Derry republicans gather at Bodenstown to remember ‘father of Irish republicanism’ Wolfe Tone

Mr. McBrearty was joined be fellow independent republicans from Derry and Donegal and throughout the country for the demonstration at Sallins, Co. Kildare.

The event was chaired by republican former prisoner Sean McGuinness from Armagh. The main speaker was John Crawley.

Speeches were also made by Sean Whelan of the National Graves Association and John McDonagh of Radio Free Éireann, who brought soil from the grave of Tone's wife, Matilda, in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, and scattered it at the graveside.

In his address Mr. Crawley stated: “Ireland still has no national government. There is an Irish government in Dublin, but it is not the Government of Ireland.

"There are two governments of Ireland—one based in Leinster House and the other at Westminster in London. Stormont is a regional assembly of the British parliament.

"Instead of national politics, we have partition politics. And who could look at Stormont and Britain’s Secretary of State and deny that part of Ireland continues to be ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen?”

He argued ‘unionists never had an issue with a united Ireland per se’.

"They lived in a united Ireland under Crown jurisdiction for hundreds of years. The Orange Order is an all-Ireland institution,” he said.

Mr. Crawley added: "When Republicans speak of reaching out to unionists, we mean reaching out to them as fellow citizens and not as foreigners who happen to live here.”

In his speech he criticised the dispensation arising from the Good Friday Agreement.

“If you manage to get elected or co-opted to Stormont, the British government will subsidise your belief with a salary, expenses, and ultimately a pension.

"But don’t internalise Britain’s pacification project and call it a republican peace strategy,” he said.

In conclusion he referred to Tone’s anti-sectarian message.

"We stand today beside the grave of this remarkable patriot to honour his service and sacrifice and to reaffirm our commitment to his ideals. We stand here not as southern or northern Irishmen and women, not as Catholics or Protestants, not as inhabitants of this ‘island’ nor advocates of insipid All-Island institutions, but as United Irishmen and women,” he concluded.