Seán Lynch Oration

Sean Lynch’s remarks at the funeral of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh

“Patrick Sheridan, he was black, and we had a Father Jim Sheridan, he was red. And we always called him Father Red Sheridan. Father Red Sheridan was in the military. He was a volunteer before he went for the priesthood. He wrote a pamphlet about Seán Connelly that was killed down at Selton Hill. And and he talked about the first time he met Thomas Ashe in Granard and he mentioned the names of people who were there at that occasion in 1917. Thomas Ashe, as everybody knows, was summoned and convicted for a speech he made in Ballinalee in County Longford, and he died in 1917. And among the persons that were there that night in Granard in 1917 was Matt Brady. And Father Sheridan paid respect in this after he wrote about Matt Brady. And for anybody that wondered where Ruairí Ó Brádaigh got his Republicanism, he got it both from his father and his mother. And Matt Brady, I didn’t know him, but I knew all about him from my father and from my uncles who were part of the struggle at the time. He was a very determined man and he died, as he said, with a British bullet in his body. And Ruairí as I remember real well, at a meeting outside of Columcille Church, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh told the crowd, he said “I’d rather die any day from a British bullet than from a Free State one”. And how true he was. We all said, the Free Staters paid their respects today, but that wouldn’t harm Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, because he was the man that fought them all, Free State or others. He fought them and he was determined to fight them because they were there set up by the British government without the authority of the Irish people. (Applause and cheering)

Everybody knows when we talk about peace and think peace the British government disrupted the peace all over the world. And in different countries men in groups like Ruairí Ó Brádaigh are fighting them and hopefully with success this will come through in Ireland. I would conclude, we always say that in a few year’s time we will commemorate 1916 and we’ll hear it all, what Ruairí Ó Brádaigh has pictured for the last sixty years. And there’s nothing new in what he was preaching. It’s all lies that the other crowd are telling. And as I said to somebody the other day they were asking me where would they get this book about Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, The Making of an Irish Rebel and Revolution [Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary]. She said to me, “That should be in the schools”. That should be in the schools, but it won’t be in the schools because like all the history out nothing will be in the schools when you have the Free Staters. (Applause and cheering)

This was taken from the last letters of Thomas MacDonagh, in 1916.[i] He wrote, and it’s very appropriate and it refers also to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh “Take me away and let my blood bedew the sacred soil of Ireland. I die in the certainty that once more the seed will fructify”. And I hope that the seed will fructify. And I know sure that, as I said, that Ruairí Ó Brádaigh when we talked, was somebody that believes in heaven. And with that said, I’d like to thank the clergy for the way they sent him off today. That Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is in heaven (applause) [Unclear] crowd that are here today. And he surprised at all that the Free Staters are here and they tried to dishonor him, as they did in the past, but that was impossible. Slan leat [Goodbye] Ruairí ….

[i] Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916) was one of seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, in 1916. On 3 May 1916, MacDonagh was executed for his role in the Easter Rising.