“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
By Tom Cooper (Cathaoirlaeach, Irish National Congress)
The revolutionary assertion of the Irish people
in 1916 to break the connection between Ireland and the British Empire, led
by the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation took on not just national but
global significance. Not alone did the Easter Rising change the course of
Irish history, but the echo of resistance which resonated around the world
gave hope and inspiration to colonised peoples everywhere. In subsequent
generations, subjugated peoples worldwide found the inspiration to challenge
empires, which in turn hastened the end of the imperial and colonial era
which caused misery and kept people in hopeless poverty and hardship.
The Proclamation would be regarded as both noble and generous. In claiming
the allegiance of every Irish man and Irish woman, the Proclamation in
return guaranteed religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal
opportunities to all its citizens and a promise to cherish all the children
of the nation equally.
Not alone did the 1916 Rising knock the first brick out of the colonial
walls of world empires which would eventually disintegrate, it sounded the
death knell of Redmondism, conscription, Home Rule, and imbued a sense of
national pride in a population which was confused as to its identity. No
more would we be subject to a monarch, we would be citizens of a free state
whose values of egalitarianism and equality would be enshrined in our
constitution.
Unfortunately, not all in this state feel as I do regarding the
Proclamation. During the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rebellion, some
members of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown Council voted against the 1916
Proclamation being displayed in their building. After many decades of
denying our revolutionary past, there are indications that the Irish state
is beginning to embrace the revolutionaries of 1916. The re-interment of
Kevin Barry and his brave comrades into the republican plot in Glasnevin
Cemetery from Mountjoy jail, and the possible return of the Manchester
Martyrs is a positive sign. Also, 2006 was the first year since 1971 that
the Irish state officially commemorated the most seminal event in the
foundation of this state and for 20th century separatist Irish
republicanism. Without the 1916 Rising, and Proclamation, there would have
been no landslide Sinn Fein victory in 1918, no declaration of independence
by the first Dáil in 1919, no defence of that independence in the War of
Independence from 1919-21 and no incomplete British recognition of that
independence in the Treaty of 1921.
For nationalists and republicans the fact that victory was not total and
that the great national struggle was followed by partition, betrayal, and
civil war tarnished our sense of achievement and pride. However, these
events should not detract from the historic and unique achievements of the
revolutionaries of 1916 and the hope that they inspired, not only in
generations of Irish people but for oppressed people all around the world.
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