Ireland's Founding Ceremony

After exchanging a few more words, the ceremony officially began.

Russell spoke first Russell, reading the Founding Proclamation. In it, Russell proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic, announcing that it would adopt a political system modeled France Irish Republic, establishing Consulate and five parliaments. It would also follow the France Constitution and Civil Code, establishing its own judicial system. Furthermore, Russell declared that the Irish Republic would establish diplomatic relations with all countries willing to treat Ireland as an equal, based on mutual respect and cooperation, to promote friendship between the two peoples.

At the end of his speech, Russell solemnly declared, "The Ireland people have stood up!"

Following Russell's speech, Joseph, on behalf of France and all the countries present who wished to establish diplomatic relations with the Irish Republic on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, addressed the nation. He first congratulated the Irish Republic Ireland on its establishment and praised the Ireland people for their courage, resilience, and indomitable spirit in winning independence. Finally, he expressed his best wishes to the Irish Republic and the Ireland people.

"I believe that under the leadership of the Federation with Comrade Russell at its core, and with the united struggle of the entire nation, we will surely create even more miracles. Gentlemen and friends, consider this: in the process of winning freedom and independence, facing a powerful enemy, the Ireland people overcame so many difficulties and created so many impressive miracles. Now that we have won freedom and independence, and have gained the widespread support of peace-loving and friendly nations throughout Europe, what miracle cannot we create?"

After Joseph's speech, Pope Pius VII took the stage last. His Holiness the Pope first praised the piety of the Ireland people and, on behalf of God, blessed the Irish Republic and the Ireland people.

Next came the military parade. President Russell —or rather, President Russell —rode a white horse to the reviewing stand. First to pass were the squares of soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the Ireland War of Independence, carrying various captured enemy flags (most of which belonged to the so-called "Security Army"—frankly, genuine Britain army flags are not easy to capture, especially when they retreated with the "Security Army").

These combat heroes threw the captured flags to the ground. Next up were the Independence Army's cavalry.

Cavalry is a relatively expensive branch of the military; the cost of a warhorse far exceeds that of a soldier, even for dragoons who primarily fight on foot. Therefore, although the Irish Independence Army was already quite large, its cavalry units were few. The Irish First Division and Irish Second Division each had only one independent cavalry battalion. And this independent cavalry battalion, in the Britain view, would likely only be considered a reinforced company.

The Ireland cavalry was essentially a mounted infantry force that could only fight on foot; they didn't even have standard sabers—they neither needed them nor knew how to use them.

However, when it came time to prepare for the military parade before the founding ceremony, some people suggested that it would look bad if the cavalrymen didn't carry sabers. So, a batch of sabers were temporarily rented from the France just to make it look like soldiers.

The cavalrymen rode their warhorses (the horses in the front row and those closest to the platform were captured warhorses, while those in the back row and those less visible from the platform were mostly draft horses originally used for farming) over the enemy flags that had been thrown to the ground, and the onlookers laughed gleefully.

Next up were the infantry. The Ireland infantry ranks, of course, couldn't compare to those of Napoleon's military parades. Putting aside everything else, just looking at the soldiers' physiques, the France infantrymen were basically all the same height, with a difference of no more than five centimeters. But the Ireland soldiers were different in this respect; the tall ones were short, and the short ones looked disorganized.

However, those who truly know their stuff can immediately tell that these soldiers, whose height, clothing, and movements don't seem very uniform, are the real elite. It's like in later generations, where Russians in neat uniforms, helmets, and brand-new rifles are considered ordinary Russians, while only those wearing sailor shirts and shorts, without helmets, and carrying AKMs wrapped in duct tape are the true elite Russians.

Next up were the artillery. Ireland artillery had made great progress during the war, but their cannons were still mainly light artillery, and here they only dragged out a few small cannons for a couple of laps.

Next came the parade of troops from friendly nations. Most of the invited countries sent very few people (in fact, Ireland couldn't accommodate too many anyway). Only the France marines and a few others came ashore to protect Joseph. At this point, they temporarily represented all the friendly nations in the parade.

The final item was a naval parade, as this location by the sea offered a direct view of the fleet at sea. The first ship to be reviewed was the Common Market," though at this point, this ship had already been gifted to the Irish Republic by the France government.

Of course, Ireland at this time simply did not have enough sailors to control the ship, nor did it have anyone knowledgeable in naval warfare to serve as its captain. So the so-called "gift" was actually just a change of flag; the captain and sailors on board were still all France. They had just been assigned to the "Irish Navy." The Irish Navy, in turn, handed over its only modern warship to the Franco-Irish Combined Fleet to continue fighting the Britain.

Behind this warship were warships from other countries participating in the naval review. The most outstanding among them was undoubtedly the France fleet. After all, other countries generally lacked modern battleships and supercruisers; they only had a few armored cruisers. From this perspective, the Irish Navy suddenly became one of the few navies possessing supercruisers, and if one were to categorize them, it could immediately be considered a naval power.

After the naval review, the entire ceremony concluded.

The next morning, Joseph bid a warm farewell to Russell. Then, together with His Holiness the Pope, he boarded the battleship "Caesar" amidst cheers from the crowd.