Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Centenary Event, Galway

 

Go raibh maith agat Albert agus le gach duine a raibh baint acu le heagrú na hócáide seo anocht.

 

Míle buíochas chomh maith le gach aon duine atá bailithe anseo anocht.

 

Is iontach go bhfuil sibh le chéile don ócáid seo.

 

A Chairde, is pribhléid agus is pléisiúr é a bheith libh chun ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar chéad bliain ár bpáirtí iontach, Fianna Fáil, an Páirtí Poblachtánach.

 

Tá áthas ar leith orm an cuimhneachán speisialta céad bliain seo a cheiliúradh libh, baill an pháirtí in Oirthear na Gaillimhe, Dáilcheantar i gContae cáiliúil stairiúil a leag cuid de na bunchlocha ba láidre i gcónaí thar na blianta do rath an pháirtí agus a thug na glúnta de cheannaireacht den chéad scoth ag leibhéal an pháirtí agus ag leibhéal náisiúnta.

 

Thank you Albert, thank you everyone involved in organising tonight’s event, and thank you everyone who has taken the time to be here this evening.

 

A cháirde, it is a great and genuine pleasure to be with you to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our great party, Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party.

 

I’m particularly happy to be celebrating this landmark anniversary for the party in Galway East, a constituency in a county which has always represented some of the strongest foundations for our success and has provided us with generations of party and national leadership.

 

Through good times and bad Fianna Fáil in this constituency and indeed this town of Athenry has been at the centre of our story as a movement – known for its commitment to our party’s values and the republican tradition which has defined us from our first days.

 

Athenry was of course one of the very few places outside Dublin where the Easter Rising drove sustained action.

 

Liam Mellows based himself in the town in the build up to the Rising, training Volunteers; and at Easter 1916, some 700 men mobilised at Athenry, marched to the Agricultural College, then on to Moyode Castle.

 

Also among the organisers was Athenry’s own Stephen Jordan, who fought in Easter Week and the War of Independence and later went on to become one of Fianna Fáil’s founding fathers in Galway and represented our Party in Dáil Éireann.

 

Fianna Fáil is nothing without its members and supporters. This is something which most commentators outside the party have never really understood.

 

The thousands of people in every part of the country who selflessly give their time to the party.

 

They are never scared to make their voices heard and they are relentless in pushing those of us who have the honour to hold elected office to be true to what is one of the most successful parties in the history of democratic Europe.

 

I am grateful to each and every one of you, not just for being here but for everything you do for the party.

 

I’ve already briefly mentioned this constituency’s role in providing leadership within the party and the country over the decades, and have mentioned the story of Stephen Jordan, but your record is exceptional.

 

Exceptional too is the effort you are making tonight to honour that record and all those who contributed to it.

 

At the conclusion of my remarks, Albert will make presentations to the individuals and the families of the individuals who have carried our flame over the last century.

 

And as we reflect on those contributions, we have the benefit of consulting a most excellent publication setting out the history of the Party in Galway East.

 

Before I go any further, I have to acknowledge and pay tribute to the work of Eamonn Gilligan and his nephew Dáire Enright in putting together a remarkable local history resource.

 

It tells the story of what this constituency has given to the Party. It is a very strong endowment.

 

You gave us a century of rock solid representatives, initially forged in the revolutionary period but committed absolutely to moving the country beyond division.

 

You gave us families and traditions of service that have lasted through the decades – the Kitts and the Killileas, the Faheys, the Hoades and the Callanans, to name just a few.

 

You gave us some of the finest colleagues I ever had the privilege to work with.

 

You gave us Noel Treacy. As he would say of many others but not himself, a Mighty Man.

 

You gave us Frank Fahey, who performed real service for the country and remains committed to the Party’s success.

 

And in our darkest days, when the very future of the party itself was in doubt, you gave us HOPE.

 

Because in 2011, in our part’s most daunting trial, when we were losing talented and committed colleagues and friends all over the country, there were very few lights in the darkness and one of them was here in Galway East.

 

Drawing on that tradition of loyalty and decency and service, you returned Michael P Kitt.

 

Michael soldiered through the hardest times, working with me and our other colleagues to rebuild and renew.

