The Centenary of 1916
has real relevance for the Ireland of today
Speaking at Republican Sinn Féin’s seminar to launch its
build-up to the Centenary of the 1916 Rising in 2016 entitled
Who Fears To Speak of Easter Week which took place at the
Ireland Institute’s Pearse House on Pearse St on Saturday April
21 the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said:
“The build-up to Centenary of the 1916 Rising is rapidly
developing into a battle over not only how we view our past but
also the vision we have for our future. The purpose of today’s
seminar is to begin the countdown to 2016 and in doing so set
out the relevance of 1916 for the Ireland of today. The other
speakers will cover aspects of the Rising such as the idea of
the ‘prophetic shock minority’sparking the flames of revolution,
and the 1916 Proclamation and its place in the Irish
Republican tradition. Ruairí Og Ó Brádaigh is the editor of
SAOIRSE. He is someone who has given much of his adult life in
Republican activism and journalism. Ruán O’Donnell has brought
to the study of Irish Revolutionary history great scholarship
and attention to detail as evidenced in his numerous published
works notably his masterful biography of Robert Emmet and most
recently the first of his three volume study of Irish Republican
prisoners in English jails from 1968 to
1998. On the basis of the first volume we eagerly await the next
two!
“Speaking in UCD on May 20 2010 the then head of the 26-County
administration Brian Cowen accused Irish Republicans of seeking
to ‘hijack’ the centenary of the 1916 Rising. It is an
accusation that has been oft repeated by other members of the
26-County political class, but it is an accusation that does not
stand up. Republicans cannot hijack something they have never
abandoned. Irish Republicans will commemorate the centenary of
1916 as well as the anniversaries of the other landmark events
in Irish Revolutionary history, just as we have in the past.
“Each year Irish Republicans both in Ireland and abroad have
commemorated 1916 without fail. The 26-County state on the other
hand has alternated between ignoring the anniversary and banning
any commemoration of it. 1916 commemorations throughout the 26
Counties were banned by the Dublin administration in 1937. In
1966 Republicans were baton charged in Dublin by the 26-County
police. In 1976 Republicans were prosecuted – including Fiona
Plunkett sister of Joseph Mary Plunkett - and some jailed for
their participation in a banned commemoration at the GPO. Each
year Republicans face the prospect of prosecution for the
distribution of Easter Lilys. Despite this repression and
repeated attempts at airbrushing the very spirit of 1916 from
the collective memory a poll taken on the 75th anniversary of
the Rising in 1991 showed 65% of people believed it should be
commemorated.
“For forty years the 26-County administration ignored the
anniversary of 1916 but since 2006 it has opportunistically
seized on it in order to sell the big lie that history has come
to an end and British rule in Ireland is now accepted.
“This is the crux of the issue, 1916 is not merely an historical
event which can be taken down from the shelf every few years and
dusted off like some neglected family heirloom, admired and then
conveniently shelved again for another generation or two. It is
an event which still speaks to the Ireland of the 21st Century.
It is this fact which most unsettles the chattering classes in
Leinster House and elsewhere. The speech by Stormont First
Minster Peter Robinson marking the centenary of the signing of
‘Solemn League and Covenant’ in 1912 in the 26-County Department
of Foreign Affairs on March 30 is the first step in a campaign
to dilute and sanitise the Centenary of the 1916 Rising. The
political establishments in Stormont, Leinster House and
Westminster have signalled their intention to suppress any
meaningful commemoration of the 1916 Rising by burying it in a
celebration of the imperialist carnage of the First World War.
“The choice of the ‘Solemn League and Covenant’ to begin the
‘decade of commemoration’ the two partition states is in many
ways quite apt as it symbolises the fundamental difference in
the vision for Ireland held by Irish Republicans as opposed to
the forces of represented in the ‘Solemn League and Covenant’.
The ‘Solemn League and Covenant’ is written in the narrow,
sectarian and patriarchal language of empire, while the 1916
Proclamation addresses itself to ‘Irishmen and Irishwomen’ in
the inclusive language of democracy, progress and human freedom.
A kind of state sponsored amnesia is employed in an attempt to
erase the more uncomfortable aspects of our history. Those very
aspects of 1916 that serve as a reminder of how far short the
political establishment and the state over which they preside
falls short of the ideals set out in the 1916 Proclamation.
There is nothing new in this, writing about the 26-Couunty
state’s attitude to the Golden Jubilee of the rising in 1966
Declan Kiberd observed that 1966 represented: ‘A last,
over-the-top purgation of a debt to the past.’ The former
curator of Irish Art at the National Gallery of Ireland Dr
Sighle Bhreathnach-Lynch writing in History Ireland in its
Spring 1997 edition said: ‘By concentrating solely on glorifying
the past it could be quietly forgotten that the aims of those
who had sacrificed their lives in the Rising had not yet been
properly achieved. Leaders like Pearse and Connolly were
promoted only for their military exploits. Their radical ideas
on education and justice, as yet unattained, were not mentioned.
This kind of simplistic approach, largely fostered by
politicians and propagandists, did not encourage much critical
exchange of ideas and as a result a mood of disenchantment
quickly set in.’ The role of historians such as Ruán O’Donnell
will be vital in the coming years in the battle to ensure a new
generation is not robbed of their history or collective memory
as a nation.
“Over the next four years the centenaries of the founding of the
Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan will
be marked. Next year we will remember with pride the heroic 1913
Lockout. Therein is a message to the trade union leadership of
today – another stark reminder of how far removed they are from
the founding ideals of the trade union movement at precisely the
moment when a vibrant and radical trade union movement is most
required. Other anniversaries including the landing of the arms
off the Asgard in 1914 and Pearse’s oration at the grave of
O’Donovan Rossa act as milestones on the road to the centenary
of the Rising. The years after 2016 will bring the centenaries
of the historic 1918 General Election – the last occasion in
which the Irish people acted as a unit in a single vote on the
question of Ireland’s right to national independence. The Tan
War, the British Government of Ireland Act which partitioned
Ireland, the Treaty of Surrender and the subsequent Civil War or
Counter-Revolution all will be reminders of where we have come
from and how far we have still to travel.
“Irish Republicans unapologetically declare that 1916 will
remain unfinished business while Ireland’s historic right to
nationhood continues to be denied by either the old imperialism
of British occupation or the new imperialism of the EU and IMF.
This is the unpalatable truth that the establishment most fear
in the message of
1916 and it is what gives 1916 its continued relevance for a new
risen generation. 1916 remains unfinished business while Britain
holds any part of Ireland.
The message of 1916 could not be clearer; ‘Ireland unfree shall
never be at peace’. Starting today let us embark on a
commemorative journey that rekindles the fires of revolution;
political, social and economic, ideals and ideas which inspired
the revolutionary generation of 1913-23. Let us proclaim to all
that we still believe in the ‘The right of the people of Ireland
to the ownership of Ireland.’”
Críoch/Ends
rsf.ie
Republican Sinn Fein