The Provisional Government
of the
IRISH REPUBLIC.
To the People of Ireland.
IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead
generations from which she receives her old tradition of Nationhood,
IRELAND, through us, summons her Children to her flag and
strikes for her freedom.
Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret
revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and
through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the
Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having
resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now
seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled Children in America
and by gallant Allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own
strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.
WE DECLARE 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. The long usurpation of that right by a
foreign people and Government has not extinguished the right, nor
can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish
people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their
right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the
past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on
that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face
of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign
Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our
comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of
its exaltation among the nations.
THE IRISH REPUBLIC is entitled to, and HEREBY CLAIMS,
the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic
guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal
opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue
the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts,
cherishing all the children of the Nation equally, and oblivious of
the differences carefully fostered by an Alien Government, which have
divided a minority from the majority in the past.
Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment
of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people
of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the
Provisional Government hereby constituted, will administer the civil
and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.
We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the
Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray
that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice,
inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish Nation must,
by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to
sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the
august destiny to which it is called.
Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government,
THOMAS CLARKE.
SEAN MACDIARMADA.
THOMAS MACDONAGH.
P. H. PEARSE.
EAMONN CEANNT.
JAMES CONNOLLY.
JOSEPH PLUNKETT.