Sick of it already - Ireland's hypocrisy about the Easter Rising.

To say that the second decade of the 20th century was important for Ireland can safely be classed as the understatement of the year. It was pivotal in Irish history, with the Dublin Lockout of 1913 kicking of a series of uprisings that would lead to Irish Independence from the UK by 1922. Among these events, the 1916 Easter Rising has gained a special place in Irish history and lore. Every major player in Irish politics during the first first two thirds of the 20th century took part or could claim more or less esoteric connections to those who fought in that uprising. The fact that the Easter Rising was a tactical clusterfuck of the highest order is tactfully overlooked, as is the fact that it was an abject and total failure.

Still, the heroes of the rising, Michael Collins, James Connolly, Eamon de Valera and others are lifted onto a pedestal, idealised almost to the point of canonisation. The annual commemoration of the Rising is the climax of the political year and sees everyone flock to the GPO on O’Connell Street, where ceremonies take place and a member of the Irish Defence Forces reads the Easter Proclamation, which formed the basis of the uprising in 1916, which was at the time a radical document, setting out universal suffrage, emancipation, and equal rights for all Irish citizens. 

Why bring that up now? Well the centenary of the 1916 rising is fast approaching, and preparations are already well underway. And, as is to be expected from a government where the two largest parties define themselves by which side of the civil war they fought on, it’s already turned into a political quagmire and a mud-slinging match. Fine Gael and Labour, being the parties in Government, do their thing, Fianna Fail, the biggest opposition party pout and set up their own festivities, while Sinn Fein is still undecided, and doesn’t know which of it’s opponent it should send the first car bomb. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t believe Ireland should celebrate its national holiday. However, the idolisation seems to exist for the most part to avoid dealing with the actual content and ideals set forward in the document, which fly in the face of Irish political reality for most of the 20th century. 

Far from being an equal society, Ireland was for a long time basically controlled by the Roman Catholic Church and structured along it’s social teachings. That meant that women were basically relegated to being second class citizens. It also made life hell for those that did not conform to moral guidelines of the church. Single mothers could be robbed of their children, and the horror stories of the Magdalen Laundries, children’s “homes” like Letterfrack and Bessboro, or the discovery of over 800 dead babies in an unmarked mass grave in Tuam, County Galway, speak for themselves. An Ireland that locked people away without trial, killed scores of children through abuse and wilful neglect, and ran an almost industrial scale “slave trade” with the children of unmarried women was not was Collins, Connolly, et. al. fought and died for. 

Yet, that’s what Ireland was until the 1990s. It was only when the boom times of the Celtic Tiger took hold that the church’s influence began to wane, and I think it is not too far fetched to claim that the biggest achievement of the Tiger years was actually to kickstart a long overdue process of secularisation in Ireland. However, instead of addressing this issue head on, the general consensus among the Irish population still seems to be to keep the past hidden away, fawning over the supposed achievements of the 1916 veterans instead and looking at the rest through nostalgia stained glasses.

A shining example of this took place just a few weekends ago in Cork. The remains of Thomas Kent, one of the leaders of the 1916 rising, were recently uncovered at Collins Barracks in Cork, after being missing for well over 90 years. The Irish State decided to give this “martyr” of Irish independence a full blown state funeral, usually reserved for former heads of state, that shutdown nearly half of Cork. Mind you, this guy has been dead for 99 years, and has been remembered almost every year as part of the Easter Rising commemorations. However, any such sentiments are quickly drowned out in the general upswell of “patriotism”, or denial, as it should be called more precisely.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ireland, I’ve never regretted moving there, and I couldn’t imagine to live anywhere else. However, as long as Ireland, and the Irish, don’t come clean about the rather questionable past of their country, the celebration of the 1916 rising will be nothing but a hollow exercise of self-adulation, and an insult to the ideals the Easter Proclamation stands for!