A chara, – Paul Gallagher SC is certainly entitled to his opinion about the legacy of the 1916 Rising ("1916 Rising had 'no legitimacy whatsoever', says - former attorney general", May 17th). Yet at a time when the official organs of the State are centrally involved in celebrating the legacy of that seminal event, it was still extraordinary to hear a former attorney general questioning the legitimacy of such celebration. He refers to the 1916 leaders as "a self-absorbed group of brave idealists", before going on to compare their claims of legitimacy to that of the "thugs and murderers" who were involved in the northern Troubles of recent decades. He then goes on to characterise "Ireland between 1920 and 1980, perhaps even 1990" as "a wasteland for so many people". This was "the legacy of 1916, at least in part", according to the former attorney general.
We are left to conclude that the country only came into its own with the advent of the Celtic Tiger in the 1990s. Mr Gallagher’s comments amount to an almost blanket dismissal of the achievements of the Irish State in the first 70 years of its existence, and are all the more surprising coming from a former high office holder of that State – a State which came into being largely through the self-sacrifice of that extraordinary “group of brave idealists”, the men and women who were involved in the 1916 Rising. – Is mise,
JOHN GLENNON,
Hollywood,
Co Wicklow.