear mandate from the Dáil was to demand of Tony Blair that the postponed Assembly elections be held in the autumn.

The Cavan/Monaghan TD said people did not vote for Direct Rule when they voted for the Agreement and he called on the Taoiseach to convene a special summit with the British Prime Minister.

Captain Edward Boylan died, aged 21, on 25 July 1922 after being fatally wounded in the course of an escape attempt from Cavan Military Barracks. Members of the Boylan family participated in Sunday's well-attended commemoration. Recalling the era in which he died, Ó Caoláin said: "The tragedy of the Civil War in which Edward Boylan died was brought about primarily because the British government was determined to impose its will and retain its grip on Ireland. It saw that it could do so, in the words of Winston Churchill "with an economy of British lives" by partitioning Ireland.

"We owe to republicans like Edward Boylan the degree of freedom we have today. They drove the British forces from 26 Counties. They were denounced in their day by clerics and 'constitutional' politicians as 'gunmen and terrorists'. Many still refuse to recognise the reality that Irish independence had to be fought for, not because we are a warlike people, but because repeated efforts by peaceful means were thwarted by British political intransigence and coercion.

"This week marks another significant anniversary - the 200th anniversary of Robert Emmet's Rising in Dublin. Emmet asked that his epitaph not be written until Ireland takes her place among the nations of the earth. It is too early yet to write that epitaph.

"Republicans are determined to see Emmet's epitaph written in our time, to see a 32-County republic taking its proud place among the nations.

"The current impasse in the peace process is totally unacceptable to republicans. It is totally unacceptable also to the vast majority of people on this island.

"When the people voted for the Good Friday Agreement they did not vote for Direct Rule from Westminster. Yet that is what we have now - Direct Rule and political drift with the institutions so painstakingly constructed now in suspension at the behest of anti-Agreement unionism.

"A British government that falsely boasts that it is a champion of freedom on the international stage has twice cancelled democratic elections in Ireland and four times suspended the institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement.

"In May, the entire Dáil called for the postponed elections to be rescheduled for this autumn. The autumn is rapidly approaching yet there is no sign that the British government is preparing to hold elections.

"I call on the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to arrange a special summit meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss not whether, but when this autumn the elections will be held. The Taoiseach's mandate from the Dáil is to accept no less from Tony Blair.

"The political process is being held hostage by the now dominant anti-Agreement faction in the Ulster Unionist Party. On Friday last, David McNarry, a leading aide to David Trimble, accused Jeffrey Donaldson of 'trying to cynically side-step democratic decisions'. This is rich indeed coming from a UUP leadership that has thwarted the implementation of the Agreement at every turn.

"The current impasse makes it more important than ever for the Taoiseach to provide for representation in the Dáil for citizens in the Six Counties. This will be Sinn Féin's most immediate demand as soon as the Dáil resumes.

"Sinn Féin will continue efforts at every level to break the impasse. But we cannot wait forever and if the unionists continue to make the Agreement unworkable then the Irish government must sit down and work out with the other nationalist parties how we proceed and what demands we make of the British government. It was nationalist Ireland that brought about the peace process. If necessary nationalist Ireland must also move it into a new phase."

A booklet on Captain Edward Boylan has been published by Cavan Sinn Féin. It can be obtained from the Cavan Sinn Féin Office, 39 College Street, Cavan. Phone 049 4373510.