éirígí Ard Fheis takes Place in Belfast Today

éirígí's re-convened Ard Fheis takes place today in Belfast [Sunday January 23].

The annual national conference was set to take place in Belfast on December 4 last but had to be postponed due to the treacherous weather conditions then prevailing across the country.  The Ard Fheis will now go ahead at the same venue, the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich cultural centre on Belfast’s Falls Road.

éirígí general secretary Breandán MacCionnaith said: “It was unfortunate but absolutely necessary that we had to postpone the Ard Fheis last month.  However, the format and matters to be discussed on Sunday today will be the same."

“It is significant that éirígí is holding its Ard Fheis in Belfast.  The birth of Irish republicanism was announced in June 1795 on Cave Hill above the city by Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy McCracken, Thomas Russell, Samuel Neilsen and a number of other United Irishmen."

“Today, the struggle against partition and for Irish independence and reunification continues to be a 32-county one.  Equally, the struggle against economic injustice and for socialism in Ireland must also be a 32-county one."

“Our objective is a sovereign, democratic, socialist republic for all of Ireland.  The current crisis within capitalism in the Twenty-Six Counties demonstrates yet again the inherently unjust and anti-working class nature of that failed system throughout Ireland and elsewhere.  Equally, the budget adopted at Stormont at the behest of Westminster demonstrates the subservient, colonial nature of that administration."

“At the Ard Fheis, éirígí will be putting forward our alternative vision for a new independent country with the formal launch of the party’s major policy paper on socialism in Ireland."

“When éirígí was established in 2006, it based its project on building a solid foundation for socialist republicanism in Ireland.  The task ahead of us is to bring others to the view that cosmetic tinkering with the two partitionist, economic, social and political systems in this country cannot bring about meaningful change to the lives of working people."

“We firmly believe that that, by launching this document, many others will see that the basis for equality lies in the establishment of a completely new social, economic and political order throughout Ireland.”

MacCionnaith continued: “éirígí will be also laying out its plans for the time ahead and encouraging all republicans and socialists to get actively involved in a rejuvenated struggle for national independence and socialism.”