Madam, - Martin Mansergh compares celebrating 1916 to the French celebrating Bastille Day. The French went from tyranny to liberalism, from statism to human rights, from a closed society to an open society. In Ireland we had a modern form of liberal democracy with human rights.
The revolution brought the church and State into close co-operation to enforce cultural despotism. We went from an open society to a closed society. Human rights suffered, particularly those of women, whose right to work and to sit on juries were curtailed. The right to family planning and divorce were removed.
For the next 50 years the Irish people suffered from unwise economic policies that brought poverty causing large-scale emigration. - Yours, etc,
PAT RYAN, Barrington Street, Limerick.