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Tiocfaidh ár lá

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File:Palestine Irish Republican mural.jpg
Mural in Belfast linking Palestinian nationalism and Irish republicanism : at bottom right is written Tiocfaidh ár lá

Tiocfaidh ár lá (pronounced 'chucky ar la') is an Irish language phrase which translates as "our day will come", alluding to Irish nationalisms desired independance and political reunification of Ireland. It became a popular slogan with militant Irish republicans in the 1980s.

Origins[edit]

The English phrase "our day will come" has been used in various contexts. Our Day Will Come, a pop song about young love, was a 1963 hit for Ruby & the Romantics. In the context of Irish politics, in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the nationalist Michael Davin (based on George Clancy) says "They [Irish freedom fighters] died for their ideals, Stevie. Our day will come yet, believe me."[1]

The Irish phrase tiocfaidh ár lá is attributed to Provisional IRA prisoner Bobby Sands,[2][3][4][5] who uses it in several writings smuggled out of the Maze Prison.[6] It is the last sentence of the diary he kept of the 1981 hunger strike in which he died.[7] Many Republicans learnt Irish in prison, and conversed regularly with each other through Irish, both for cultural reasons and to keep secrets from the wardens.[8] The Irish language revival movement has often overlapped with Irish Republicanism, particularly in Northern Ireland.[9][10][11] The upsurge in Republican consciousness in the wake of the hunger strikes also increased awareness of the Irish language in Republican areas.[12]

Occurrences[edit]

The slogan has been used by Sinn Féin representatives,[13][14][15] appeared on graffiti and political murals,[16] and been shouted by IRA defendants being convicted in British and Irish courts,[13][17] and their supporters in the public gallery.[18][19] Patrick Magee said it after being sentenced in 1986 for the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing.[20]

An apocryphal story claims that Michael Stone got past the Republican security cordon to commit the 1988 Milltown Cemetery attack by saying tiocfaidh ár lá.[21]

The 1992 and 1993 editions of Macmillan's The Student Book: The Indispensible Applicant's Guide to UK Colleges, Polytechnics and Universities advised potential University of Ulster students that "Tiocfaioh ar la" [sic] was a common greeting on campus and meant "pleased to meet you". This error, suspected to be the result of a prank, was expunged from the 1994 edition.[22][23][24][25]

The 2007 arrest of Irish-language activist Máire Nic an Bhaird in Belfast was allegedly partly for saying tiocfaidh ár lá to PSNI officers, although she claimed to have said tiocfaidh bhúr lá ("your day will come").[26]

Tiocfaidh Ár Lá (TÁL) is the name of a fanzine for Celtic F.C.'s Irish Republican ultras.[27] It was established in 1991, at which time Celtic was enduring a period of prolonged inferiority to Rangers F.C., their Old Firm rivals, giving the sense of "our day will come" an extra resonance.[28]

Anarchist Perspective[edit]

The phrase has been used by some Irish Anarchist groups, however most Anarchists are crticial of the IRA and it's methods, and stress that their use of the phrase should not be taken as a sign of support for the IRA. The armed struggle against British rule in Ireland, particularly up to and during the Irish War of Independence, is portrayed as a national liberation struggle within the Celtic anarchist milieu. Anarchists, including the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement, support a complete end to British involvement in Ireland, a stance traditionally associated with Irish republicanism, but are also very critical of statist nationalism and the IRA in particular. In two articles published on Anarkismo.net, Andrew Flood of the WSM outlines what he argues was the betrayal of class struggle by the IRA during the war of independence,[29] and argues that the statism of traditional Irish nationalism forced it to place the interests of wealthy Irish nationalists who were financing the revolution ahead of the interests of the vast majority of Ireland's poor. The example of the Irish Citizens Army, a workers militia which was led by James Connolly and based in the radical wing of the Irish union movement, is held up as a better example of how the larger revolutionary movement could have - and should have - been organized.

Anarchists are not nationalists, in fact we are completely against nationalism. We don't worry about where your granny was born, whether you can speak Irish or if you drink a green milkshake in McDonalds on St Patrick's Day. But this doesn't mean we can ignore nations. They do exist; and some nationalities are picked on, discriminated against because of their nationality. Irish history bears a lot of witness to this. The Kurds, Native Americans, Chechins, and many more have suffered also - and to an amazingly barbaric degree. National oppression is wrong. It divides working class people, causes terrible suffering and strengthens the hand of the ruling class. Our opposition to this makes us anti-imperialists. ...

