If there has been a more vigorous single-issue campaign in Dublin in recent years than the 20th Anniversary Commemoration of the 1981 hunger strike, it has escaped our attention. The hunger strike commemorations also escaped the attention, mostly, of the media, which seemed to revert to 1981 in only one sense - that of the Section 31 culture.
Yet throughout Dublin and in other parts of the country, various communities bore witness to one of the most dramatic and uplifting episodes in modern Irish history, the fasting to death of 10 Republican prisoners in Long Kesh in the pursuit of political status. Tomorrow, thousands of people will march from Parnell Square at 2 p.m. to honour the hunger strikers.
In many ways, the year's commemoration was a re-run of the 20-years-old event itself. Establishment Ireland responded, then as now, with a sullen resentfulness and a marked lack of enthusiasm for what will increasingly be seen one of the landmark events of our time.
Ordinary people, on the other hand, flocked to commemorations, exhibitions and public meetings, showing a respect and - among younger people - a curiosity tinged with admiration for the men's sacrifice. And as the unveiling of a memorial to the hunger strikers by the South African government in Robben Island this week shows, democratic movements across the globe retain an enormous respect for the hunger strikers.
Nothing exemplifies the residual post-colonial shame of Irish officialdom better than the South African commemoration. That it should be left to a government some thousands of miles away to offer an appropriate tribute to the Irish hunger strikers says much about the impact that the hunger strike evoked across the world.
Yet official Irish circles have largely exhibited a nervousness and even hostility towards the hunger strikers. Or is it guilt?
Interestingly, nobody has spoken up about the "terrorist" alliance of Sinn FΘin and the ANC; of Adams and Mandela. Why ever not? It has been argued that the Labour Party's support for the Nice Treaty underlined its current separation from the Irish working class. The party's hostile attitude to the hunger strike anniversary was another example and it was difficult to take calmly Ruair∅ Quinn's philistine and offensive remarks about commemorative murals in Dublin "marking out territories".
It was also hard to listen to the unionist soundbites of Fine Gael deputy Brian Hayes, (Bruton's, not Noonan's, spokesman on the North) who tried to frighten the good burghers of Tallaght by reference to west Belfast methods (murals!) being imported into his constituency.
Yet all around Ireland, thousands of people gathered to show their respect for the hunger strikers. Film shows, plays, seminars, public meetings, vigils, marches and an abundance of literature all indicated an appetite for a historic action that scaled the heights of human courage and selflessness.
Perhaps it rang bells in the folk memory; or maybe it indicates that most ordinary people accepted long ago that Irish nationalism is not some atavistic force, as argued by previously dominant pundits who have now all but left the stage.
Then again, it might just reflect the glaring comparison between the men's extraordinary selflessness and the tacky, self-seeking values purveyed by most politicians and the bloated business class of 2001.
From a purely historic and objective standpoint, the exercise was useful. Even some members of the Dublin 1981 Committee were surprised to learn that many transport depots, building sites and myriad other work-places saw walk-outs and strikes when individual hunger strikers died.
Some younger people, meanwhile, were astounded to learn that following Bobby Sands's election to Westminster during his fast, Margaret Thatcher still refused to compromise or to accept that he was a political prisoner.
Others, too young to know - and too protected by their education system to have since been informed - were staggered to learn that one hunger striker, Kieran Doherty and another blanket man, Paddy Agnew, were elected to Dβil ╔ireann during the hunger strike.
Not all mainstream figures have had their heads stuck in the Section 31 sand since 1981. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern's adviser, Dr Martin Mansergh, read a paper on the hunger strike to a seminar organised by the Dublin 81 Committee last June, as did Labour Deputy Tommy Broughan and RT╔'s Joe Duffy. And last month Dublin Lord Mayor Councillor Michael Mulcahy offered the facilities of the Mansion House to stage an exhibition of artefacts and photographs of the hunger strike.
The Dublin 81 Committee aimed to stimulate a process, historically inevitable in any case, whereby the hunger strikers are seen for what they were - ordinary young men who acted with extraordinary bravery. Some revisionists would seek to separate them from similar young people from another generation.
Others would dismiss Republicans of every generation. The experience of the Dublin 81 Committee is that neither camp of revisionists can claim a large following in Ireland today.
The response, from people whom the ill-resourced committee came into direct contact with, was hugely encouraging. It only remains for those remaining sheepish sections of our intelligentsia and officialdom to accept that the hunger strike was a historic and heroic action.
Then we could emulate Nelson Mandela and his comrades and feel comfortable with - perhaps even proud of - our own history.
A final point. Numerous commentators have observed that the mass movement in support of the fast triggered the adoption by Sinn FΘin of a wider political method which, in turn, led to the Peace Process. For that, alone, the hunger strikers deserve our respect and gratitude.
The 81 Committee parade of flags will march from the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin at 2 p.m. tomorrow.