The Preconditions of a Nationalist-Republican Alliance
Amidst growing support for a broad front comprised of Nationalists and Republicans, we must ensure this idea does not fizzle out before anything is achieved. We must now advance the discussion surrounding it to how it may be implemented; we must avoid allowing these thoughts remain confined to niche, online circles.
Though often voiced from the quarters of British media, to an extent it’s true that Nationalists and Republicans alike eschew mainstream domains of discourse, opting instead for ideologically delimited sandboxes. But to say that the Irish people are not partial to the ideas presented by either movement is nothing short of an outright lie. The vast majority of Irish people are still patriots at heart, still have a deep love for their country and people, and are sick and tired of the neoliberal political institutions across the island.
These people, while patriotic at heart, are not motivated patriots; not out of opposition to the idea, but out of ignorance and a lack of will to get further involved or become further aware. These people, who are the majority, must be reached. They must realise that the only permanent solution to their problems is a united and Gaelic Irish Republic, brought about through the combined political and cultural efforts of a united front of the Irish people.
For example, many young Irish people will cite housing as the main problem facing them. The "left" contend that this is the fault of landlords and vulture funds; the "right", meanwhile, will say it is the fault of mass immigration. But it is, in fact, the fault of both.
Mass immigration has pushed the already strained public services north and south into complete meltdown, and it has driven up the levels of housing needed. This, of course, is an ideal situation for vulture funds, property groups, and landlords, all of whom have the politicians of the institutions of partition in their pockets. Mass immigration lines the pockets of developers, at the cost of the wellbeing of the native workforce and the cultural unity of the nation. Vulture funds charge extortionate mortgage rates on those just above the poverty line. These funds also hoard properties which could be used to house homeless Irish families, but instead they keep them empty, or take grants from the government to have refugees occupy them.
What is the free state governments solution to this housing crisis? To build more homes, and thus further line the pockets of those who control them; they would not even think to do anything which would benefit the Irish working class over the corporate elite, such as repossessing the properties of these vulture funds.
Most contemporary Irish people have no interest in a movement to unite the Irish people and revive Gaelic culture in its true form. The masses have no political options other than Sinn Féin, whose social and economic policies are detrimental to the Irish people. The abandoning of Sinn Féin by the regular Irish people should have been a godsend for non-mainstream organisations that are critical of mass immigration. Instead, the masses vacillated back towards Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The failure of the political periphery is due to their lack of visibility. We must construct a broad front based upon traditional Republican principles: anti-capitalism, Gaelic revivalism, and opposition to mass immigration.
But how is this to be accomplished? It most certainly will not be accomplished by hushed discussion in niche online forms, or on miniscule communities on twitter, nor will it be accomplished by LARPing. It will only be accomplished through wide reaching discussion between Republican organisations and Nationalist groupings and individuals, to debate and discuss, with the end goal of formulating a national political platform for the movement, to be presented to the Irish people. Physical forums in which the Irish people themselves may propose questions to the policy makers and figureheads within the movement, and themselves get involved must also take place; the discussion of the national question must advance outside the confines of the Internet.
Of course, cooperation between these groups will not come about easily, Republicans must abandon the idea that all groups or individuals that place opposition to immigration at the forefront of their policies must be vociferously opposed. Likewise, nationalists and nationalist organisations must recognise that the only movement which has gotten us anywhere in the last 100 years has been Irish Republicanism, and, that while stagnated and divided, it is not dead, that its principles are still relevant for the foundation on which to build a new Gaelic state.
Nationalist individuals and organisations must also abandon all cooperation with unionist and loyalist groups. You may think they're "putting aside their differences" in the face of a common enemy, but they still view us as subhuman, they believe that Irish people have as little right to be in Ireland as they believe foreigners to have. they view those who cooperate with them as nothing more useful idiots. Of course it is a very small minority within the nationalist movement that marched alongside unionists, but they are not non-existent, they must be called out, they must realise that cooperation with loyalists and unionists is not, and never will be, beneficial to the Irish people. Nationalists and Republicans instead must cooperate with each other.
The construction of such a movement will not be easy, it will not be without its challenges, but it is necessary for the advancement of the cause of the Irish nation.
It must be key that this movement is not single issue, that our solution to the problems facing our people is broad and well thought out, and that the solution will come about through the creation of a new state for the Irish people. A land where the interests of the Irish people are prioritised; an epoch where the Irish people have complete control over their nation and their own affairs.