90th Anniversary of 1st Dail

The first all-Ireland Parliament met on 21 January 1919 in the Mansion House in Dublin. The composition of the Dail was the Republican TD's who abstained from the British Parliament following the 1918 general election.

Republicans won 73 of the 105 seats a clear indication of the people's aspiration for a united, independent and progressive Ireland. The members of the Dail set about issuing a Declaration of Independence, which sought international recognition of their mandate as elected representatives of the Irish people. The only foreign state to recognise Dail Eireann and the Irish Republic was the socialist state of Soviet Russia. The Dail issued another document that day, the Democratic Programme. This programme, socialist in content, declared that "the Nation's sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth- producing processes within the Nation, and ... that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare."

The Connolly Youth Movement believes this document to be of extreme importance, such is its relevance to the current economic and political crisis and such are its recommendations on how an economy should be run in a democratic society. Unfortunately, this proposed programme for government has never been implemented nor made a reality for the people of this island.

The aspiration for a democratically controlled economy that benefits the people of Ireland and not a handful of imperialist elites has long been a demand of working people. Amid the current crisis, though it is complex, it is easy to see how we got here. Since the partition of Ireland and the victory of the counter-revolution in the civil war, successive Irish governments and direct rule governance, have sought to protect property and the powerful against democracy whilst refusing to focus on the people. Natural resources have been give away for nothing, public services are being privatized and the highest earners pay less tax than middle- income families.

The Connolly Youth Movement proposes an alternative, a "Democratic Programme for Today". The CYM calls for:

A state bank, providing secure provision of loans and protection of savings and pensions, with union representation on its board

Nationalization and control all natural resources, to be used for the benefit of all, with profits reinvested in the economy

Redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation of the wealthy

Support and encouragement of union membership and participation as another essential channel of democratic debate and enforcement

Equal access and publicly responsive state services in essential areas, such as health, education and transport

The regulation, monitoring and taxation of any transnational company producing profits from our country or its people

The Connolly Youth Movement is demanding on this important anniversary and midst this crisis that people mobilise for the implementation of this Democratic Programme.


National Executive Committee,
Connolly Youth Movement