Madam, - John Waters is right to say (Opinion, April 10th) that "ambiguity, ambivalence and amnesia" surround the Easter Rising. Its legacy is controversial because its moral justification is unclear and because it lacked wide popular support.
However, there is no need to see the Rising as the foundation on which Irish independence is built. Happily, there was a democratic event with nation-wide participation which better serves that purpose, namely the November 1918 election, when the voters in effect dissolved the Union by authorising the establishment of an Irish parliament. From then on, Dáil Éireann, embodying the principle of self-determination, occupied the moral high ground.
In January 1919 Dáil Éireann ratified the 32-county Irish Republic attempted in 1916; three years later it reversed that decision by accepting a Treaty which provided for a non-republican state and the exclusion of the North. Ever since, the Dáil has been the authority that approved every step towards the universally-accepted arrangements that prevail today. These include revision of the Treaty, the Statute of Westminster, the Constitution, the Republic of Ireland Act, the Belfast Agreement referendum.
Dáil Éireann is the "continuous threat running through the fabric of the Irish State" of which David Shiels (April 11th) seems to doubt the existence. We can take pride in the coherent narrative of how our parliamentary democracy consolidated itself and reached maturity. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DRURY, Brussels, Belgium.
Madam, - I cannot abide the moral smugness and hypocrisy of apologists for 1916 who praise the Rising while denigrating the emergence of the Provos in 1969.
Continual exposure must be given to the objective fact that the grievances of Northern nationalists in 1969 were much greater than those of the Irish people in 1916. Whereas Nationalists in 1916 were even allowed to drill openly carrying arms, nationalists in the 1960s were forcibly prevented from displaying a Tricolour in a Falls Road window, in addition to living under wholesale discrimination in voting, employment and housing.
It is far better to be honest with oneself and others by being consistent in either condemning both generations of republicans (as does Kevin Myers), or refusing to condemn either (as does Gerry Adams). - Yours, etc,
FIACHRA KAVANAGH, Belfast 15.
Madam, - Several of your correspondents appear to feel that life under the yoke of British democracy in 2006 would be a condition that no one could be expected to tolerate. Thank God for the Rising: it saved the Irish people from the appalling fate suffered by 55 million citizens of England, Scotland and Wales.
Did the end justify the means? - Yours, etc,
JOHN WOODS, Holywood, Co Down.
Madam, - In your issue of April 17th correspondents raised the issue of the Tricolour and the name of the State. Ironically on the opposite page, illustrating an article entitled "Cosmopolitanism key to peace" by Robin Wilson, there was a picture of a Tricolour whose colours were green and white but definitely not orange. The third stripe was yellow or gold.
It struck me then that no matter what officials decide, the people rearrange or overwrite national emblems. The colours of the Tricolour on display have thus reflected social reality. Flag manufacturers have then followed popular demand.
For decades after independence, the Irish Tricolour was popularly known as the "green, white and gold" and was so celebrated in song. The use of white and gold (or yellow), the colours of the Papal flag, alongside the colour green, signified that Ireland was primarily a Catholic country. The Orangemen were out of sight and out of mind. Latterly Tricolours seem to be developing a reddish outer stripe, almost blood orange, perhaps the colour of European socialism.
What remains resolutely unchanging is that the Tricolour is a flag used and understood in Northern Ireland to mean the precise opposite of the reconciliation that was originally intended. Like the creed of Republicanism, it is used as a weapon against or by Protestants, an in-your-face symbol to encourage hatred. Surely it is time to contemplate a change in this department, especially as orange is not the colour of most Unionists?
The official and popular term for the state, formerly and apparently unsatisfactorily the Irish Free State, the Irish Republic, or the Republic of Ireland, is increasingly "Ireland", even in the census. This reflects current branding modes but will still produce an equal and opposite response from unionists, who drove "Eire" out of usage in nationalist Ireland.
I notice today, however, that "Ireland" is taken, and spoken, particularly by foreign nationals, to mean the 26-county entity, the rest of the island being referred to as the UK or Northern Ireland. You just can't win with names and symbols. Like life they are always being eroded, confused and turned around.
Discussing the national anthem is perhaps for another day, but being of part-English descent, I doubt if I could ever warm to a song that includes the line "Out yonder waits the Saxon foe". - Yours, etc,
JEFFREY DUDGEON, Belfast 9.
Madam, - Now that all the self indulgent back-slapping over the Easter military parade has subsided, spare a thought for Robert Ballagh, who saved the nation from shame and disgrace in 1991 by organising the 75th anniversary commemoration of the Rising despite the handicap of Special Branch attention (Weekend Review, April 15th).
When the State ignored these noble insurgents in 1991, one man had the courage and dignity to remember. - Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER, Delaford Lawn, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.