Sir, – James Connolly Heron ("Why we should pay tribute to the 1916 leaders" June 24th) rejects the argument that "a mandate is required before one can rise up and resist oppression". Of course the 1916 insurgents had no democratic mandate – nor any means of obtaining one.
A tragic legacy of the Rising is that the “secret revolutionary organisation” lived on, and its members (a minority) interpreted the revolutionary action in 1916 without a mandate to mean that none was needed for such action even after democracy was achieved. Consequently, repeated democratic bans did not dissuade them from pursuing by violence their chimeric notion of “freedom”.
We should indeed honour the heroes of 1916 for their inspirational aims and ideals, but we should not lose sight of the fact that these inspired a challenge to Irish democracy that has persisted to this day. – Yours, etc, MICHAEL DRURY, Avenue Louise, Brussels.