Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD, speaking during her speech commemorating the Easter Rising at Arbour Hill, Sunday said, “We have secured the Peace. It’s now time to write the next chapter of our national story – the reunification of Ireland.”
Ms McDonald challenged Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin describing the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government as “the biggest barrier today to planning and preparing for Irish Unity” and accused the Taoiseach of a “dereliction of duty” for refusing to advance reunification.
The Sinn Féin Leader said, “The thirtieth anniversary of The Good Friday Agreement is approaching. We have secured the Peace. It’s now time to write the next chapter of our national story – the reunification of Ireland.
“This is the decade when Irish unity can be won, decided by people north and south in referendums. The conversation is underway but conversation is not enough. We need vision, determination and leadership. We need action.
“Instead, Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin pushes back. He chooses to stifle, hinder and avoid the most important national conversation of our time. It is telling that the biggest barrier today to planning and preparing for Irish Unity is the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government.
“My message to the Taoiseach is direct: You have a responsibility to lead on Irish reunification. To persist with inaction and drift is a dereliction of your duty. It’s not good enough to be a bystander as history unfolds.
“Partition should never have been inflicted on Ireland. So, a century of partition is too long. The Taoiseach and the government must recognise the immense potential for our country. Constitutional change and reunification present an historic opportunity for our whole island.
“The government has a responsibility to plan. To prepare. To grasp this chance to advance Irish Unity in our time.”
MARY LOU McDONALD’S EASTER SPEECH 2026 IN FULL:
A chairde,
Táimid ag seasamh anseo le chéile ag suíomh beannaithe chun cuimhneamh ar an am atá thart agus chun féachaint i dtreo na todhchaí go misniúil.
Táimid ag bailliú chun onóir a thabhairt do réabhlóidaithe cróga Éirí Amach na Cásca agus chun cuimhneamh orthú siúd ar fad a thug a mbeatha ar son saoirse na hÉireann.
Inniu, agus muid tiomanta aisling laochra na Poblachta a fhíorú, seasann a n-íobairt mar inspioráid dúinn – ag spreagadh sinn chun fís an fhorógra a chomhlíonadh, chun Éire Aontaithe a bhaint amach, fíorPhoblacht do chách.
Easter and Spring are a season of hope.
A time for renewal, for revival, for recommitment.
A time for rising.
One hundred and ten years ago, brave Irishmen and Irish women went out to break the connection between this country and Britain.
To establish an independent, Irish Republic.
Against all the odds.
With hope in their hearts.
They stood against the most powerful empire on Earth.
And they changed the course of history.
The Easter Rising was a watershed in Ireland’s ancient and noble struggle.
A struggle passed to each generation.
A torch lit by the unconquerable belief that one day the dream will be achieved.
Full freedom.
Full nationhood.
Reunification.
A thirty-two county Republic for the people.
That dream has withstood colonisation, oppression, and repression.
Sustained by brave rebellion and resistance against British rule.
By the defiance of working people against the domination of capitalists, bankers, landlords, and self-serving, partitionist governments.
A dream so powerfully captured in the words of the Proclamation.
‘.. we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a sovereign independent State.’
That enduring revolutionary spirit of the Irish people is reflected in the walk we just took together.
From the Croppies Acre, in the shadow of the place where the great Wolfe Tone laid down his life.
A mass burial site of United Irishmen executed by the Crown in the wake of the 1798 rebellion.
To here – the hallowed ground of Arbour Hill.
The final resting place of the leaders of the Rising.
Across the Liffey, they were executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol.
When the British buried them here, they believed they had also buried Ireland’s desire for freedom.
They were wrong.
Those executions were not a full stop.
Not an ending.
They were the wind that shook the barley.
The coming to life of Pearse’s prophecy, “Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women springs living nations.”
Today, Arbour Hill echoes with the call of our Fenian dead.
And we will answer.
Defending the Nation’s Scared Places
All nations that fought for their freedom have their sacred places.
The GPO.
The headquarters of the Rising, outside where Pearse read aloud the Proclamation and declared the birth of the Irish Republic.
Moore Street and the surrounding areas.
Where for six days brave rebels defended that Republic with their lives.
Where our heroic leaders met for the last time.
It is shameful that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to back plans to desecrate these places for commercial, corporate interests.
We will never accept that.
These streets, laneways and buildings belong to our revolutionary history, to the people of Ireland, to future generations.
Sites that must be preserved and transformed into a cultural and historical quarter worthy of the sacrifices of our courageous patriots.
A Century of the Easter Lily
One hundred years ago, the women of Cumann na mBan first introduced the Easter Lily as a symbol of remembrance of those sacrifices.
A century later, we continue to proudly wear the Lily.
To declare that we hold tightly to the ideals for which those rebels fought and died.
We still hear that august challenge posed by the Rising’s leaders to the people of Ireland.
That challenge still endures.
Still echoes.
Still inspires.
As relevant today as it was over a century ago.
We stand here, in this scared place, to again attest who we are:
Irish socialist republicans committed to the reuniting of our country and our people in peace, fraternity and harmony.
We believe in equality ,in economic justice and in workers’ rights.
In an Ireland free of racism, discrimination, sectarianism, and bigotry, free of second-class citizenship.
We are anti-war.
We are anti-imperialist.
We hold tightly to the values of the Republic 1916 and our most moderate demands are, we only want the Earth.
We Serve Neither King nor Kaiser: Defending Ireland’s Neutrality
Two years before the Rising, James Connolly had a banner hung outside Liberty Hall.
