The text is taken from the Proclamation of the Republic (Forógra na Poblachta), read by Patrick Pearse on the steps of the General Post Office (GPO), Dublin, Ireland, during the Easter Rising, which began on 24 April 1916 and proclaimed Ireland’s independence from the British Empire.

Later, these words were repeated on 1 July 1990 by Nelson Mandela during his address to Dáil Éireann on his continuing fight against apartheid in South Africa just months after his release from prison in South Africa. In an excerpt from his address, Mandela stated:

The very fact that there is today an independent Irish State, however long it took to realise the noble goals of the Irish people by bringing it into being, confirms that we too shall become a free people; we too shall have a country which will, as the great Irish patriots said in the proclamation of 1916, cherish all the children of the nation equally.

POBLACHT NA hÉIREANN
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN, In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment and supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government:

THOMAS J. CLARKE
SEAN Mac DIARMADA
P. H. PEARSE
JAMES CONNOLLY
THOMAS MacDONAGH
EAMONN CEANNT
JOSEPH PLUNKETT

Cherish All Children Equally by Marianne Keating, is commissioned as part of What did you do… (2024), a poster project commissioned by Book Works to mark 40 years of commissions and book making. In response to the urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza overshadowing all our activity, we have invited artists to contribute work that speaks to ideas of solidarity with the oppressed, and liberation for the occupied, for a series of A3 posters. Any proceeds from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Cherish All Children Equall is screen printed in an edition of 40, plus artists proofs, on Somerset Book White, 175gsm, signed by the artist. Book Works would like to thank K2 Screen for their help and support on this project.

Artists participating in this project include: Alternative School of Economics, Hamja Ahsan, Banu Cennetoğlu, Marcus Coates, Jesse Darling, Jeremy Deller, Falgoush Collective, Fehras Publishing Practices with Nancy Naser Al Deen and Sina Ahmadi, Dora García, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Karl Holmqvist, Marianne Keating, Rosalind Nashashibi, Prem Sahib, Tai Shani, Sofia Niazi, Katrina Palmer, Charlie Prodger, Anne Tallentire, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, and Cecilia Vicuña.