The History of The Irish...Worldwide
How to Remember 1916 Without Glorifying Violence?
By John Bruton
The rebellion of Easter Week 1916 was one of the formative events in Irish history.
It led towards the independence we now enjoy, along with the enactment of Home Rule in 1914, the meeting of the First Dail in 1919, the Treaty of 1921, the Constitutions of 1923 and 1937, and the declaration of the Republic in 1949.
Those who initiated the Rising did so with high idealism, bravery, and self sacrifice.
It was, however, a violent action, involving loss of life, and was, as would have been anticipated by its initiators, violently suppressed with further loss of life.
As we have worked painstakingly over many years to remove violence from Irish politics, we must do our best now to commemorate 1916 in a way that does not glorify violence.
It is argued by many that the form and content of the 1966 commemoration romanticized violence and contributed negatively to inter community relations on the island generally, and particularly in Northern Ireland. But how can one remember 1916, without glorifying the methods used in the conflict?
REMEMBER ALL WHO WERE KILLED, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE THEY WERE ON
My proposal would be that, as part of the overall commemoration, all who died violently in Ireland in and around Easter week 1916, be remembered individually, and by name.
Naturally, a major focus should be on the Volunteers who died, and on the executed leaders.
Above, executed Easter Rising leaders, left to right: Padraig Pearse, James Connolly,
Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph Plunkett & Eamonn Ceannt
But I suggest we also remember, by name, the civilians who were killed, the DMP members who were killed, the RIC members who were killed, and the British Army soldiers (both those who were Irish and those who were not) who were killed.
This approach would put a focus on the cost of violence, the loss of life and the suffering, as well as the bereavement suffered by relatives left behind.
All the above casualties would have had relatives who mourned them, and it would be good, a century later, to remember them all. From a religious and ethical perspective, all these lives, taken away in 1916, were equally valued and valuable.
Apart from these considerations, it is worth saying that the families of the DMP, RIC, and Army casualties, who continued to live in Ireland, may have felt that the loss they suffered, was in some sense less recognised by their fellow Irish people, because of a perception that they had died on the “wrong side”. A century later, that can be rebalanced a little.
It may pose practical difficulties, but it would be good if that the state should invite a family member of every casualty to a Commemoration, perhaps on the inclusive model of the National Day of Commemoration. With all the data now available, tracing some of these relatives would not be as difficult as it might have been 20 years ago. I know that there will be a military element to the commemoration during Easter Week, and it might be perceived that a commemoration on the same day focussing on all the victims, would take from that.
So perhaps this could be done on another day, perhaps a week or two later, which might be appropriate anyway, given that some of the victims on all sides, who died of their wounds, would not have done so until sometime after Easter Week itself was over.
A WELCOME INITIATIVE BY THE GOVERNMENT
I recently learned from the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, that the Government is already moving in this direction.
A Commemorative Wall is to be erected in Glasnevin Cemetery bearing the name of all who died in the 1916 Rebellion, regardless of the side they were on, or of whether they were killed accidentally or deliberately. The names of the 1916 victims will be inscribed on the Wall in 2016, and, in the centenary year of their deaths, those who were killed in the War of Independence and the Civil War will be added.
The Wall will remind future generations of the true price of warfare.
John Bruton, a former Teachta Dála in Ireland’s Dáil Éireann, served as the nation’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) from 1994 to 1997, and as Ambassador of the European Union to the United States from 2004 to 2007. He is currently President of IFSC Ireland. A graduate of University College Dublin, with degrees in economics and law, he is a passionate student of history. John has graciously agreed to write book reviews on occasion for The Wild Geese. You can get more of John's perspectives on Irish -- and world -- affairs at www.JohnBruton.com.
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Comment by Mike McCormack on March 20, 2015 at 1:44pm
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Just to provide another prospective, both sides of the American Civil War were American just as both sides of the Irish Civil War were Irish. We can respect Mick Collins as much as Cathal Brugha even though they were on different sides of the Irish Civil War because they both had the best interest of Ireland in their hearts. How did the English feel about Ireland's interest other than as a colonial overlord. What Bruton is proposing is a memorial to an alien oppressor. In that context I reiterate: nowhere on earth has any society ever honored the aggressor who had decimated their ancestors, family and friends. Next they'll ask for a statue to Cromwell!
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Comment by James O'Brien on March 30, 2015 at 10:13pm
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As a humanist I can understand why there are some who would want to erect a wall inscribed with the names of all who fell in the Easter Rising of 1916. But one must ask what the reason for the suggestion is. And the answer is only partly provided by the statement that the intention is “to commemorate the occasion without glorifying the violence”.
So let’s put the violence of the time into perspective. Violence and carnage was rampant in the Europe of the time. Two years of the ‘war to end wars’ had claimed the lives of millions of young men on the bloody quagmire battlefields of Europe. Men who had been urged to ‘fight for the freedom of small nations’ had instead found themselves being slaughtered in the interests of imperialist empires.
Those empires had believed they had a right to carve up Europe and the rest of the world in their own particular interests and for that they were prepared to slaughter a whole generation. But there were men and women in Ireland, a minority admittedly, that opposed the war. This few and others like them in Europe, had seen through the hypocrisy and the appeals to young men to shed their blood in this needless imperialist violence.
The violence that had razed so many towns and cities on the continent was to be applied to Dublin. Artillery was deployed to reduce buildings to rubble to allow a clear line of fire to the rebel-held GPO and other garrison outposts. Liberty Hall, Headquarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, was destroyed by heavy guns fired from the gunship Helga. Unarmed and innocent civilians were murdered by undisciplined troops in the North King Street area of the city.
After the surrender the violence of the British Army continued with the executions of the leaders of the Rising and those thought to be a danger to the Empire. John Dillon condemned the violence and told the House of Commons, “No rebellion in modern history had been put down with so much bloodshed and savagery”.
No, my humanist instincts do not extend to including the names of British soldiers alongside those of the rebels and innocent civilians killed during that fateful Easter Week. In Ireland we have often made the mistake of viewing the Rising through purely nationalist eyes and so see it in isolation and have taken it out of context from the war in Europe. In a script I wrote, on the 75th Anniversary of the Rising, in 1991, I concluded with the words, “For Ireland and the world, Easter 1916 in Dublin, was a beacon of hope for humanity in the black carnage that war had brought to mankind”. I still hold to that view.
We now have a Garden of Remembrance to honour the men and women of the Rising and another at Islandbridge to honour the unfortunates that died in the obscenity of the First World War. That should be sufficient reminder to “future generations of the true price of warfare”. No need to blur the issue for future generations by erecting a new Wall designed more to serve the interests of revisionists than to commemorate the dead.
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Comment by Patdee Mullarkey on April 12, 2015 at 1:47pm
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The American Civil War were Americans fighting Americans. btw (http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-irish-slave-trade-the-forgotten-wh...)This is not comparable: Irish fighting English for centuries. English tried genocide on several occasions. Who was executed? It is inconceivable to me that anyone would have this disrespect to the memory of those Irish men, and the women who supported them. No, I find this offensive, but I am not surprised at who is pushing this. The Anglophile John Bruton. Why doesn't he just move to England? (and I am sorry if this offends someone, but Bruton ..... well, I'll leave it at that. I am honoring my father who fought in the war of independence...not the people who would have killed him.)
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And thanks to James O'Brien who responded in such an elegant manner.
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