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The Politics of 1916

07/05/09

Over 200 republicans gathered in Belfast’s Conway Mill on Friday, April 24, to mark the 93rd anniversary of the Easter Rising, and to hear a prominent panel of republican activists discuss the political background to the Rising and the varying elements that made it possible.

Irish language activist Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh spoke of the role of the GAA and the Gaelic League in the years preceding the Rising, and how the cultural revival led to a growing resistance to the British occupation.

Damian Lawlor, author of Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution, spoke about Fianna Éireann and its origins, as well as the part the youth organisation played in the run-up to and in the Rising itself.

éirígí member and community activist Breandán Mac Cionnaith discussed the Fenians and the Irish Republican Brotherhood and how developments in republican politics from the late 19th century helped shape the eventual Rising.

Republican ex-prisoner and trade union activist Tommy McKearney talked about the role of the organised working class, and of the struggles of unskilled and general labourers that brought class militancy to the fore in Ireland in the years preceding the Rising.

The successful evening was one of a number of activities organised by éirígí on the anniversary of the 1916 Rising, to remember the vision for which those republicans fought and died, and to reconsider the work that still needs to be done to make that vision a reality.