The Radical Vision of Theobald Wolfe Tone

Grave of Wolfe Tone -- public domain image

Bodenstown Oration

5th July 2026

The Radical Vision of Theobald Wolfe Tone

We revisit Bodenstown today, as our Party does every year, to commemorate the memory of Theobald Wolfe Tone. Tone remains a central figure in the development of republicanism in Ireland and his radicalism (and enduring legacy) was not simply about ending British rule in Ireland; it was a sweeping social vision that sought to remake the foundations of Irish political life. Tone imagined a republic built on civic equality, secular citizenship, and the overthrow of entrenched privilege — a vision far more revolutionary than the nationalist narratives that later claimed him.

Tone lived in an Ireland defined by colonial subordination, religious hierarchy and class inequality. Whereas most reformers of the 1780s and 1790s wanted modest constitutional adjustments. Tone wanted to uproot the entire system.

Tone’s radicalism was shaped by the American Revolution, which introduced the idea of republican citizenship; the French Revolution, which demonstrated that monarchy and aristocracy could be abolished and the Enlightenment, which challenged inherited privilege and religious authority.

Tone saw the division of the Irish people into “Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter” as a sectarian mechanism of colonial control. He envisaged a single Irish nation, defined by equal citizenship rather than religious identity and he believed that this could only be achieved by separation from the colonial power and the unity of the people.

Tone’s republicanism presented a vision of an end to monarchy and the destruction of aristocratic power and privilege in a secular republic which represented the people of Ireland.

To achieve these objects Tone needed an organisation and it was he and his comrades who transformed the United Irishmen from a reformist debating society into a revolutionary movement.

Irish nationalism has sought to appropriate Tone and to turn his radicalism on its head, to create a revisionist narrative of Tone and his project, praising Tone’s anti‑colonialism while downplaying his secularism and egalitarianism. Unlike the nationalists who have since sought to distort his revolutionary vision, Tone explicitly rejected sectarian nationalism and clerical influence. He wanted a secular republic, not a confessional state.

His republican vision insisted on equality, secularism, democracy and unity across religious beliefs in a republic of equal citizens, free from aristocracy, sectarianism, and foreign control.

“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.”

Wolfe Tone was not as romantic idealist as he is sometime portrayed. His teachings remain relevant to debates about nationalism, secularism and the nature of political equality. He believed in the necessity of a secular republicanism and the need for transformative revolutionary action. His project was not simply to free Ireland from Britain but to free Ireland from the internal structures that made domination possible.

Tone believed that political equality required a secular republic. That ambition remains unfilled. In the Southern State education is still primarily subject to denominational structures and control. In Northern Ireland political discourse is dominated by religious identity and segregated education and housing.

Tone’s revolutionary vision also places him in a broader global tradition. He remains relevant because his democratic vision for a different Ireland remains unfilled.

As we remember revolutionary Cuba and its struggle today against the forces of U.S. imperialism, we are reminded of the inspiration to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 by the nineteenth-century writer and poet, revolutionary organiser and Cuban thinker who laid the ideological groundwork for Cuba’s struggle for sovereignty, Jose Martí. Martí helped mobilize the Cuban War of Independence against Spain in 1895. He foresaw a nation defined not only by political independence but by dignity, equality and resistance to imperial domination.

Tone developed a political philosophy shaped by the American and French Revolutions, Enlightenment republicanism and the sectarian structure of 18th‑century Ireland. Martí, whose outlook was shaped by republicanism and anti-racism, was the voice of Cuban independence from Spain and a force for Latin American resistance to colonial domination.

Both Tone and Martí believed in the anti-colonial struggle, the demand for democratic rights, and rejected sectarian or racialised nationalism. Both believed in a republic grounded in equality.

Tone fought to defeat sectarianism; Martí fought racial division. Tone embraced democracy and believed that for progress to take place required more than political reform. Society needed to be reshaped. Martí’s democratic vision was also rooted in republicanism and he too believed that without social equality, political independence would be hollow.

For both, equality was essential. Both saw the need for secular political structures. Both saw independence as inseparable from social transformation. For both, winning independence was not the sole objective: it was inseparable from that of a radical social revolution.

Today, Tone is remembered as the founder of Irish republicanism and his contribution and legacy remains an inspiration. Today, Martí is the national hero of Cuba, proclaimed by the Cuban Communist Party and Cuban people.

As we gather today, Cuba remains under attack. The Cuban people and their revolutionary achievements face immense challenges. The criminal blockade imposed by the U.S. continues to inflict enormous damage. Washington remains committed to achieving what it has pursued since 1959: the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution and the restoration of U.S. dominance over the island. Yet despite the unrelenting pressure Cuba has not surrendered.

Despite the great humanitarian difficulties faced by Cuba and its people, in June the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the immediate suspension of political dialogue and cooperation agreements with Cuba and for further sanctions. These are the same forces which in the same month celebrated, with xenophobic and racist slogans, the expulsion of migrant families, including children, and which has failed to raise its voice for sanctions against the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

The European Union is itself an inter-state imperialist alliance which must be resisted and opposed. From July to December 2026, Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union representing governments of the 27 EU Member States. This provides us with an opportunity to further highlight and expose the character of the European Union, a system of co-operation between bourgeois states which exists to place the interests of capital above labour and which leads the attack on workers and social rights and environmental protection.

In the face of open aggression, economic warfare, inhumane sanctions and threats of military intervention, Cuba continues to defend its independence, sovereignty and right to self-determination.

Our Party, the Workers Party, has always supported the Cuban people, their Communist Party and the Revolution. It remains our duty to stand firmly in solidarity with the Cuban people, demand an end to the long-standing, barbaric blockade imposed by US imperialism, and we support the Cuban people’s right to defend their chosen path of development by every means necessary.

Across the world, humanity faces a brutal and relentless assault. Our message is clear. Imperialism is not simply a specific foreign policy enacted by a single state, whether in Washington, Brussels, Moscow or Beijing. Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, where there is a struggle for the control of markets, fields of investment, sources of raw materials and energy, waged across the globe. The competition between the capitalist powers and inter-imperialist rivalry inevitably leads to wars and the intensification of local and regional conflicts accelerates the risks of global war.

The Workers Party of Ireland today commemorates the internationalism of Theobald Wolfe Tone, but we do so, not by paying lip service to his memory, but rather by a firm dedication to the proletarian internationalist ideal – the fight for workers unity and socialism!

Long live the Cuban Revolution!

Long live the indomitable spirit of workers’ internationalism!

Long live Socialism!