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An Easter Message
Read more about: Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Irish Politics, Labour Party, Nationalism, Progressive Democrats, Republicanism, Sinn Féin, Unionism
This Easter, as people are no doubt aware, marks the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising which occurred in Dublin, Galway and other scattered parts throughout Ireland and involved members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBán and various smaller groups (such as the Hibernian Rifles) and myriad individuals who joined in the fight. 1916 in a real sense was the act of defiance that sparked off the struggle for complete seperation and independence in the early part of the twentieth century, and many future Irish political leaders such as Eamon de Valera (pictured above, under British guard after the surrender), WT Cosgrave, Michael Collins, Séan Lemass and others took part in the fighting, news of which was censored from the Irish public that week by a fearful British government. Arguments about the “legitimacy” of the Rising are anachronistic and miss the point that those have freedom only who are prepared to fight (and if necessary die) for it. This is no less true in today’s world than it was ninety years ago, and we owe due respect both to our great-grandparent’s generation and to those who came before them, who fought a long fight for Irish freedom - sometimes by arms, sometimes by politics, sometimes though their Faith. The failings of those who inherited the newly-independent twenty-six county State, won from the British through making Ireland ungovernable both politically and militarily, are not theirs to blame for.
As remarked on through this blog previously, we consider the most serious failing of the Irish State to have been the effective abandonment (post-Collins) of the plight of the large part of the population trapped by Partition in a Unionist regime built on gerrymandering from top to bottom. The birth of the Provisional IRA in the wake of the crackdown on the Civil Rights movement in the North (and the Catholic population in general) owes a great deal to the policy of the Lynch government to attempt to seal the issue off at the Border. And, it can be suspected, to a rather more widespread government understanding about causing a split within the IRA and arming the splinter group as stand-in proxy (in which they were merely following standard British practice in the long retreat from Empire) than is officially admitted to.
The other plank of this policy of containment found expression in the large-scale official effort to sterilise the Republic of all vestiges of the republican and nationalist traditions which had provided the backbone for resistance to British rule from the late eighteenth century onwards. This took the form of a corrosive policy of official censorship and in revisionist re-writing of the course of Irish history to remove the Irish nationalist viewpoint (it may be remarked that there is frequently difficulty in distinguishing revisionism from classical pro-British propaganda), with a final element in Irish political parties divesting themselves of their respective honourable heritages in the fight for independence.[1]
The irony is in Provisional Sinn Féin (and fringe groups such as RSF) more than happily then stealing those same clothes, to what can be guessed to be considerable advantage in appealing to patriotism.
Which leads us neatly to this Easter’s military parade, part of the Fianna Fáil contribution to the sudden interest of the respectable Dublin political establishment in 1916-21. (An interest, one may surmise, prompted by the alarming electoral successes of the Provos and the 100-year anniversaries rapidly approaching within the next decade or so.) Fine Gael have re-discovered Michael Collins, and amusingly also renewed their claim to the unpleasantly anti-Semitic (and dual-monarchist) Arthur Griffith. Even Michael McDowell has rediscovered his Republican roots, and no doubt is already burnishing his grandfather Eoin MacNeill’s 1916 medal War of Independence medal has recently announced that the GPO is to be turned into a monument to 1916. Will this outbreak of new-found patriotism be enough to reclaim the Provos’ grip on the fight for independence, or are Bertie & co. merely shooting themselves in the foot (and doing the memory of these people and events a grave disservice) by indulging in such theatrics, which are more than transparent to the bemused public? Time will tell, though it may today prove difficult to keep Gerry Adams off the reviewing stand and outside the limelight.
So what of how the other side now view 1916? The British Government are sending the Ambassador to Ireland, Stewart Eldon, in what is to be welcomed as a sign of the modern-day partnership between our two nations in peace and friendship (if the French and Germans can do it…) . Ulster Unionism, well, that’s a different story. Our UUP and DUP friends in the North have reacted in apoplexy to word of the official British delegation, and it appears that within the Unionist community at large there regrettably exists the sentiment that the rebels of 1916 were (quote) “terrorists” [2]. This is a remarkably disappointing reaction in this day and age of the Good Friday Agreement, both in terms of the historical realities of the time (the IV merely following the example of the Ulster Volunteer Force in all things) and in the grievously unjust label applied (one would not hear of the ancestors of the Ulster Unionist population being referred to as ethnic cleansers, after all). This was a golden opportunity for Unionism to return some of the considerable reaching-out by the nationalist Irish side in recent years as regards Poppy Day, the Somme, the Boyne and other British cultural values; some reciprocal respect would be greatly appreciated by us, your fellow Irishmen and women.
[1] The author was present to witness the reaction of a Fianna Fáil Comhairle Ceantar during the Nineties where a redesigned logo - minus FF’s English-language title of The Republican Party - was put on display. Suffice it to say that at least in FF there still existed some vestige of resistance to tampering with the party’s heritage, as HQ was told exactly what to do with the election literature in question… Contrast this with the Irish Times-reading, Stickie-led Labour Party of modern times (sometime roost for Conor Cruise O’Brien while out of fringe Unionist parties), one of whose apparatchiks declared party founder James Connolly ‘irrelevant’ recently.
