“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
By Micheal Ó Seighín (Retired School Teacher and Shell To Sea activist)
The 1916 Proclamation has always been for me 'Forógra
na Saoirse', the template for Irish freedom. Freedom is not simply 'nothing
left to lose', it is rather the licence to be oneself, to build and to
follow a pathway that is in essence the flowering of one's inherent
creativity, another bloom in the infinite diversity of the human experience.
The proclamation has always been for me a declaration of continuity, a
statement that in its own generation bore witness to the historical
imperative of the Irish national experience, that declared that we have
survived and that this survival is our gaisce, our particular heroism and
perhaps our fate. But survival is hard won.
As is normal with seminal documents, different vested interests will declare
inheritance and legitimate ownership of different aspects and details to
accommodate changing public realities. To me, some aspects are eternal and
are ignored at our peril: the emphasis on memory and continuity, so as to
learn from the past; the reminder that we ourselves must look after
ourselves or pay the price; our inalienable right to the wealth potential of
our space; the emphasis on respect for all and every variety of Irishness;
the need to be disciplined, a quality that is so lacking in our modern
public life.
Obviously, to-day, the issue of the alienation of our natural resources and
the consequent impoverishment of Irish people going forward is to the fore
front of my consciousness, for jail sharpens the focus and in this the
proclamation is on my side.
The seven signatures have always brought to mind the thousands of
extraordinary men and women, 'the delirium of the brave', mostly now
nameless, who sacrificed their lives in so many different ways, for the good
of others. This memory is a reminder that it is events that evoke unselfish
responses and I am confident that the young to-day are equally generous.
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