THE RE-CONQUEST OF IRELAND
`The conquest of Ireland
had meant the social and political servitude of the Irish masses, and
therefore
the re-conquest of Ireland
must mean the social as well as the political independence from
servitude of
every man, woman and child in Ireland'.
The underlying idea of this work is that
the
Labour Movement of Ireland must set itself the Re-Conquest of Ireland
as its final aim, that that re-conquest involves taking possession of
the
entire country, all its power of wealth-production and all its natural
resources, and organising these on a co-operative basis for the good of
all. To
demonstrate that this and this alone would be a re-conquest, the
attempt is
made to explain what the Conquest of Ireland was, how it affected the
Catholic
natives and the Protestant settlers, how the former were subjected and
despoiled by open force, and how the latter were despoiled by fraud,
and when
they protested were also subjected by force, and how out of this common
spoliation
and subjection there arises to-day the necessity of common action to
reverse
the Conquest, in order that the present population, descendants alike
of the
plebeian Conquerors and the Conquered plebeians, may enjoy in common
fraternity
and good-will that economic security and liberty for which their
ancestors
fought, or thought they fought.
The United Irishmen at the end of the
Eighteenth
Century in an address to the conflicting religious sects of Ireland
declared:---
We wish
that our
animosities were buried with the bones of our ancestors, and that we
could unite
as Citizens and claim the Rights of Man.
We echo that wish to-day, and add that
the first
social right of man is to live, and that he cannot enjoy that right
whilst the
means of life for all are the private property of a class. This little
book, as
a picture of the past and present social conditions of the Irish
masses, seeks
to drive that lesson home, and to present to the reader some of the
results
which have followed in Ireland
the capitalistic denial of that human social right.
James
Connolly.
