Sir, – Tom Cooper (May 14th) wants to know what Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore have in common with Pearse and Connolly. Well the former have a democratic mandate, having been elected several times, and they were never guilty of leading a ragtag mob of self-selected vandals who put back the Irish unity more than a century. So Mr Cooper is correct, they have little in common. – Yours, etc,
JOHN K ROGERS,
Rathowen,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Let’s try and celebrate the country we now have, compared to 1921 or, indeed, 1916 – clean, relatively prosperous and contented, happier than most Europeans, vibrant, young, free of clerical thought-control. 1916 is another country, as relevant to today as Napoleon was to the men of 1916. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. We have moved on, so let’s stop looking in the rear mirror and concentrate on the road ahead. – Yours, etc,
IAN d’ALTON,
Rathasker Heights,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – I refer to Diarmaid Ferriter's article ("Ordinary lives best define our revolutionary decade", Opinion & Analysis, May 9th) in which he discusses the problematic history of commemorating Ireland's revolutionary decade since the founding of the State.
Towards the end of the article, he writes “Commemoration of 1916 might be better served by a concentration on ordinary lives as they were lived and lost in 1916 due to a variety of different allegiances”.
The Letters of 1916 project is doing just this (letters1916.ie). Its goal is to collect letters written from November 1st, 1915, to October 31st, 1916, by anyone, anywhere, written for any reason, as long as they concern Ireland. Thus far we have many letters, as one would expect, relating to the Easter Rising and the Great War. But we also have collections of love letters, official documents, letters about the arts and culture, as well as business.
We collect letters from cultural institutions, as well as individuals. The project will be in a position to deliver on Prof Ferriter’s call for a commemoration of ordinary lives with the help of the public – both in uploading letters held in private collections to our database, as well as by transcribing already uploaded letters.
Be part of the research process by helping us to build this exciting new resource that focuses on the lives of ordinary people during extraordinary times. – Yours, etc,
Prof SUSAN
SCHREIBMAN,
Professor of
Digital Humanities,
Director of An Foras Feasa,
Iontas Building,
National University
of Ireland,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.