“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
By Rossa Ó Snodaigh (Musician, Kíla)
The 1916 Proclamation was the most subversive
opposition to the tyranny this country suffered. It was the thinking
Irishman’s revolution. The writers of the proclamation were the educated,
artistic and working people of Ireland. Lawyers, teachers, painters
sculptors, writers, poets and politicians,
They named and claimed their own country, not in defiance, but in total
denial of their oppressor. The proclamation made no mention of the crown nor
majesty and so they took up position in the GPO to defend their new world
from the British, who they knew would be desperate to get back into the
picture.
The fight that ensued wasn’t a fight against Britain, it was a fight for
Ireland. Her language, her culture, her identity, her sense of self worth
and her own version of her own history. All of this was fast fading as the
Anglo psyche was beginning to overwhelm that of the Irish.
By the 1900 Ireland’s destiny was facing a certain Anglo-centric future. In
proclaiming what had long been of value to the Irish and by sacrificing
themselves for this cause a sense of Irish-ness was re-awoken in the
slumbering masses. Their action saved Ireland from being swallowed whole
into the dragon’s belly.
The right to self-determination was awoken not only in Ireland but all
across the world and with that one act of righteous self-expression little
pieces of British red began falling off the map each day.
In raising Ireland’s tricolour over the GPO, the world would soon become a
more colourful place.
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