Meeting at their National Convention, the Ancient Order of Hibernians passed a resolution calling for the commemoration of Ireland’s 1919 Declaration of Independance
WHEREAS on January 21, 1919, representatives of the Irish people, elected in the thirty-two-county election of 1918 and assembled in Dublin as a National Parliament, did adopt Ireland’s Declaration of Independence and ratify the Irish Republic proclaimed on Easter Monday 1916; and
WHEREAS that Declaration of Independence states that the Irish people have always had a right to national freedom and self-government; and
WHEREAS the British government, against the will of the Irish people, denied that national freedom and self-government by military occupation; and
WHEREAS these patriots, like the signers of America’s Declaration of Independence, pledged themselves to freedom at the risk of imprisonment or death at the hands of a colonial British government antagonistic to the cause of liberty; and
WHEREAS in 2019, the centenary of this most important event in Ireland’s great history, it is fitting that Ireland’s Declaration of Independence be suitably remembered, honored and commemorated; and
WHEREAS the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest and largest Irish–American organization, is dedicated to perpetuating the history and traditions of the Irish people and to promoting Freedom for all Ireland, take pride in America’s Declaration of Independence, and also take pride in Ireland’s Declaration of Independence; now
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Ancient Order of Hibernians recommends and encourages that commemorative events and ceremonies be held in the Year 2019 to promote and honor the centenary of Ireland’s Declaration of Independence.
Signed and witnessed this Fourteenth Day of July in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eighteen, the two hundred and forty-second year since the founding of the American republic, and the one hundred and second since the Proclamation of the Irish republic.