A chara, - When John Redmond effectively declared war on Germany on behalf of the men, women and children of Ireland, tens of thousands willingly joined England to fight on the side of the French Empire and that great champion of democracy, the Tsar of Russia.
In an ongoing television series on the first World War, we have seen images of troops leaving the trenches, going "over the top" with fixed bayonets and gallantly charging German machine-guns and barbed wire to die a hero's death for King, Empire and Civilisation.
It was all "for the freedom of small nations" and, of course, "Poor Little Catholic Belgium". Well did she deserve the title "Catholic" for services rendered! Occupying the Congo, an area of Africa something like 60 times the size of Belgium, King Leopold and his colonisers increased proportionally the number of Catholics in the world by terminating the existence of 13 million pagan savages over a period of 40 years, and would have continued with this noble work only for the lamentable interference of another nasty, undemocratic individual, executed in 1916. His name was Roger Casement.
But what happened after the 1916 Rising? Yeats in his poem said: "All changed, changed utterly". Alas, it was a change for the worse. The official British journal - the Administration of Ireland tells us all about it: "The main result of the rebellion in Co Kildare was the stopping of recruiting" - and it was much the same story in every county. "In Kerry, I understand that not a single recruit came forward in the last six months of 1916 - a county of `shirkers'." Imagine the disappointment of the Kerry-born Secretary of State for War, Field Marshall Kitchener. He had brought glory to Ireland and Kerry by becoming the architect of concentration caps to house subversive Boer women and children in South Africa and distinguished himself so greatly in the conquest of Egypt that he became known as the "Butcher of Khartoum".
Even serving members of the king's forces seem to have been contaminated. Imagine the shock and fury of respectable Dublin citizens, when, on the first anniversary of the Rising, they witnessed a young man in British naval uniform scale the ruins of the GPO with a tricolour. Like Barbara Fritchie in Whitman's poem, he "shook it forth with a right good will". I bet the authorities gave him a good ticking off when they got him down.
And worse was to follow!
When the British Government rightly decided to extend the Military Service Act (Conscription) to Ireland in 1918, it was resisted by the Irish people, misled by the new revolutionary leaders. Even churchmen joined in the opposition to this much-needed measure to ensure that all those "cowards and shirkers" among the working classes who refused to do their duty would be rounded up, shaped up by kind and understanding English sergeant-majors in a matter of six weeks and then shipped out to play their part in the defence of empire. Imagine the Archbishop of Cashel denouncing conscription as a "blood tax". This was attacking democracy and pointing the road to anarchy.
Only an estimated 50,000 Irishmen died in the first World War. Only for Pearse and Connolly that figure could have been well over 100,000 and there would have been many more war cemeteries and "peace parks" for kings, queens and politicians to make speeches at and for Kevin Myers to write about.
Nach bronach an sceal e. - Is mise,
Padraig O Cuanachain, Sean Bothar na hEochaille, Corcaigh.