In Memory of Tone

Many thanks to Bobcat who forwarded this document to the Archive. This short 8 page document starts with the following:

1798 – 1966

Theobald Wolfe Tone is remembered and honoured as the Father of Irish Republicanism. This booklet is published as a tribute to him and as a guide to the many events of Wolfe Tone Week in Dublin. It also contains articles in which the principles of Irish Republicanism are discussed in the light of the present state of our country.

There is an essay on Nationalism by Tomás Mac Giolla, Uachtarán Sinn Féin, another by Dr. Roy Johnston on Economic Resistance: A Re-Examination. As part of the latter there is a Democratic Unity Programme outlined which it is suggested ‘may possibly be regarded as a basis for further dialogue between the Labour and Republican Movements and the recommendation that:

…the Republican Movement can adopt the following programme if it so chooses. It can recognise itself as a movement principally of the one-man farm and the one-man firm; the men of small property, whose existence is threatened by the existing economic trends, especially the foreign monopolistic take-overs. It can consciously adopt a co-operate programme adapted to the needs of the small producers and the small urban businesses (whether retail or productive) and seek alliance with a Trade Union Movement in which the ‘men of no property’ were organised as such.

And it explicitly calls for an effort to ‘revive the Connolly tradition within the ‘Trade Union and Labour Movement’.

There is an outline of Wolfe Tone Week events, which include a Céilí Mór, Bus Tour’s led by Éamonn Mac Thomáis from Liberty Hall ‘In the Footsteps of Lord Edward’. Dr. Seán Ó Tuama speaks on Irish and Politics. Kader Asmal, then lecturing in TCD talks about ‘Trade Unions, Industrial Relations and the Law’. Brendan Halligan speaks on ‘The Impossible Philosophy’. There is a concert of Ballads, Traditional Music and Dance. A Parade from Liberty Hall to Wolfe Tone Memorial Park and a Memorial Service at St. Mary’s Church after which the Train leaves for Bodenstown. Another piece by Séan O Beirn is entitled ‘An Phoblacht Abu! – cen ceann acu?’ and the leaflet concludes with The Blarismoor Tragedy street ballad from the early 1800s and a further one By Memory Inspired.

It is worth noting the emphasis on nationalism in the Mac Giolla piece.

Nationalism is the dynamo which can spur the nation to progress – social progress, economic progress, cultural progress. Nationalism and patriotism make us eager to give our own people better conditions than any other people. It helps us to create our own ideas and develop them by our own efforts. By building up a dynamic and progressive national socio-economic structure based on an ideology developed from Irish conditions and on Irish needs, we can give a new lead and new hope to the many young nations which have in recent years emerged from Europan colonialism. Many of these are still groping in the dark and are easy pretty to the great powers who are casting their bait from East and West.

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