An Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD, Uachtarán Fhianna Fáil Fianna Fáil 1916 Commemoration Arbour Hill, Sunday 19th April 2026

Check Against Delivery

From soon after our foundation gathering here to honour and pay respects to the heroes of 1916 was established as the most important act of remembrance for the Fianna Fáil party.

In those days, the procession from the church was led by men and women who knew the men buried here as sons, brothers, husbands, friends and leaders.

They remembered the resonance of their voices and the grip of their hands. They knew about the dreams for later life which would now go unfulfilled.

It was a solemn occasion where a still very real sense of loss was in the air.

Yet at its heart was a powerful and hopeful message. A call on those who gathered here to focus not on what they had lost, but what they had achieved and what they should never cease to work for.

The reading of the Proclamation was a moment of both reflection and inspiration.

When their fallen leaders were buried in this place many thought that their cause had gone with them. But just over a decade later no one could deny that the message of freedom and equality which is the core of the Proclamation had been heard around the world.

Against dramatic odds, the Irish people had forced the mightiest empire in the world to make concessions which were thought inconceivable.

What the Proclamation also reminded those gathered here almost a century ago was that the only way to honour the spirit of 1916 was to accept that the focus for true Irish republicans must always be on the future.

You honour the past by working together to find new ways forward.

You show your respect for their sacrifice by rejecting the idea that the methods and programme of Irish republicanism should be fixed in time.

The men and women who led the Rising were deeply modern and outward looking – even in their cultural nationalism.

They had experience of different parts of Europe and the world. They respected other cultures and they sought out ideas for the Ireland they hoped to bring about.

The early twentieth century was the beginning of a dark time for angry and assertive nationalism, yet the Proclamation which began our revolution took a radically different approach.

The Proclamation expresses an open sense of Irishness. It promotes equality. It seeks friendship between nations, and it rejects the idea that the end justifies the means.

Though closely identified with the revival of Gaelic culture, the drafters of the Proclamation made it very clear that Irishness had to include different traditions.

They used the tricolour as our national flag specifically because they rejected the idea of it belonging to one group in Irish society. For them, it was and should always be a profound symbol of inclusion.

Groups, often from radically different ideologies, have regularly treated it as a weapon to assert their superiority or their claim to be more Irish or more republican than others.

Everyone who truly believes in the message of the Proclamation and the ideals of the men and women of 1916 should reject this abuse of our shared national flag. Using our flag to promote aggressive and exclusionary views is wrong.

If you don’t understand that the flag belongs to everyone, including people you disagree with, then you don’t understand the most basic things about what our flag stands for.

You also dishonour the people who made it the uniting symbol of a rising Irish people.

Never forget that the Proclamation directly demanded that all who serve the Republic would do so with honour. Sectarianism and division were seen as a threat to be confronted.

Thug an-chuid de na fir agus na laochra atá curtha san áit seo tiomantas iomlán chun ár dteanga dhúchais náisiúnta atá ina saintréith lárnach agus ina dlúthchuid dár n-oidhreacht chultúrtha a neartú agus a fhorbairt.

Chreid siad ach go háirithe agus theastaigh uathu an deis a thabhairt do dhaoine óga bheith ag foghlaim trí mheán na Gaeilge agus í a athbheochan mar chuid de náisiún bríomhar nua-aimseartha.

Le cúig bliana is fiche anuas tá na forbairtí leanúnacha atá déanta in infheistíocht i scoileanna trí mheán na Gaeilge ina cuid lárnach den ré nua don teanga.

Is iontach an rud é cinnte an muinín atá ag daoine atá ag leibhéal cumais éagsúla atá ag úsáid na Gaeilge mar chuid den saol laethúil.

Ba mhaith liom an fuinneamh agus an borradh nua seo a fhorbairt níos mó agus seansanna a thabhairt do dhaoine an Ghaeilge a úsáid níos mó fós i saol laethúil na tíre.

Is cuid riachtanach den fheabhas sin ná an teanga a bheith fáilteach agus oscailte do dhaoine ó gach cuid den sochaí.

Níor chóir dúinn dearmad a dhéanamh go deo ar laochra a throid i míle naoi gcéad is a sé déag a chreid go paiseanta i ndul chun cinn ár gcultúir agus meas a bheith againn ar thraidisiúin éagsúla ar fáil sa chultúr sin.

Theastaigh uathu an cultúr Gaelach a chosaint ach d'éiligh siad freisin go mbeadh meas againn ar Éireannachas a bhí acu siúd nár roinnt a dtuairimí agus an fhís a bhí acu.

The Proclamation was also unique for its time in its insistence that Ireland wished to promote friendship with other nations and respected the idea of laws governing them.

At a moment in history where so many nations were trying to assert their superiority over others the Irish Republic wished to take a radically different approach.

The commitment of Fianna Fáil to promoting shared values and cooperation with other countries has been a defining part of Fianna Fáil’s programme from our very first days.

Eamon de Valera was a prophetic and widely acknowledged voice against the drift towards World War in the 1930s. In the 1960s, Fianna Fáil in government began Ireland’s great tradition of peacekeeping, developing an independent foreign policy perspective, and led the international effort to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

For our great founding generation, Ireland’s security and prosperity demanded that Ireland commit itself to full and active membership of what today we call the European Union. Leaders who began their public lives participating in the Rising ended it ensuring that we would stand as equal and important members of the greatest project for shared peace and prosperity in the history of Europe.

