The dust settles; the rubble of the GPO is lost in the old black & white reels. Serious voices instruct us on how to feel now. Soldiers read solemnly from the proclamation………it is poignant that we never heeded its words…. but it makes great reading and the soldiers give it all.
Earlier the newsreader on RTE assured us that all of those attending the ceremony in the garden of remembrance were happy to be there…. they thought it was good and respectful of our patriot dead. Enda Kenny reminded us that we remember all those who died in 1916… he didn’t elaborate but one presumes he meant everyone including the enemy.
You see Enda doesn’t have enemies….in the economic cloud where he lives there are no enemies as that is a sign of weakness there are no differences there is only profit.
At once I think of the Russians and the siege of “Stalingrad” And I imagine them all of these years later looking at all from the German perspective, or the people of Dresden wondering about the poor boys that liquidised their grandparents?
It is offensive in that yes we can reconcile and accept that societies move on for a better more peaceful world, but to actively choose to forget and forgive your enemy out of fear of some sinister political or economic fallout is nothing short of traitorous collaboration.
It was a great piece of stage management by Enda and his crew, [RTE] and some newspapers. They managed to create a party cultural atmosphere around what is a solemn part of our history. They did this mainly through omission, and also by misrepresenting the importance of 1916.
The years 1913-23 are cumulative in their importance. What started out as a worker’s rebellion in 1913— then mixed with the active republican voice of the volunteers. 1916 cannot be forensically examined in isolation as the events preceding and following it were the foundation stone of modern Ireland.
The omission of a discussion on the social savagery and deprivation of Dublin during this era is purposely done……also the aftermath leading to the war of independence and ultimately the civil war …with its counter revolution or coup d’ etat was also purposely omitted.
This is because I am sure Mr Kenny didn’t want to explain to us citizens that the Free State came into existence due to a British backed and funded counter revolution or coup; which strategically left Ireland divided geographically and socially; entrusting power to the elites with the strong support of the Catholic church.
The Church were as usual pragmatic and it wasn’t republicanism or an all-Ireland Republic they feared… but socialism … communism as in Russia 1917…. this would have empowered workers and empowerment is the antithesis of religion.
Only RTE could run a piece on republicanism in Galway during the rising and mention Liam Mellows as some kind of peoples’ hero…...but fail to tell us that he was murdered by the Free State a few years later…. for his socialist views and republican ideology, more omission.
Enda stands on the podium, and Simon Coveney wrapped in a trench coat looks on like the foot soldier he is……the modern defence forces march by and the air corps fly overhead.
This is a mutant force as it somehow pigmented from one army that was split in two or three by ideology. They have lived on to serve this day, watched over by politicians whose legacy will be of an apartheid health service… homelessness… emigration…...and a widening gap in equality.
Enda looks on as his other voice [RTE] produce concerts and tell us stories of re-enactments and face painting.
