After the Rising and before his execution, Seán MacDiarmada, one of its principal organisers and a signatory of the Proclamation, was asked why the leaders had proclaimed a republic.
"MacDiarmada cited the examples of France and America. The former, he stated, had been a firm friend of Ireland for generations, while millions of Irish people had played a central role in the development of the latter" (Gerard MacAtasney's biography, 2004, p.155). Indeed, the banners of thousands of undocumented Irish demonstrating this week proclaimed: "We are America".
The Irish Consulate in New York, led by Consul-General Tim O'Connor, organised a series of commemorative lectures this week and a forum, chaired by Maureen Murphy of Hofstra University, in collaboration with Pace, Fordham and New York universities. I was one of the participants.
Professor Emeritus Francis M Carroll, of the University of Manitoba, reminded guests at the American Irish Historical Society that a crucial role was also played by Germany. German communications with the IRB passed through its US-based diplomats to John Devoy and Judge Cohalan. The prospect of German military help, whether of troops or weapons, even though neither in the end materialised, gave the Rising valuable credibility at the planning stages, the same function performed by the French in the 1798 Rebellion.
In that regard, Roger Casement's role was important. A grandson of Robert Monteith, who accompanied Casement to Banna Strand, C.R. Cushing, addressed the forum, and also Seán O'Dwyer, son of Pat O'Dwyer, who took part in the Sologheadbeg ambush. Ernie O'Malley's son, Cormac, was at the closing consular reception.
The deepest paradox about the origins of the State is its debt to unionism. An Irish Times editorial of October 23rd, 1935 following Carson's death, stated: "Edward Carson was the man who, almost single-handed, brought all the well-laid schemes of Asquith and Redmond to nought".
Ulster resistance to Home Rule destroyed its credibility as a historic compromise between unionism and nationalism, and prevented its actual implementation. The Bill for 32 counties was only put on the statute book at the outbreak of war in 1914 to be shelved, with its attendant partition unresolved. As Prof Nancy Curtin of Fordham University described it, Home Rule was "a tepid measure of self-government". The way was clear for something much more ambitious.
The formation and drilling of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the unchecked illegal importation of guns was welcomed both for its spirit and its example by separatists in the South, who followed suit. As Prof Joe Lee pointed out in a pyrotechnic performance, even the UVF did not bring the gun into Irish politics. Thousands of guns went unremarked in the hands of British troops, because they so rarely needed to be used.
Between 1905 and 1914, Irish nationalism experienced the reality that no amount of holding back would bring Ulster unionism on board for any form of self-government. Thereafter, independence took precedence over unity, though, as Prof Lee pointed out, the leaders had no clear concept as to how unionism in the new situation might be addressed.
Among the devices used to criticise the independence struggle is not only minimisation of the irreconcilable unionist-nationalist stand-off over Home Rule, but blurring of the distinction between Home Rule and Dominion status, implying that sticking with the Home Rule route could have brought Dominion status and then unity. Nobody today would confuse Scottish devolution with Scottish independence.
The ideal of sacrificing one's life for a cause was ubiquitous in the Europe of the first World War. Protestant churchmen revelled in the Ulstermen's willingness to sacrifice their lives to prevent Home Rule.
Despite the rhetoric, the 1916 leaders surrendered to prevent further loss of civilian life. The fatal casualties, now estimated at 450, though deeply regrettable, were scarcely the equivalent of one day's losses in the trenches. Empires in those days had no disposition to tolerate "velvet" revolutions.
Prior to 1989, few revolts in the history of mankind, that had such far-reaching and mainly beneficial results, have been as economical of lives, even including the War of Independence. Unfortunately, that was the only way of underlining the serious desire for and the right to national independence.
It is also forgotten that the notion of blood sacrifice was about the few dying for the many, which was how events turned out.
The 90th commemoration sets about the long overdue task of separating out what is valuable, noble and enduring in the Irish republican tradition, and what can by any international standard be regarded as legitimate.
The Proclamation is a fine founding document, in Prof Carroll's words, the Irish declaration of independence. Its most resonant phrase "cherishing all the children of the nation equally" applies not only to relations between majority and minority, but to social need, and also has an application to a multicultural society. It applies to women, and Sr Margaret MacCurtain outlined all the recent research done on the role of women in the achievement of independence, while Prof Lee emphasised Pearse's ground-breaking commitment to political equality for women in the Proclamation.
It is easy to point to areas where the State has fallen short of the ideal. Equally, there are many respects in which Ireland today exceeds all previous expectations. A reference was made in conversation to the saying "our day will come", with the comment that actually in many ways "our day has come", and, as Yeats put it, Prof Lee observed, "to be the garden's pride".
The British ambassador in Washington first attended July 4th celebrations in 1876, the centennial of the declaration of independence. The British ambassador in Dublin Stewart Eldon will do better than that by 10 years, by attending tomorrow's ceremonies.
It is a tribute to present day British-Irish relations and the extraordinary nine-year Blair-Ahern partnership and their joint stewardship of the peace process that that degree of mutual respect has now been achieved.
A further step on the road to overcoming the legacy of history will be Irish Government participation in July in the commemoration of the Somme.