Madam, - During the Late Late Show on Friday, March 3rd, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea responded to criticism of the Government for proposing to hold a military parade to commemorate the April 1916 Rising. He maintained that all countries that had gained their independence through revolution celebrated it with a military display. He cited the US and France as examples.
I grew up in the US and cannot remember ever seeing a military parade on July 4th. The typical July 4th is celebrated with a family picnic and a display of fireworks. Moreover, I cannot remember ever seeing soldiers in any parade in the US, not for New Year's Day, not for the Bowl games, not for St Patrick's Day, Mardis Gras nor any occasion, though I acknowledge it may have happened somewhere.
In fact what is celebrated on July 4th is not the armed uprising but the issuing of the Declaration of Independence, which is a statement of aspirations and guiding principles - man at his loftiest rather than at his lowest. Though admittedly the US has fallen short of adhering to these principles on many occasions, they still stand as a yardstick against which policy and action can be measured.
The equivalent event to April 1916 in colonial America was the battle of Lexington and Concord, which occurred in 1775, one year before the Declaration of Independence. Although this confrontation belongs as much to the mythology of the American Revolution as 1916 does to that of the Irish struggle for independence it is not celebrated with troops marching up and down the streets of the nation.
There were two suggestions during the exchange on that Friday night that deserve very serious consideration. One came from the representative from the North who suggested that April 1916 should be celebrated by a gesture of inclusiveness rather than one of divisiveness. The other, from the audience, was that the Proclamation should be at the centre of the remembrance, not the idea of guns and blood sacrifice.
Although armed conflict may arguably sometimes be necessary to achieve worthwhile ends, it almost always represents a failure on both sides to resolve differences in a more civilised way.
The commemoration of April 1916 should provide an opportunity to celebrate progress towards the aspirations set out in the Proclamation and to reflect on how much remains to be done to measure up to the vision of the signatories. A triumphalist military display accentuating the differences between North and South, and suggesting that might makes right, is hardly the way to bring about reconciliation between, "the whole nation and all of its parts". - Yours, etc,
PHILLIP JAMES, Barna, Co Galway.