It read: ‘We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland’.
A powerful response to the prospect of Britain enforcing conscription in Ireland.
A principle that has underpinned the anti-imperialist values of our nation and our proud tradition of neutrality.
A tradition that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are hellbent on destroying.
Their first step is to remove the Triple Lock.
Opening the gates to entangle Ireland in destructive military alliances.
To send our sons and daughters off to fight and die in military conflicts and colonial wars that have nothing to do with our country.
We say – never. We stand true to Connolly.
Not on the side of military power but on the side of human rights, self-determination, and freedom.
On the side of oppressed peoples of the world.
Robbed of their freedom.
Robbed of their homelands.
Denied justice.
We say to the people of Palestine – you are not alone.
We will always stand with you.
Always speak up for you.
Stand at your side until the day of freedom dawns.
The illegal US-Israel war on Iran, the ongoing genocide on Gaza, and Israel’s assault on Lebanon highlight how the philosophy of ‘might is right’ has taken hold.
Peace, human rights, and international law swept aside.
Making the world a very unstable, very dangerous place.
The voices of nations that cherish peace and justice are more important than ever.
Our neutrality is more important than ever.
And will defend it tooth and nail.
If Micheál Martin or Simon Harris had the courage of their convictions, they would put their shameful plan to the people in a referendum.
Their refusal to give the public their say is political cowardice.
They fear the answer they would certainly receive.
I believe that answer would be delivered loudly and clearly – hands off Ireland’s neutrality.
Partition Has Failed
The vision we strive for today is the same vision for which the rebels of 1916 fought and died.
Ireland – fully free, united, and equal.
A country where the resources of the nation are used not for the enrichment of the privileged few, but to make life better for working people, for families, and for children.
Partition has stifled that vision.
In the South, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael govern for those at the top, the insiders, and the vested interests.
Ordinary people are left behind.
Denied housing and access to timely healthcare.
Working households overwhelmed by a cost-of-living crisis.
Young people forced to leave Ireland in search of opportunity abroad.
Right now, families struggle to heat their homes, put food on the table and pay their bills, while big corporations profit from their hardship.
It shouldn’t be this way.
The upcoming by-elections will be all about the cost of living.
On one side stands Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – a government of half-measures that has abandoned households.
On the other stands Sinn Féin – fighting for workers and families.
A vote for Janice Boylan and Mark Lohan is a vote to make life affordable.
A vote to bring down soaring fuel costs.
A vote for cost of living support.
Electing more Sinn Féin TDs will force the government to act.
If you want our plan delivered – to tackle rising fuel prices and make life more affordable – then the choice is clear: Vote for Sinn Féin.
We will work relentlessly to make it happen.
To restore hope that it doesn’t have to be Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael forever.
And the belief that one day we will have a government for the people.
Friends, society in the six counties has been utterly transformed.
A Republican leads as First Minister.
The focus of Michelle O’Neill and her Executive team is on improving people’s lives.
But the institutions are constrained.
Fiscal powers denied.
The British Government persists with austerity, a crude assault on public services, and has abandoned working households struggling with the cost-of- living.
The perennial problem exposed once more.
Westminster doesn’t care about the North of Ireland.
It never has.
It never will.
For as long as power over key decisions is held in London, progress will be curtailed.
Ireland’s full promise held back.
We need to end the British government’s involvement in Ireland’s affairs.
We need to fully end British rule on our island.
A United Ireland
The thirtieth anniversary of The Good Friday Agreement is approaching.
We have secured the Peace.
Now is the time to write the next chapter of our national story.
The reunification of Ireland.
This is the decade when Irish unity can be won – decided by people north and south in referendums.
The conversation is underway, but conversation alone is not enough.
We need vision, determination, and leadership.
We need action.
But instead, Fianna Fail Leader Micheál Martin pushes back.
Chooses to stifle, hinder and avoid the most important national conversation of our time.
It is telling that the biggest barrier today to preparing and planning Irish Unity today is the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government.
My message to the Taoiseach is direct:
You have a responsibility to lead on Irish reunification.
To persist with inaction and drift is a dereliction of your duty.
It’s not good enough to be a bystander as history unfolds.
Partition should never have been inflicted on Ireland.
So, a century of partition is too long.
The Taoiseach and the government must recognise the immense potential for our country.
Constitutional change and reunification present an historic opportunity for our whole island.
The government has a responsibility to plan.
To prepare.
To grasp this chance to advance Irish Unity in our time.
Conclusion: Reaching the Republic
A chairde, we stand here today because we accept with enthusiasm and pride our length of the long walk to the Republic.
I believe this is the final length of that noble journey.
I believe that this generation can unite Ireland in the spirit of the Proclamation.
‘What if the dream come true?’
That was Pearse’s powerful retort to the critics and naysayers of his day.
They land today to fill our hearts, raise spirits, and fire our minds.
A reminder that there is nothing more powerful than belief.
A reminder to keep going, to never give in, to never give up.
A century later, we are within touching distance of Pearse’s dream.
Inch by inch, we get closer to a United Ireland.
But there is much work to be done.
Challenges still to overcome.
It won’t be easy.
But Irish republicans have never shied from challenge, adversity, or sacrifice.
We meet it head on.
The opportunity of history lies before us.
The future calls to us.
And how will we answer?
By finishing the unfinished business of 1916.
By completing our nation’s journey to full freedom
By uniting Ireland.
By reaching the Republic.
Go raibh maith agaibh agus an Phoblacht abú!