Europe has worked for Ireland because Ireland has worked to help Europe develop, expand and reform.

In July Ireland will take up the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and will lead negotiations across a wide range of fundamental issues. In recent weeks we have been conducting direct consultations in capitals throughout the continent.

Our message is that Ireland will not only be committed and professional in carrying out the work of Presidency, but we will also seek urgent delivery and ambition across a range of core issues.

We want to complete the work on reforming capital markets so that costs to customers will be reduced and access to finance will improve.

We want to argue for a budget which both protects essential programmes such as CAP to support agriculture and rural communities. We want to prioritise expanding research through Horizon, increasing competition, enhancing skills.

We will also argue to do more to support education, public health and other areas which will define the future success of Europe.

We want Europe to actively support the people of Ukraine in their struggle for freedom and democracy in the face of Russian imperialist aggression.

Hopefully, the main obstacle to a comprehensive programme of financing for Ukraine will be lifted shortly.

We will use the presidency to continue to emphasis Europe’s solidarity.

And we will also be active in promoting an ambitious programme of humanitarian aid, justice and reconstruction for the people of Gaza, West Bank Lebanon, Syria and other countries which have seen conflict lead to terrible death and destruction.

Every member of government knows that they must make sure that the Irish presidency demonstrates both our professionalism and our ambitions for Europe.

Both at home and in Europe we will support work to expand energy security and affordability.

No area has impacted on so many people as the rises in energy prices and, especially in the last six weeks, fuel prices.

We have been dealing with huge swings in prices and threats to supplies.

The programme of both targeted and general actions we have implemented directly represents very significant relief.

But we know that this is not a permanent answer. We need to get energy prices down long-term, and this requires both investment and reform.

We will continue to push forward our investments in transport and international connectivity because this is needed to reduce the costs of getting food and other goods into our shops.

We will continue to invest in new networks, to reduce the costs of distributing electricity to families and businesses.

We have to review the wide body of regulations which influence prices, and to seek ways to make that a priority is given to affordability.

In the months ahead we will keep this agenda moving forward.

When our party was formed there was no doubt about the key motivation. De Valera, Lemass, Markiewicz, Aiken, Ryan and all of the others who took the brave step of founding a new party, wanted to find a new way forward for Ireland. They refused to accept that the agenda and the divisions of the civil war should remain fixed and unchanging.

The party they built faced profound obstacles including a lack of finances, media hostility and no influence of policy at any level of government.

They moved forward rapidly. Establishing the party in every constituency, seeking out people of many backgrounds to stand for the party and creating a strong sense of personal loyalty to each other and to the party.

As the centenary proceeds we will have many opportunities to discuss the great personalities, the innovative policies and the great spirit found in our history.

It is important in this place above all to acknowledge how much the partition of our country created a searing injury and division between different traditions and different parts of our island.

The tragedy of Partition was how it severed connections which had been a basic part of Irish life. It reinforced sectarianism and disadvantage. Most of all it was designed to be intractable.

At different points from the 1930s onwards our leaders wanted to develop a new agenda for promoting the unity of the people of this island. They understood that we were growing apart and the first challenge was to find a way of trying to keep connections and build understanding.

As early as the mid-1950s Lemass, at Dev’s urging, wrote a policy paper which argued for many of the measures which ultimately formed the core of the Good Friday Agreement.

The work of the Shared Island Initiative which I established is the first time in a century that substantial funding is going to analyse what we share, where we differ and how to secure a lasting peace and progress.

A core strength of the initiative is that it gets people focused on the substance of education, health, budgets and the full range of issues which matter to people on a day-to-day basis.

It respects the constitutional aspirations of all, and by refusing to see every conversation, every report and every debate through the prism of one vote – it dramatically improves the ability to have conversations about the future which are constructive and genuinely cross-community.

All of us who aspire to the unity of our island need to understand that achieving it is not about the strength of your advocacy or how often you call on others to come up with a policy.

It is not about waving the flag or asserting that your form of Irishness is the only true one.

The more time you spent talking to your own and denouncing others for not conforming to your agenda the less you can achieve.

It is a simple reality, that many times during our history those who have been most aggressive in claiming to promote unity have actually made it harder to achieve.

Building understanding, openness and connections between all communities on our shared island is something everyone should be able to support, and it will continue to be a priority for us.

The absolutely central role in the foundation and development of Fianna Fáil played by people associated with the 1916 Rising is a source of deep pride for our party.

Yet we believe that 1916 belongs to no party. It belongs to the people of Ireland.

The tradition of building sovereignty, opening Ireland to the world and focusing on the future remains as important today as it was when first read out in front of the GPO 110 years ago.

It represents a shining point of light in our history. A light to guide and inspire us.

It reminds us of our shared responsibilities, and it challenges us to overcome our divisions.

It inspires us with the ideal of an Ireland which has a strong and active voice in the world.

That is why it right that we come to this place, and we again say thank you to these heroes and what they have done for us.

END