So fight national oppression but look beyond nationalism. We can do a lot better. Changing the world for the better will be a hard struggle so we should make sure that we look for the best possible society to live in. We look forward to a world without borders, where the great majority of people have as much right to freely move about as the idle rich do today. A worldwide federation of free peoples - classless and stateless - where we produce to satisfy needs and all have control over our destinies - that's a goal worth struggling for.

From 'An Anarchist Perspective on Irish Nationalism' [30]

Variants[edit]

File:Beidh ár lá linn mural.jpg
Beidh ár lá linn mural in Andersonstown in 1989.

Similar slogans include:

Beidh an lá linn 
literally translates as "the day will be with us".[21] Some Irish-language speakers, including Ciarán Carson, contend that tiocfaidh ár lá is a less idiomatic expression, reflecting English-language conventions (see Béarlachas).[21][31] The hybrid form beidh ár lá linn ("our day will be with us") is also found among Republicans.[32]
Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach! 
("Power will have another day!") were the last words from the gallows of Edmund Power of Dungarvan, executed for his part in the Wexford Rebellion of 1798. The phrase was often cited by Éamon de Valera.[33] It occurs in the play An Giall, by Brendan Behan; his English translation, The Hostage, renders it "we'll have another day". It is not exclusively a political slogan, and may simply mean "another chance will come".[34]

Parodies of tiocfaidh ár lá include:

