Republicans must make a stand for ideals of ancestors

A letter has been published calling for a congress of republicans to determine a collective way formard.

Throughout the month of May, a group of republicans met in Belfast.

The purpose of the meetings was to facilitate all republican ideas, defend the right of people to pursue them free from fear and ensure that the freedom to think is safeguarded.

The republicans surveyed the options available to those intent on promoting republicanism.

As a result the following points were agreed:

Within the Republican family there should be room for the open airing of our disagreements; we cannot move forward until we are able to do so.

We believe the criminalisation of republicanism in the vacuum of the current process is shameful and contrary to the principles of republicanism.

It is our duty to stand up against it and speak out.

It is time for republicans to reclaim the honour and integrity of the cause which sustained our beliefs; to stand together against the tyranny of abuse and intimidation employed against anyone who has the courage and fortitude to speak out against the wrongs and injustices they see, or suffer themselves.

Republicans should stand with each other in repossessing the ownership of their struggle.

It does not belong to a clique - it is owned by all the people who believe and participate in it.

Republicanism is not about corruption, intimidation, or isolation from one another.

It is not self-serving.

It is about the Republic, and that Republic is about people.

The true spirit of republicanism is not a cult of personality.

It is those who have always been the hidden backbone -- once upon a time the volunteer -- now the taxi driver, the door man, the day labourer, the support staff in hospitals, waitresses, school workers, the unemployed, marginalised, forgotten...

We have all stood together in times of hardship and crisis.

Increasingly we find ourselves standing apart from one another... our destinies loosened from our grip and out of our control.

We once believed we would deliver to each other the Republic in which we would all be equal - Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.

Today the ideals we fought for are never spoken of - and those who remember them are silenced.

Our beliefs were traded for the realities

of the current process, a process that suits

the interests of political parties and not the common people.

These realities include a criminalisation of the people’s armies; corruption that fills the coffers of the elite and expands their empires, rather than advances the Republic; children being beaten, shot and tortured; and comrades isolated, spat upon, silenced, imprisoned and disappeared.

No more.

We stand against the tyranny in our midst.

It is time to come together, to convene a congress of republicans, to determine where we are going, to support each other no matter what our differences are, to reclaim our heritage, integrity and honour, to speak out against injustice, corruption and criminality and to stand up for the Republic.

Stand with us. Make your voice heard.

MARTIN CUNNINGHAM, South Down
MICKEY DONNELLY, Derry
PADDY FOX, Tyrone
TOMMY GORMAN, Belfast
BRENDAN HUGHES, Belfast
JOHN KELLY, South Derry
ANTHONY McINTYRE, Belfast
TOMMY McKEARNEY, Monaghan
TONY McPHILIPS, Fermanagh
CLARE MURPHY, Belfast
KEVIN McQUILLAN, Belfast
FRANCIE and GERALDINE PERRY, Downpatrick
MARY ELLEN O’DOHERTY, Derry
FIONBARRA O’DOCHARTAIGH, Derry
NOEL O’REILLY, Belfast
LIAM O RUAIRC, Belfast
DOLOURS PRICE, Dublin
MARIAN PRICE, Belfast
BRENDAN SHANNON, Belfast
ROISIN Ni SHEANAIN, Belfast
CARRIE TWOMEY, Belfast

Urgent Appeal