Sir, – Patsy McGarry argues that the 1916 leaders had no mandate for the Easter rebellion ("Pádraig Pearse's overtly Catholic Rising was immoral and anti-democratic", Rite & Reason, January 7th).
Strangely, he doesn’t make the same charge against the British authorities. Where did their mandate to govern Ireland come from?
Oh I forgot – the divine right of kings. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE McELDOWNEY,
Howth,Dublin 13.
A chara, – It is true that the Irish Republican Brotherhood did not have a popular mandate nor did it seek one to launch a rebellion against England and declare a republic. What is also true is that the Act of Union in 1800 did not have a popular mandate.
Patsy McGarry makes a very relevant point about constitutional politics not prevailing beyond the 1914 Home Rule Act. The Ulster unionists, led by Edward Carson, refused to accept a legitimate and democratic law passed by the parliament of the country to which they declared loyalty to. The unionists imported weapons from Britain’s enemy, Germany, to threaten armed resistance to home rule. The British government supinely gave in to these threats and allowed politics by the gun to prevail. The lesson was not lost on nationalists who responded by forming the Irish Volunteers. Had the British government stood up to the threat of violence from the unionists, perhaps later violence would have been avoided.
The Easter Rising was born out of the nationalists learning that the threat of violence worked, the British government postponing the implementation of the home rule law and also from Britain being involved in a war. England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity. Had home rule been implemented and an Irish parliament established in 1914, it is more than likely that the IRB would not have chosen to rebel. It is worth noting that Pearse was not a republican in 1912 and supported home rule. It was only when he saw that the British were prevaricating on implementing home rule that he became an advanced nationalist.
McGarry’s point that none of these men had shown any understanding of, or consideration for, the fate of approximately 25 per cent of Ireland’s population then who were not of “the nation” holds no water as it was Pearse, as the main drafter of the Proclamation of the Republic, who wrote that it was the resolve of the Irish Republic to cherish all the children of the nation equally. It would seem odd to insert such a beautiful sentence into a proclamation if there was no understanding of the people of Ireland.
While Pearse may have been influenced by Catholic ideas in his personal life, the proclamation that he drafted explicitly states that the republic would be a state based on equality and liberty guaranteeing equal rights and equal opportunities to all the women and men of Ireland. There is no mention of giving rights to Catholics only. The same Proclamation also declared that it was the intention of the Provisional Government to hold an election so that the people of Ireland could elect their own parliament. This showed that the intention of the IRB was to establish a democratic republic based on liberty and equality. – Is mise,
SEANÁN Ó COISTÍN,
Cill Choca, Co Chill Dara.
Sir, – It is disheartening, but not entirely surprising, at the start of this year of overexcited commemoration, to see two women-related myths being peddled on the same Opinion & Analysis page of The Irish Times (January 6th).
The first, in Orla O'Connor's column ("When women are on the ticket, they get elected") has women fighting alongside men in 1916, when the reality was that their role in the Rising (apart from a very few exceptions in the Irish Citizen Army) was confined to auxiliary duties such as nursing and cooking. How many more times are we going to read this canard? Then Joe Humphreys praises the Catholic Church as epitomising the "egalitarian ethic" ("Why Irish atheists still need the Catholic Church"). In Ireland? Try telling that to the Irish women of 2016 or 1916. – Yours, etc,
Dr CLARE O’HALLORAN,
School of History,
University College Cork.
A chara, – When is the 1916 Lego set coming out? The 1916 "Happy Meal" with collectable revolutionary figurines? Pixar's Pearse epic – in 3D for those who were in favour, and in 2D for the revisionists? Or 1916 pyjamas and duvets? The 1916 video game Grand Theft GPO? Or "Signatories", the Cadbury's deluxe box, seven centenary chocolates, in time for Christmas 2016? God knows what's ahead of us this year. – Is mise,
BILLY Ó hANLUAIN,
Kimmage,
Dublin12.