Chucky
an English-language pronunciation spelling of tiocfaidh, it is slang for an Irish Republican (sometimes shortened to Chuck).[35]
"Tiocfaidh Armani"
mocking Sinn Féin's move towards respectability from the peace process[36][37]
"Tiocfaidh Ar La La"
on T-shirts depicting the eponymous Teletubby as an IRA member.[38]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Joyce, James (1916). "Ch. 5" A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. URL accessed 2009-04-03.
  2. ↑ Toolis, Kevin (2000). Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA's soul, Picador.
  3. ↑ (2005) Liam Harte, Yvonne Whelan, Patrick Crotty Ireland: Space, Text, Time, Liffey Press.
  4. ↑ Shanahan, Timothy (2009). The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Morality of Terrorism, Edinburgh University Press.
  5. ↑ Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). The IRA, revised, Palgrave Macmillan.
  6. ↑ Sands, Bobby (1998). Bobby Sands: Writings from Prison, foreword by Gerry Adams, Mercier Press.
  7. ↑ Kearney, Richard (1988). Transitions: narratives in modern Irish culture, p. 224–5, Manchester University Press.
  8. ↑ Jarman, Neil (1997). Material conflicts: parades and visual displays in Northern Ireland, p. 242–3, Berg.
  9. ↑ Tanner, Marcus (2006). The last of the Celts, Yale University Press.
  10. ↑ O'Reilly, Camille C (2001). "Irish language, Irish identity: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the European Union" Camille C O'Reilly Minority Languages in the European Union, 5th, p. 83–96, Palgrave Macmillan.
  11. ↑ Nic Craith, Máiréad (2002). Plural identities—singular narratives: the case of Northern Ireland, p. 150–1, Berghahn.
  12. ↑ Crowley, Tony (2005). Wars of Words: The Politics of Language in Ireland 1537-2004, Oxford University Press.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Cusack, Jim (14 August 1984). "5,000 march in peaceful demonstration". The Irish Times: p. 1. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1984/0814/Pg001.html#Ar00103. Retrieved 2009-04-03. "Both Mr Adams and Father Burke concluded their speeches with "Tiocfaidh ár lá," "Our day will come," the expression used by Republican prisoners at their sentencing at Belfast Crown Court." </li>
  14. ↑ O Coilain [sic], Caoimhghin (30 June 1984). "Buiochas". Leitrim Observer: p. 7. </li>
  15. ↑ Ó Súilleabháin, Cionnath (7 October 2000). "Sinn Féin thanks to Áine!". Southern Star: p. 11. </li>
  16. ↑ Rolston, Bill (1991). Politics and painting: murals and conflict in Northern Ireland, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  17. ↑ Geraghty, Tony (2002). The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence, Johns Hopkins University Press.
  18. ↑ "Six jailed for arms crimes salute as supporters shout 'Up the Republic'". The Irish Times: p. 22. 20 January 1996. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1996/0120/Pg022.html#Ar02203. Retrieved 2009-04-03. "There was prolonged applause from about 30 supporters and shouts of "Up the Republic" and "Tiocfaidh Ar La" after the sentences were handed down." </li>
  19. ↑ "Court told of gun battle as six jailed over bank raid". The Irish Times: p. 3. 3 July 1990. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1990/0703/Pg003.html#Ar00301. Retrieved 2009-04-03. "there were shouts of "Tiocfaidh ár la" and "Up the Provos" from the public gallery after sentence was passed." </li>
  20. ↑ Hattenstone, Simon (10 December 2001). "The Monday interview: Bombs and books". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2001/dec/10/highereducation.uk. Retrieved 2009-04-03. </li>
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Carson, Ciarán (1998). The Star Factory, p. 41–2, Arcade Publishing.
  22. ↑ Moriarty, Gerry (17 July 1993). "IRA slogan has become college "buzz word"". The Irish Times: p. 1. </li>
  23. ↑ (1992) Klaus Boehm, Jenny Lees-Spalding The student book 93 : the applicant's guide to UK colleges and universities, 14th, London: Macmillan.
  24. ↑ (1993) Klaus Boehm, Jenny Lees-Spalding The student book 94 : the indispensable applicant's guide to UK colleges and universities, 15th, London: Macmillan.
  25. ↑ (1994) Klaus Boehm, Jenny Lees-Spalding The Natwest student book 1995 : the applicant's guide to UK colleges and universities, 16th, London: Macmillan.
  26. ↑ Irish language teacher in Belfast guilty of disorderly behaviour. URL accessed on 2007-03-02.
  27. ↑ Jarvie, Grant; Graham Walker (1994). Scottish Sport in the Making of the Nation: Ninety Minute Patriots?, Leicester University Press.
  28. ↑ Tiocfaidh Ar La - For Celtic & Ireland. URL accessed on 2009-04-02.
  29. ↑ Flood, Andrew. "Insurrection in Ireland", Anarkismo.net.
  30. ↑ An Anarchist Perspective on Irish Nationalism, by Andrew Flood. Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)
  31. ↑ De Brún, Fionntán (2006). Belfast and the Irish language, Four Courts Press.
  32. ↑ Buckley, Michael Image V: Andersontown (sic). The Writing on the Wall: Continuity and Change as Represented in the Republican Murals of West Belfast. Stanford University. URL accessed on 2009-04-03.
  33. ↑ Hughes, Art J. (2007). "Possible Echoes from An tOileánach and Mo Bhealach Féin in Flann O’Brien’s The Hard Life" Séamus Mac Mathúna, Ailbhe Ó Corráin; asst. Maxim Fomin Celtic Literatures in the Twentieth Century (PDF), Centre for Irish and Celtic Studies, University of Ulster.
  34. ↑ Dillon, Charlie Beginners' blas: Sloinnte Normannacha. Blas. BBC Northern Ireland. URL accessed on 2009-04-03.
  35. ↑ Stanage, Niall (March 8 2007). "Chuck Schumer, Militant Republican". The New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/node/31683. Retrieved 2007-05-05. "it became so associated with the IRA that it entered popular slang - a "Chuck" or "Chucky" was a person known to support the guerrilla group's armed struggle." </li>
  36. ↑ Hayes, Paddy (16 March 1995). "Sinn Féin". The Irish Times: p. 15. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1995/0316/Pg015.html#Ar01517. Retrieved 2009-04-03. </li>
  37. ↑ Holohan, Renagh (15 May 1999). "Now it's...tiocfaidh Armani". The Irish Times: p. 38. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1999/0515/Pg038.html#Ar03805. Retrieved 2009-04-03. </li>
  38. ↑ Marks, Kathy (15 December 1997). "Eh-oh! Can I have a terrorist for Christmas?". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ehoh-can-i-have-a-terrorist-for-christmas-1288933.html. Retrieved 2009-04-03. </li> </ol>

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