Opinion

Ghosts of the Easter Rising can influence 2016

The Easter Rising rebels broke into houses on Moore Street as they fled the GPO
The Easter Rising rebels broke into houses on Moore Street as they fled the GPO The Easter Rising rebels broke into houses on Moore Street as they fled the GPO

In terms of Irish independence, the year 2016 could prove to be as significant as the year 1916.

And while history teaches us that no two periods are exactly the same, nonetheless events can play their part in creating similar opportunities.

Republicans, across this island, are certainly looking at the opportunities that could arise from the popular impact of the events that are taking place to celebrate the centenary of the 1916 Rising in terms of their long-term objective of Sinn Fein-led governments, south and north.

In the abstract it is always difficult to predict accurately people’s mood but there is little doubt that the exposure the 1916 Rising is getting on national television through drama, documentaries and debates; the ‘Save Moore Street’ campaign – the last HQ of the 1916 provisional government; and the numerous local events is awakening a sense of national pride.

For republicans to make progress towards their remarkable objective it is the link between that awakening and the desire for political change among the people that is crucial to their electoral aspirations, south and north and immediately in the south, with 12 days to go to polling day.

Of course the Ireland of 1916 and today’s Ireland are totally different.

The 1916 Rising was a product of centuries of resistance to Britain’s occupation and a necessary and legitimate attempt to secure independence.

Its popular symbolism resonates nationally to this day as does the consequences of partition designed by the British government and unionists to block for ever Irish independence.

This symbolism, resonance and consequences was clearly on display a few weeks ago in the Andersonstown Social Club (known locally as the ‘PD’) when the local 1916 committee put on display an outstanding 1916 Rising exhibition.

Its owners, Pat O’Hagan from Belfast and Gary O’Brien from Cork are on tour across Ireland with the exhibition. They described themselves as “obsessive” collectors of 1916 memorabilia and we are very fortunate they are because their exhibition of artefacts takes you back inside the GPO, with the executed leaders and into the era of Cumann na mBan, the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, na Fianna Eireann, the Royal Irish Constabulary and the British Army.

From the door handle of the GPO to the ‘half Proclamation’, which the British Army printed on the printing press when they regained control of Liberty Hall, and used in evidence as treason against the executed leaders the story of Easter Week 1916 is told through weapons, uniforms, badges, photos, flags and prison crafts.

The centre-piece of the exhibition is an original Proclamation, given to Pat O’Hagan by his grandfather as a present for his First Communion.

Pat O’Hagan told me he swopped two of Thomas Clarke’s letters for Michael Collins's revolver. He kept the rifle that Clarke used in the GPO. Both are part of the exhibition. As is a lock of Kevin Barry’s hair. He was hanged by the British for his part in the War of Independence.

Hats, uniforms and badges of the women of Cumann na mBan tell their part in the Rising; weapons imported on the Asgard made the Rising possible; a rifle used by a British soldier during the First World War who defected and joined the IRA in Tipperary and used it during the War of Independence and Civil War was in mint condition; a photo of 14-year-old Anthony Swann with a rifle inside the GPO is striking.

Local people added their contribution to the exhibition. Eileen McGuinness brought postcards sent to her grandmother, Lizzie Bracken, with hand-written greetings from James Connolly. It was an emotional experience holding them and being connected to James Connolly.

Michéal Gallagher, a local artist, put on display his miniature paintings of the 17 people the British executed after the Rising -16 leaders and the pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington, as a personal contribution to the centenary celebration.

The PD venue is itself an important historical republican artefact with a proud record as a centre of republican resistance. Opened in 1972 two of its managers Danny Burke and Jack McCartan were shot dead by the British Army.

As I said, Ireland today is not the Ireland of 1916, but it is possible that the stirring ghosts of the Easter Rising can influence the Ireland of 2016.