Irish War News / The Irish Republic

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cale 1/3/22 IRISH WAR NEWS THE IRISH REPUBLIC VOL. I., No. 2. DUBLIN, EASTER SUNDAY, 1924. PRICE TWOPENCE. Message to the Irish Nation FROM ACTING-PRESIDENT P. J. RUTTLEDGE DAIL EIREANN. (Government of the Republic of Ireland). To Every Member of the Irish Race, Greetings. Easter, season of rejoicing throughout Christendom, synchronises with the Anniversary of the opening of one of the most glorious epochs in the centuries old struggle of this Nation to reach its destiny. On April 24th, 1916, Pearse and Connolly, interpreting the message bequeathed by Emmet and Tone, Davis, Lalor and Mitchell, rallied our generation to a realisation of the work ahead and laid the foundation of that work by proclaiming to the world the Sovereignty and Independence of the Irish Nation. When the flag of the Republic of Ireland dropped from their lifeless hands, the Nation, with an awakened sense of Nationality and duty, bore it aloft again, and faced with ever increasing determination the path of freedom. The Proclamation of the Republic of Ireland, read in the streets of Dublin in Easter Week, 1916, and sealed with the blood of those whose belief it enshrined and marking the re-birth of the Nation and re-affirmation of the National faith, was a year later read to and accepted by the people of Clare. The elections of 1918 found it read and proclaimed throughout the land as the policy and bond of all who professed faithful adherence to the principles of National Sovereignty and complete Independence. The people of Ireland accepted that policy and that bond and the representatives so chosen at their First Session, and as their first act embodied that policy in the Declaration of Independence and thus securely and constitutionally established the Republic of Ireland. External and internal war, in their worst forms, persecution and suffering, the weakness and treachery of former comrades have miserably failed to overthrow the Republic and to secure the repudiation of the policy and principles proclaimed in Easter 1916, and which faithful soldiers and loyal citizens have combated unceasingly to maintain and uphold. The Republic of Ireland has survived and lives and, again, we reaffirm "The Right of the People of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible." As Irish history will interpret the events of the past eight years, there have been no defeats. Ireland knows defeat only when the spirit of Freedom has been definitely crushed in a generation. To-day the spirit of the Nation is stronger, more determined and more virile than ever in our country's history. With the experience of the past two years the Nation realises, as never before, that the peace and tranquility for which it has longed and suffered, can come only with freedom. In the light of that fact it views and examines the continued imprisonment of President De Valera and a thousand equally unselfish and high-minded Irishmen. The day of…