 

He did himself and the constituency proud, earning the respect of everyone as Leas Ceann Comhairle and helped secure the election of Anne Rabbitte.

 

Anne did an amazing job in Opposition and made a very valuable contribution as Minister when we returned to Government in 2020.

 

Now in Seanad Éireann, Anne along with Senator Shane Curley are among the most focussed Senators working in Leinster House.

 

And in 2024 you gave us Albert Dolan, one of the youngest and most effective TDs in Dáil Éireann.

 

Albert has been making well deserved waves in the national media for his work demanding transparency and accountability in public spending.

 

But I can assure you he is every bit as focussed and determined in his pursuit of investment for this constituency and in particular, along with John Connolly and his other colleagues, on delivering progress on the Galway Ring Road.

 

Congratulations also Albert on the new constituency office in Athenry, which I was very pleased to note earlier!

 

All of the individuals mentioned (and I could have mentioned many more), along with the entire Fianna Fáil community here in Galway pulled together and supported me as Leader in picking the Party up and returning Fianna Fáil to where we are today…

 

The largest party in local government, the largest party in Dáil Éireann, the largest party in Seanad Éireann, the joint largest party in the European Parliament and a party that is leading in Government.

 

The centenary of one of democratic Europe’s most successful political parties is an important moment. Not only is our country one of the only states which remained democratic throughout the past 100 years, by every available measure Ireland and its place in the world have been transformed.

 

We face serious challenges, but no one can deny how far our country has come.

 

This didn’t happen by chance. It came from the choices made by the Irish people and the leadership of Fianna Fáil and its programme of progressive republicanism.

 

When our founders gathered on Sunday May 16th, 1926, they knew that no matter how illustrious their service to the nation had been, they were starting afresh.

 

That day they woke up to unseasonably freezing temperatures. Dublin was covered by thick, dark clouds. Yet records say that, as the day progressed, the skies cleared and there was a mood of excitement and expectation as the hundreds who answered the call of Eamon de Valera to found a new political movement gathered.

 

With Constance Markiewicz in the chair, and many of the great names of 1916 and the War of Independence present, it might have been expected that they would have been looking back.

 

Exactly the opposite was the case. And this spoke to the core of why Fianna Fáil was founded.

 

De Valera and his colleagues were determined to find new ways forward.

 

They rejected the idea that programmes and methods had to remain fixed in time.

 

To them the essence of republicanism was not a focus on the past, but the ability to respond to the needs of today and the years ahead.

 

One of the laziest but most persistent comments about Irish politics is that we have been defined by civil war politics.

 

The fact is that Fianna Fáil was founded because we refused to carry on the civil war divide.

 

Our founders wanted a party which was open to new people and new policies. They wanted to show people who had been on the other side in both the War of Independence and Civil War that there was a new party which was willing to work with them to serve the people.

 

The programme set out for Fianna Fáil in those days emphasised core ideals which are as important today as they have ever been.

 

A rejection of the sterile ideologies of the left and the right.

 

A practical patriotism which believed in achieving both economic development and social control.

 

Securing Ireland’s ability to be a truly sovereign nation.

 

Active engagement with other countries as a voice for peace and progress.

 

And of course, a belief that all people who share this island have a common interest which would be best served though sharing an independent state.

 

They understood that our new state was failing in critical ways.

 

We were the poorest state in Europe.

 

We had a rapidly falling population, low employment and no plans for addressing critical issues like slum conditions experienced by hundreds of thousands of people.

 

We also had a political situation defined by inflexibility, a lack of ambition and a refusal to build Irish sovereignty in a more assertive way.

 

The party Eamon de Valera announced 100 years ago showed from its very first moments that it would be different.

 

It had zero media support, few resources, and the active opposition of a highly politicised state administration – but Fianna Fáil showed an energy and determination which rapidly overcame these hurdles.

 

The foundation and the cornerstone of the new party was in its reliance on a comprehensive national network of members and supporters. The party organisation wasn’t an afterthought – it was the first priority.

 

But much more than this, our party threw open its doors to people from all backgrounds and never insisted on a litmus test relating to the past.

