Aontú honours Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown

Aontú became the latest political party to make a pilgrimage to Bodenstown when they held a Wolfe Tone Commemoration in Co. Kildare on Saturday (28 June).

A large crowd attended the event to honour the iconic Republican figure who is regarded as the ‘Father of Republicanism’.

In her keynote address, Gemma Brolly, Deputy Leader of Aontú said Tone’s vision is all the more important in the Ireland of today.

“We gather here today not only to honour the memory of Wolfe Tone, but to walk in his footsteps — to carry forward the mission he began over two centuries ago.

Wolfe Tone was not just a revolutionary — he was the architect of Irish republicanism. Born in 1763, he founded the Society of United Irishmen in 1791, a movement that sought to unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common banner of Irish self-determination. He believed that the divisions imposed on us — by empire, by sectarianism, by fear — were not natural, but manufactured. And he dared to imagine an Ireland where we were not enemies but equals.

“To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country — these were my objects,” said Tone.

Aontú’ s bill to extend presidential voting rights to citizens in the North passed its first stage in the Dáil. That is not just a legislative step — it is a moral one. It is a declaration that the people of the Six Counties are not forgotten. That their voice matters. That their vote matters. That their future belongs to them and we belong as one nation.

There are those who will tell you we are too different — that Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter can never agree, never unite. 

Tone was a great exemplar of the tradition of self-sacrifice. As with so many patriots and martyrs in our history, we can sometimes take their sacrifice for granted and forget that they were ordinary people with ordinary lives.

The Chair of the Wolfe Tone Cumann in North Kildare, Sinead Talbot, laid lily’s at the tomb of Wolfe Tone, former chair Anita Mhic Ghib laid a wreath, Aontú South Kildare Rep, Melissa Byrne read the poem ‘Bodenstown Churchtown ‘with North Kildare Rep, Una O’Connor reading an excerpt from Tone’s Declaration and Resolution. Derrinturn rep John Bryan was also in attendance.