[2] Arch-gombeenman and ardent British imperialist, Irish Party leader of the time John Redmond has also recently been resurrected and rehabilitated, and in much the same unfortunate political vein, by certain southern unionists.
Just added the continue reading tag to the post. Just to keep it in tune with the rest of the site. If you prefare the continue reading tag else here work away. it is the white tag thing to the right of the image button.
And 1916 is bound to be on the rhetorical agenda whenever the election happens. Consider the news from the Greens so far (via ireland.com)
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent has described Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats as “a disgrace” to the men and women of 1916 and the principles they fought for.
Speaking at the launch of his party’s annual conference in Kilkenny yesterday evening, Mr Sargent said the Government’s current policies had created a very unequal and divided society in Ireland.
“Maybe Frank Dunlop, the former Fianna Fáil government press secretary, understands what makes this Government tick more than most,” he said.
“He told the Mahon tribunal . . . that when a crooked Fianna Fáil politician was bought, he stayed bought.”
He said: “When you see who dines in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races, it is clear that this Government is well bought by those who benefit most from Irish society being more divided and vulnerable than ever.”
Speaking in advance of the planned official celebrations next month to mark the Rising’s 90th anniversary, Mr Sargent said the two Government parties were “a disgrace to the men and women of 1916 and the principles of sovereignty and equality for which they died”.
I have to say I’d agree with everything Sargent says… I know, I know he’s only saying it to rally the (sandal-wearing) troops but he’s spot on.
Trouble with Trevor is he comes across like a lemon-sucking Christian Brother. It’s easy to shoot of soundbites like ‘unequal and divided society’ and not be challenged on the substance of the charge. At least those who go about without winter footwear today do it out of lifestyle choice not absolute poverty, and they have dried fruit and nuts to add to their oatmeal.
Yes, 1916 will be an election issue for some, but hopefully most will see it as the non-issue it is. Otherwise, we may end up with the same people and policies that have our health service in a mess.
“At least those who go about without winter footwear today do it out of lifestyle choice not absolute poverty, and they have dried fruit and nuts to add to their oatmeal.”
Frank,
One in seven Irish children (14.6%) live in consistent poverty though and I think that’s what Sargent was alluding to. It is not at all hard to make the ‘unequal and divided society’ claim stand up, just look around you…
JG,
I’ve no reason to dispute that figure you gave, though I believe the rate is falling consistently too. What I’d like to hear from the Greens is what the party of the leafy suburbs intends doing about it. My understanding of the policy of the FF/PD government is to enable people to earn a decent income for themselves, with targetted supports for those most in need. Child benefit today is somewhere in the region of €150 a month, and Minister Brennan announced last week his intentions to morph Lone Parent Allowance into a benefit that will actually support parenthood not stignmatise and divide families.
I believe the ideological divide in Irish politics is between the paternalistic, bureaucratic and trap-laden dependancy culture of Fine Gael and Labour, and the redistribution, enabling and strategically targetted special supports associated with the FF/PD coalition and the effectively full-emloyment economy, breaking the cycles of exclusion and educating and socialising all today’s children for full citizenship, not marginal existences.
I want to know what the Greens are - paternalistic bureaucrats or real egalitarians. We know what Trevor is, because he’s openly a Fine Gael sympathiser.
True, full employment is a great achievement and they’re not far off it. However I’d like to see evidence that this is taking place:
“…breaking the cycles of exclusion and educating and socialising all today’s children for full citizenship, not marginal existences.”
I refer you to 1) the citizenship referendum and 2) the increased isolation of working-class communities, evidenced by the increase in anti-social behavior/violent crime etc.
I won’t defend the Greens because I’m not a member and don’t speak for them. However I think Sargent is a good guy and I’m glad to see the Greens decided to maintain their policy on accepting corporate donations. There is too much cute-hoorism and cosying up to vested interests in FF circles for my stomach.
JG,
1. I can’t speak about the citizenship referendum because its not an issue that I have thought much about. I was sceptical about the GFA based formula of citizenship as a constitutionAL right deriving from birth on the island.
2. I know there are a lot of people whose education and upbringing equipped them for a different kind of survival than the kind of social norms that the media would have us believe are universal, e.g. the tossers you see and hear on RTE. And there are pockets of problems in some of the local authority suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s. But I believe in the main that the kids growing up today are healthier, more worldly wise, better educated, more adaptable and better equipped than before.
I’m not one of the cosy cartel myself.
“I’m not one of the cosy cartel myself”
I’m sure you’re not Frank and I can see where you’re coming from on this however I don’t think you can just sit back and hope the goodies will trickle down. That’s part of neo-liberal thinking and it’s dangerous and wrong. There is an alienated section of Irish society that haven’t got the pickings they deserve and they’ll only get them through definate and thoughtful intervention, not by magic.
Jg,
We’re not far apart. Definite and thoughtful intervention. The problems we’ve had in the past have been often been well-intended disasters, and the health service that is such an emotive issue is an example of a vast and well-resourced bureaucracy which is held hostage by white collar vested interest groups too.
Smarmy politicians and their hangers-on are a disgrace and FF has had more than its fair share of both in the past but I wouldn’t be a member of FF if I felt I was perpetuating that kind of thing.