 

Within a year of being founded Fianna Fáil received over 100,000 more votes than republicans had won – and within six years this splinter group from a defeated party doubled its vote and became the largest party in Dáil Éireann.

 

From our party’s very first days in government we showed our determination that Ireland would be a strong, democratic and secure republic.

 

The scale and pace of change implemented by de Valera, Lemass, Ryan, Aiken and the other members of that radical government was breathtaking, leaving behind it a lasting and positive impact.

 

From our very first days, our Party was always a believer in international cooperation.

 

We made Ireland a strong voice against the drift towards war in the League of Nations – and we took a lead in supporting practical action for peace in the United Nations.

 

It was in this spirit that we should remember the last great public service of our founding generation.

 

Seán Lemass, who as schoolboy had served in the GPO in 1916, with the strong support of the party, understood that to be truly secure and to prosper, Ireland needed to be part of an effective, rules-based community of European democracies.

 

In a pure expression of the republicanism of Wolfe Tone, Fianna Fáil successfully made the case to the Irish people that we could secure our sovereignty through having the confidence to share it.

 

Today, we hold the Presidency of that European Union.

 

In the same spirit of ambition, it is because we believe in empowering the Irish people that a commitment to education has defined us from our earliest days.

 

Every major expansion in educational opportunity in our history, has been initiated by Fianna Fáil.

 

The introduction of new types of schools. Free secondary education. The creation of special needs provision.

 

The creation of new third level colleges. The creation of research and infrastructure funding.

 

These and many more initiatives from our party have been the core reasons why Ireland today has one of the highest levels of educational achievement in the world.

 

It is also why hundreds of thousands of people have well paid jobs which can only be conducted by a highly educated workforce.

 

It is why we have a dynamic combination of innovative Irish industry and world-leading international companies.

 

A unique feature of Fianna Fáil from our very first days is that we have shown how you can both support business and support strong social programmes – and we have shown that a strong economy can be the basis of real social progress.

 

We’ve used Ireland’s success to invest in health and education. To increase pensions and other social supports. And to invest in community services.

 

Our commitment to building a shared future for all on this island is as strong as it has ever been. The achievement of the first ever agreed blueprint on the future of our island is something we will always be proud of.

 

As I said in the Dáil earlier this week, Irish Unity is not a slogan or a ‘campaign’ for this Party.

 

It is a very precious aspiration that informed our foundation and sustains us to this day.

 

But where others focus on talking to their own side, we know that the only way forward is through active engagement and understanding. It’s through showing a real, long-term commitment to challenging your own to do things differently and create a new agenda.

 

That’s why I established and secured €2 Billion funding to support the Shared Island Initiative, the most dynamic and consequential North – South agenda in the country’s history.

 

This is the essence of the spirit of the party founded one hundred years ago. A determination to find new ways forward – and this is the spirit which we bring to great challenge of leading the government of this modern, European republic.

 

It is why we are leading our country in support of a strong Europe and democratic values – acting in both word and deed to support the people of Ukraine and the Palestinian people.

 

It is why we are pushing forward the largest public investment programme in our history.

 

It is why we are determined to make our schools more inclusive and tackle disadvantage.

 

And of course, it is why we are determined to accelerate the new era of home building which is underway and which is a defining social challenge of our time.

 

The country which our party was founded to change has been transformed in the past century.

 

We continue to face many challenges, but our country has achieved sustained progress of a type which even the most optimistic dreamers did not foresee.

 

Ours is democratic republic which has overcome great hurdles to take its place amongst the nations of the world.

 

The generations who worked to build and renew Fianna Fáil the Republican Party here in Galway, in this constituency, and across the country over the past century, deserve our thanks, they deserve our respect, but most of all they deserve our commitment to continue their record of service for the people of Ireland.

 

In his Foreword to the Galway East Fianna Fáil publication I referred to earlier, Deputy Albert Dolan writes, “With pride in our past and confidence in our people, let us build an Ireland worthy of the next generation”.

 

I strongly endorse this message but would like to add, with your indulgence and given our presence in Athenry this evening,

 

Fianna Fáil “still has dreams and songs to sing”.

 

Go raibh míle maith agaibh, agus ar agaidh le Fianna Fáil.