A chara, – April 24th and May 2nd have passed without a whisper from the State or the various stripes of republicans, or the self-appointed committee of relatives of the leaders of the insurrection, in 1916. This despite being the anniversaries respectively of the outbreak of the insurrection and the execution of the first batch of its leaders. The commemoration has been concentrated on Easter Sunday, a moveable feast of the Christian denominations. This takeover of the secular by the religious would have raised still further the ire of Fr Frank Shaw, SJ, (incidentally my tutor for Old Irish) who was persuaded that the use of Christ-like imagery in his nationalist writing was a blasphemy by Patrick Pearse (incidentally my grand-uncle).
I feel neither pride nor shame in the genealogical accident which makes me the closest living relative of Patrick Pearse. I am not a member of that committee and remain convinced that the relatives of its leaders are the least useful guides to modes of commemorating the Rising, being unlikely to bring objectivity to any discussion. There are many opinions on the merits or failings of the “rebels”, but we can be sure of one thing – they did not envisage the establishment of a hereditary elite. – Is mise,
ALF MAC LOCHLAINN,
Lower Salthill,
Galway.