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Message to the Free Nations
-
Dáil Eireann, 21 January, 1919
To the Nations of the World!
Greetings.
The Nation of Ireland having proclaimed her national
independence,
calls through her elected representatives in Parliament assembled in
the
Irish Capital on January 21st, 1919, upon every free nation to support
the
Irish Republic by recognising Ireland's national status and her right
to
its vindication at the Peace Congress.
Nationally, the race, the language the customs and traditions of
Ireland
are radically distinct from the English, Ireland is one of the most
ancient
nations in Europe, and she has preserved her national integrity,
vigorous
and intact, through seven centuries of foreign oppression: she has
never
relinquished her national rights, and throughout the long era of
English
usurpation she has in every generation defiantly proclaimed her
inalienable
right of nationhood down to her last glorious resort to arms in 1916.
Internationally, Ireland is the gateway of the Atlantic,
Ireland
is the last outpost of Europe towards the West. Ireland is the point
upon
which great trade routes between East and West converge. Her
independence
is demanded by the Freedom of the Seas - her great harbours must be
open
to all nations, instead of being the monopoly of England.
To-day these harbours are empty and idle solely because English policy
is
determined to retain Ireland as a barren bulwark for English
aggrandisement,
and the unique geographical position of this island, far from being a
benefit
and safeguard to Europe and America, is subjected to the purposes of
England's
policy of world domination.
Ireland to-day reasserts her historic nationhood the more confidently
before
the new world emerging from the War. because she believes in freedom
and
justice as the fundamental principles of international law, because she
believes
in a frank co-operation between the peoples for equal rights against
the
vested privileges of ancient tyrannies, because the permanent peace of
Europe
can never be secured by perpetuating military dominion for the profit
of
empire but only by establishing the control of government in every land
upon
the basis of the free will of a free people, and the existing state of
war,
between Ireland and England, can never be ended until Ireland is
definitely
evacuated by the armed forces of England.
For these, among other reasons, Ireland-resolutely and irrevocably
determined
at the dawn of the promised era of self-determination and liberty that
she
will suffer foreign dominion no longer-calls upon every free nation to
uphold
her national claim to complete independence as an Irish Republic
against
the arrogant pretensions of England, founded in fraud and sustained
only
by an overwhelming military occupation, and demands to be confronted
publicly
with England at the Congress of the Nations, in order that the
civilised
world having judged between English wrong and Irish right, may
guarantee
to Ireland its permanent support for the maintenance of her national
independence.
Declaration Of Independence [First Sitting - Dail Eireann, 21 January,
1919]
Whereas the Irish people is by right a free people:
And Whereas for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased
to
repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign
usurpation:
And Whereas English rule in this country is, and always has been, based
upon
force and fraud and maintained by military occupation against the
declared
will of the people:
And Whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter
Monday,
1916, by the Irish Republican Army acting on behalf of the Irish
people:
And Whereas the Irish people is resolved to secure and maintain its
complete
independence in order to promote the common weal, to re-establish
justice,
to provide for future defence, to insure peace at home and goodwill
with
all nations and to constitute a national policy based upon the people's
will
with equal right and equal opportunity for every citizen.
And Whereas at the threshold of a new era in history, the Irish
electorate
has in the General Election of December, 1918, seized the first
occasion
to declare by an overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish
Republic:
Now, therefore, we, the elected Representatives of the ancient Irish
people
in National Parliament assembled, do in the name of the Irish nation,
ratify
the establishment of the Irish Republic, and pledge ourselves and our
people
to make this declaration effective by every means at our command.
We ordain that the elected Representatives of the Irish people alone
have
power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish
Parliament
is the only Parliament to which that people will give its allegiance.
We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of
our
national right, which we will never tolerate, and we demand the
evacuation
of our country by the English Garrison.
We claim for our national independence the recognition and support of
every
free nation in the world, and we proclaim that independence to be a
condition
precedent to international peace hereafter.
In the name of the Irish people we humbly commit our destiny to
Almighty
God, who gave our fathers the courage and determination to persevere
through
long centuries of a ruthless tyranny, and strong in the justice of the
cause
which they have handed down to us. We ask His divine blessing on this
the
last stage of the struggle we have pledged ourselves to carry through
to
Freedom.
