Derry Republicans support establishment of the National Independent Wolfe Tone Commemoration committee

Derry Republicans are among those involved in the establishment of the National Independent Wolfe Tone Commemoration committee.

The organisation has invited Republicans to attend its parade in Bodenstown on June 8, 2025 - burial place of United Irishman Theobald Wolfe Tone, leader of the 1798 Rebellion and the father of Irish Republicanism.

Republican representatives from across Ireland gathered recently in Wynn’s Hotel in Dublin, in the room where Cumann na mBan was founded, to launch the commemoration.

A spokesperson for the National Independent Wolfe Tone Commemoration committee said: “Despite the wet and windy conditions, Republicans from Armagh, Antrim, Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Tyrone, with messages of support from  Derry, Donegal, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford, gathered together to launch the Commemoration. 

“Wolfe Tone is the founding father of Irish Republicanism and his legacy and that of the United Irishmen needs to be respected and promoted,” he added. 

“By uniting around this commemoration, Independent Republicans and other progressive groups can ensure that the message of Irish Freedom and true Independence continues to be shared. 

“We should never compromise on our vision for Irish Unity, the same vision of Tone’s, of the Fenians, of the Rising and of later struggles. 

“With more than five bands involved, and several guest speakers including John Crawley  - author of The Yank: My Life as a Former US Marine in the IRA -  the parade will take place from Sallins to Bodenstown, with the full permission of the National Graves Association. 

“We invite all those committed to genuine Irish Unity to join us on Sunday June 8,” he said. “All genuine Republicans across Ireland are welcome.”

The  National Independent Wolfe Tone Commemoration committee spokesperson said that “genuine Republicans across Ireland begin to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising this month”.

He added: “Wolfe Tone was a founding father of Irish Republicanism and an inspiration to the leaders of the 1916 Rising. 

“PH Pearse, speaking in Bodenstown in 1913 said: ‘We owe to this dead man more than we can ever repay by making pilgrimages to his grave. He was the greatest Irishman’.

“Pearse’s opinion was shared by Countess Markievicz who not only celebrated Tone’s Irish Republicanism but also highlighted his internationalism when in 1925 she wrote: ‘Link up the oppressed peoples and classes of the world was his cry’. Very apt when we see the genocide in Palestine today and other peoples suffering oppression. 

Guinness Jazz Trail launched making it easier for music lovers to see more at this year’s Jazz Festival

Thousands of music lovers will attend the Festival from Thursday 1st until Monday 5th May

“The leaders and especially the volunteers of 1916, the ‘men of no property’ as Tone called them, fought for an Irish Republic devoid of foreign control and representing the people. That struggle continues today. We owe it to Tone and the men and women of Easter 16 to continue to seek a 32 county Republic as declared in the Proclamation. 

“James Connolly spoke of Wolfe Tone when he said: ‘We who hold his principles cherish his memory. Any movement that would successfully grapple with the problem of national freedom must draw its inspiration, not from a buried past but from the glowing hopes of the living present, the vast possibilities of the mighty future’.

“Let us look to that future. Let us celebrate the Easter Rising and lead onward to celebrating Wolfe Tone on June 8. Let Tone’s own words prevail; ‘Ireland shall be independent. We shall be a nation, not a province. Citizens-not slaves’. Beir Bua.”