THE DECISIVE impact of the third Home Rule Bill on the history of Ireland over the past century was the theme of the first official event to mark the 1912-1922 decade of commemoration which took place in Waterford City Hall last night.
The event highlighted the role played by John Redmond, leader of the Irish Party in the House of Commons, who was MP for Waterford from 1891 until 1918, in the creation of modern Ireland.
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan, who is co-ordinating the commemorative events, said the decade that began with the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in April 1912 remained the most momentous in our modern history.
“Nobody could have foreseen the tumultuous events that would unfold in the following years: the attempts to compromise, the displacement of constitutional politics, the mobilisation of the Volunteer movements, arms importation and the postponement of implementation for the duration of the Great War, by which time the issue had been overtaken, not least by the events of 1916,” Mr Deenihan said.
He said the century that followed was greatly influenced by the historic events of those years and national progress was still being shaped by those developments.
“The centenary anniversaries of the Home Rule Bill and the other events to follow in these coming years present an opportunity for us all to reflect on the experience and achievements of a remarkable era.
“It is my sincere hope that there will be a broad interest in our commemorations and explorations,” he added. “The centenary anniversaries present an opportunity to address our shared history together, with the benefit of all the progress in political and community relations of recent years.
“I hope that we will also have the benefit of the research by historians, supported by their examination of official records and other archives made accessible only in recent times.”
The Minister said the polarisation in the decade after 1912 had not been kind to the legacy of John Redmond, but he quoted from contemporary Cork journalist and writer John Horgan on the Irish Party leader’s legacy: “His reward was to be repudiated and denounced by a generation which had yet to learn . . . that true freedom is rarely served by bloodshed and violence and that in politics compromise is inevitable.”
The chancellor of the National University of Ireland Dr Maurice Manning said the founding fathers of the State were, for the most part, men of 1916 – WT Cosgrave, Éamon de Valera, Richard Mulcahy, James Ryan, Desmond FitzGerald and Seán Lemass.
“The two parties which dominated and shaped the new State were both born of old Sinn Féin and both, maybe in slightly differing ways, saw 1916 as the founding event of the modern Irish State. However much else has changed over the years, that view has not changed,” Dr Manning added,
While some scholars and commentators had questioned that interpretation, the inescapable fact was that 1916 was the central seminal date in the history of modern Ireland.
“The importance of this event is not that it challenges that view – it does not – but it is a reminder at this very early stage in this decade of centenaries of just how complex our history is; that it is not a monochrome but a tapestry of different colours, a web of strands, traditions and personalities, of people who looked at our country, at what it meant to be Irish and what was best for Ireland in very different ways and frequently came to very different conclusions.”
For 40 years, Dr Manning said, the Irish Party was the voice of nationalist Ireland and for 40 years, its goal was an independent Irish parliament. “It educated and socialised generations of Irish people into the workings and values of parliamentary democracy and made enormous gains in land reform, universities, education and local government.”
Historians Frank Callanan and Dermot Meleady detailed events surrounding the Home Rule Bill and Redmond’s life up to 1912. Minister of state for Northern Ireland Hugo Swire MP responded.
