The greatest interpreter of the political brilliance of James Connolly alive in Ireland at the time, the "Boy General", a man elected to the Wicklow County Council, County Wicklow Committee of Agriculture, General Council of Committees of Agriculture, Eastern Regional Development Organisation, National Museum Development Committee, Bray Urban District Council, Bray Branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, Bray and District Trade Unions Council (President 1976-77), the Cualann Historical Society, Chairperson of the IRSP, and Chief of Staff of the INLA, lay dead at the hands of the Official IRA.

Just three years after founding the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, Seamus Costello was dead and buried.

The Garda and Special Branch attacked the party's offices, assaulted its members, and arrested 40 of its leading members. Our second chairperson and a gifted mass leader, Miriam Daly, was stolen away from us a brief three years later, murdered by the SAS masquerading as loyalist thugs, and within months of her murder, the intelligent, energetic, and capable Ronnie Bunting and Noel Little too were felled by SAS assassins. In 1981 the loss of O'Hara, Lynch, and Devine alone would have been a devastating to many movements, but we lost a number of others in shoot-to-kill murders by the state, death on active service, and mass arrests on the evidence of super-grass perjurers.

The smoke from the cordite slowly cleared and the IRSP and INLA were still standing. Bruised and bloodied, but with head unbowed; we were still standing.

The sight of that must have been quite vexing for some. It must have driven some malignant mind within the pack of snarling dogs the system of capitalism maintains to the limit of his patience. Because then a collection of ex-members of our movement, who generally couldn't stand the sight of each other, were seized up and brought together for no good purpose, christened the IPLO, armed and sent to destroy this movement by equal parts senseless violence and shameless misrepresentation. If the death of comrades of the stature of Ta Power and others had not done damage enough, the droning chant of the word "feud" in the capitalist media and by erstwhile Irish republicans now dressed up in the ill-fitting clothes of politicians and statesmen served to besmirch the proud name of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement to such an extent that reactionaries and curs felt capable of attempting to take away from us our association with our founding chairperson and tireless leader.

We saw to it, comrades, that they did not succeed.

But we did reel in a prolonged and bleak period of darkness. Fear kept comrades behind locked doors, party stalwarts formed external discussion groups and took brief sabbaticals from party activism. What was left of the movement was chiefly the prisoners of war and the supporters abroad, assisted by a mere handful of party members and prisoners' relatives, who leaned heavily on the volunteers of the INLA to ensure that the very name of our party did not disappear from the annuls of Irish republicanism.

Out of that darkness stepped yet another intelligent, brave, and charismatic individual, the latest in a list far too long for such a tiny party, struggling to remain alive on the revolutionary margins of Irish politics. And once again, the party comrades and the INLA's volunteers, the prisoners of war, the recently ex-prisoners, and the scattered supporters abroad returned to raise our standard, the Starry Plough, once again. I recall that a good comrade of mine said to me, "once more into the breech, my old friend."

And as surely as any keen observer of Irish history might have predicted, a handful of wasters seized the blood money offered by the enemies of our nation and our class and killed yet another leader of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, but this time that movement did not waver, not even for a moment. This time, despite the lies and slander spewed forth in the press, despite the deliberate efforts to re-tar our movement with the charge of feuding, despite the blood of yet another martyr who had restored our pride and determination, despite all this, we did not stagger and we did not reel. We did not bow our heads, but kept marching forward. This time we did not allow ourselves to be bullied by lesser men with more weapons and we did not retreat to the safety of the political sidelines. And we have not done so yet. We continue to march forward, sure in our allegiance to the working class; sure in our commitment to the class war which is its right and duty to wage; sure that we are following in the footsteps of giants and that we are forcing ourselves to grow with every step so that we might fill those footprints.

Reactionaries and cowards killed Seamus Costello, comrades and friends. Ever since that day, their allies have sought to destroy Seamus's legacy, which is the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. But we who have been orphaned more times than we can count have come of age. There has been a fitting memorial built to the founder of our movement and that memorial is that very movement which he helped to forge. We have come through a baptism of fire and blood and wind and storm, and as we stand here today we serve as a living commemoration of Seamus Costello's memory.

We have openly admitted our mistakes. We have found the courage to mend those parts of our movement that had, in haste, been constructed poorly. We have had the courage of our convictions sufficient to stand not on the trappings of a heroic but at times ill-guided history of struggle in arms nor in the glittering ornaments of bourgeois respectability. No, rather we have found our strength in the reality of the honour and justice inherent in the struggle of our class for its liberation, as women and men. We have found our footing by keeping our feet firmly on the earth, our heads proudly in the air, and our eyes fixed upon the goals of equality, justice, liberation, human dignity, cooperation, mutual concern, and genuine compassion and concern for all those who suffer and languish under the heel of oppression.

Look around us here today; see the comrades that you have around you today. That we are here at all is a worthy tribute to Seamus Costello. That we return each year to honour the memory of this leader and champion of Ireland's working people, testifies to the accomplishment of this heir to the tradition of Connolly. And, comrades, remember as you leave this graveyard today, that this grave may contain the flesh and blood of Seamus Costello, but that his spirit soars in every corner of this island where the Starry Plough ripples in the breeze. We will not simply respect the memory of Seamus Costello; we will live it. We have come to this grave-side today to say to the world at large, we are the children of Connolly, of Larkin, of Costello, but we are now grown and standing on our own feet. But, as long as the IRSP continues its fight to liberate its nation and its class, Seamus Costello yet lives and breathes.

Long Live the Spirit of Connolly!

Long Live the Spirit of Costello!

Long Live the Irish Republican Socialist Movement!

STATEMENTS ENDS